Pair of Former Purdue Stars to be Inducted Into Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame
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A pair of former Boilermakers will be inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame as members of the 64th induction class. An announcement was made on Tuesday, Nov. 25.
Current assistant coach and former player Brandon Brantley and former guard Jaraan Cornell are inductees into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. An induction ceremony will be held on Wednesday, March 18, 2026.
Brantley played high school basketball at Andrean High School in Merrillville, Ind., graduating in 1991. Cornell was a star at South Bend Clay High School, where he graduated in 1996.
Brantley is currently a member of Matt Painter's coaching staff at Purdue. He has been an assistant coach for the Boilermakers for the past 13 seasons.
Cornell is receiving induction posthumously. He played at Purdue from 1996-2000 and was a two-time All-Big Ten selection. He passed away on June 6, 2025, at the age of 48.
Brandon Brantley, Andrean
Brantley was an outstanding high school basketball player at Andrean, averaging 22.5 points, 12.1 rebounds, and 4.0 blocks per game as a senior. He was a second-team All-State selection after leading his team to a 19-5 record and a sectional championship.
Across four seasons at Andrean, Brantley scored more than 1,000 points.
Brantley was a key member of the Boilermakers' squads that three-peated as Big Ten champions from 1994-96. Each of those teams reached the NCAA Tournament, and he was named a team captain for the 1995-96 team as a senior.
The Purdue forward scored 803 points, grabbed 591 rebounds and blocked 114 shots during his time in West Lafayette. He also received the team's Courage Award in 1995, and the Doc Combs "Play Hard" Award and John Wooden Most Valuable Player Award in 1996.
Jaraan Cornell, South Bend Clay
Cornell was one of the best players ever to come out of the South Bend area and was a standout at Clay High School in the 1990s. He finished his career with 1,700 points and 784 rebounds, setting school records in both categories.
As a senior in 1995-96, Cornell averaged 21.8 points and 9.0 rebounds per game for a team that ended with a 22-4 record. He was an Indiana All-Star in 1996 and was also named to the 1996 USA Basketball Junior National Team.
Cornell played at Purdue from 1996-2000, scoring 1,595 points, grabbing 390 rebounds, and dishing out 269 assists with the Boilermakers. As a senior, he averaged 12.5 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 2.2 assists for a team that reached the Elite Eight in 2000. Cornell was a two-time All-Big Ten selection.
Following his playing career, Cornell was a special education teacher and was an assistant boys' basketball coach from 2010-13 at Clay and was the girls' basketball head coach from 2013-15.
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Dustin Schutte is the publisher of Purdue Boilermakers on SI and has spent more than a decade working in sports journalism. His career began in 2013, when he covered Big Ten football. He remained in that role for eight years before working at On SI to cover the Boilermakers. Dustin graduated from Manchester University in Indiana in 2010, where he played for the men's tennis team.
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