A preseason No. 1, Purdue has faltered through an ugly-at-times three-game losing streak. Can a veteran team, once dominant, reignite its championship hopes after a shocking three-game slide to UCLA, Illinois and Indiana?
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — In four of the past five seasons, Purdue has been ranked No. 1 in the country at some point in the season. The best of the best.
A national title has eluded them, though. They came oh so close in 2024, losing to Connecticut in the NCAA Tournament championship game behind two-time national player of the year.
But there have also been a pair of first-round losses and two Sweet 16 exits since 2020. Still, there were high hopes for this 2025-26 season, with the Boilermakers leaning on a veteran roster led by All-American point guard Braden Smith.
Purdue was ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press preseason poll. They were a popular choice, getting more than half — 35 of 61 votes — of the first-place votes.
They won eight straight to start the season before an ugly loss at home to Iowa State. All they did after that was win nine more in a row, raising their record to 17-1 and winning their first seven Big Ten games.
But then the troubles began. The Boilers lost a tough one on the road at UCLA on Jan. 20, then came home and got beat by Illinois, 88-82. It both games, they had leads of six points or more in the final two minutes and lost both times.
It got worse on Tuesday, when the Boilers ventured south to Bloomington and got beat by their arch-rivals. Indiana beat them 72-67, and the Boilers didn't look good in defeat, either. Only a late Purdue run made the score respectable.
Purdue coach Matt Painter wasn't very happy, questioning the Boilers' effort for the full 40 minutes. Fans weren't happy, either. They're demanding that Painter bench senior shooting guard Fletcher Loyer, who's just 7-for-30 shooting in the last four games. Some fans even wished Loyer ''would just graduate and be gone.''
Even Trey Kaufman-Renn has been the target of Purdue fans. During this three-game losing streak, they just haven't looked the same.
But Smith, who's still shooting to become the NCAA's all-time assist leader by season's end, isn't letting any of the fan vitriol bother him at all. It's about the guys in the locker room, he says.
Smith said the Boilermakers have an "us vs. everybody" mentality.
"It doesn't faze us as a team or me individually because I know what I bring to the table and I know what our guys bring to the table," Smith said on his Running Point with Braden Smith podcast. "For me, it's just trying to help them understand that it really is just us. It's our group and our families who are together vs. really everybody at this point.
"We could care less what anybody says, because it doesn't matter. We just had an hour meeting just talking about our identity and figuring out how we want to finish this year and what we have to do to do that. A lot of it is holding each other accountable and a lot of easy, fixable mistakes that we're making."
What's rare about this skid is that it's so unlike Purdue to kick away late leads. It's also rare to get outworked by Indiana in a game that means so much.
The three-game losing streak and the 17-1 start to the season? It looks like two different teams.
Former Boilermaker Robbie Hummel, who's turned into one of best analysts in colelge basketball, was in Bloomington for the IU-Purdue game. He saw with his own eyes that the Boilermakers just aren't executing the little things, which is usually not an issue with Matt Painter-coached teams.
"I think Purdue let the last two games beat them for a third time here. Maybe just the mental state of losing a game at UCLA where you're in position to win, and losing to Illinois when you're in position to win," Hummel said. "The thing that surprised me, with all the success and winning that this group has done, just the lack of execution and lack of poise. There are easy things they're not doing that championship-caliber teams do.
"I think Purdue is phenomenal at scheming, but the players haven't carried out the scheme. Like, Braden Smith gets slipped on a baseline out-of-bounds with six-tenths of a second left on the shot clock. You don't win games on the road when that happens."
Purdue looks to get back on track on Sunday at Maryland. The Terrapins are terrible this year, going just 8-12 so far, and 1-8 in the Big Ten. It's just what the doctor ordered for the Boilers.
We've seen this before with Purdue, of course. Purdue lost four straight last year from Feb. 11 to Feb. 23, three losses to ranked teams — No. 20 Michigan, No. 16 Wisconsin and No. 14 Michigan — and again to IU in Bloomington.
They still played great in the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, but their season ended in the Sweet 16 in Indianapolis with a 62-60 loss to eventual NCAA runner-up Houston. By the way, Loyer was their leading scorer that day, with 16 points.
The point here is that all this panic by Purdue fans might be premature. This is a veteran team with the greatest senior class in school history. They are still going to be a tough out the next six weeks — or more.
We may not learn a lot on Sunday against a team like Maryland. However, Purdue still has three games against teams ranked in the top-7 — No. 3 Michigan, No. 5 Nebraska and No. 7 Michigan State. They've still got the home rematch with Indiana and tough road trips to Iowa and Ohio State.
I'm not about to give up on this team. Purdue fans should check themselves, too. There's still a lot of basketball to be played. This coach and this roster has earned your respect.
Show some of it.