Basketball is back in West Lafayette, and Purdue gets its first look at the 2026-27 team on Sunday afternoon when Ball State comes to Mackey Arena for the Boilermakers’ first exhibition game.
It’s the first chance for fans to see Purdue in action this season, and it begins a three-game preseason slate. Sunday is the only exhibition game at Mackey Arena.
After that, Purdue heads to Fort Wayne to face Purdue-Fort Wayne next week, then closes exhibition play against UConn on Oct. 27.
One of the more interesting storylines is on the other sideline. Fine spent two years at Purdue before moving on to Ball State, and he was the lone player from the 2025-26 roster to enter the transfer portal. He settled in quickly in Muncie, and there’s a strong chance he’ll see plenty of the floor Sunday against his former team.
Fine’s time in West Lafayette made him a familiar face in practice, where he was known as a tough scout-team player who made life difficult for guard Braden Smith. That edge should still show up in Mackey Arena.
Sunday also gives Matt Painter a chance to tinker. Exhibition games have long been a place for him to test out different lineups and rotations, and that figures to be the case again. At Big Ten Media Days, he said he would take a look at the rotations used in Canada, though there’s still room for things to shift.
With three preseason games to work through, Purdue has plenty of time to sort through combinations and see how many different looks it can put on the court.
The bigger basketball question is what this offense will look like. This won’t be a team built around the post the way previous Purdue groups were with Zach Edey and Trey Kaufman-Renn. This roster can shoot it from all over the floor, and at every position.
In Canada, the Boilermakers leaned heavily on the three-point shot. Sunday’s matchup against Ball State should offer another clue: is that the direction Purdue is headed again, and will that become a defining feature of the 2026-27 season?
In Other News...
Barry Odom Pinpointed What Flipped Purdues Loss To Washington
Purdue left Ross-Ade Stadium with a 38-26 loss to Washington, but the box score only tells part of the story. The Boilermakers forced five turnovers and still headed into the bye week at 3-4, a reminder that takeaways alone were not enough to tilt the night in their favor. Barry Odom pointed to the way the game kept swinging after each break in Purdues favor, with the offense and defense both struggling to turn those extra chances into momentum.
One of the biggest turning points came when Hudauri Hines left after his first-play interception and never returned, a hit that changed how Purdue handled things on the back end. Odom also highlighted a roughing-the-passer call on Jojo Hayden that wiped out a potential stop and helped set up a Washington touchdown before halftime, an officials whistle that altered the feel of the game just as Purdue was trying to settle it down. [Read more 🡒]
Purdue Forced Five Turnovers And Still Left Fans Arguing Everything
On a rough day at Ross-Ade Stadium, Purdues defense gave the Boilermakers every chance to make the game matter against Washington. The weather made things messy from the start, and Purdue responded by forcing multiple turnovers, including interceptions and a recovered muffed punt, enough activity on that side of the ball to make the crowd think the game might swing back in the Boilermakers favor.
But the offense never turned those extra possessions into enough points, and Washington still carried a halftime lead before pulling away. Purdues second half went the wrong direction on both sides of the ball, which left the turnovers feeling more like a missed opportunity than a turning point, and the frustrating part for fans was how many different moments seemed to matter without any of them actually changing the final outcome. [Read more 🡒]