From Top Of the World to the Assembly Hall Floor: Purdue’s Midseason Nightmare Continues

If you’re a Purdue fan, you might want to look away. Actually, judging by the last week, you probably already have your hands covering your eyes. Remember just a few short weeks ago? The Boilermakers were 17-1. The world was bright, the birds were chirping, and Mackey Arena was the happiest place on Earth. Fast forward to Tuesday night in Bloomington, and that optimism feels like it belongs to a different decade.

Purdue walked into Assembly Hall, a place that already haunts the dreams of Boilermaker faithful, and walked out with a 72-67 loss to Indiana. That makes three straight losses. For a team that was recently staring down the barrel of a No. 1 seed, this isn’t just a skid; it’s a full-blown identity crisis.

The First Half: A Comedy Of Errors

Purdue looked like it had forgotten how the sport of basketball works in the first half. It started fine, with the offense matching IU blow for blow. But then, the wheels didn’t just fall off; they exploded.

The defense was practically inviting Indiana to shoot. The Hoosiers drained eight 3-pointers in the first half alone. Tucker DeVries looked like he was shooting into an ocean, knocking down shots from zip codes away. Meanwhile, Purdue was getting bullied on the glass. Losing the rebounding battle and the turnover margin (7-4) in the first half is a recipe for disaster in a road environment like that.

Going into the locker room down 40-29, the Boilers looked disjointed. They looked outmatched. And frankly, they looked like a team that had let the “midseason turmoil” narrative get inside their heads.

The Tease Of the Comeback

Here is the thing about sports that drives you crazy: it’s the hope that kills you. In the second half, Matt Painter decided to switch things up. He pulled a page from last year’s playbook, moving Trey Kaufman-Renn to the five and letting Jack Benter stretch the floor. Suddenly, the offense woke up. They started spamming the pick-and-roll, and it worked.

The deficit started to melt. A massive three from Benter. A CJ Cox strip leading to a Braden Smith layup. Suddenly, it was 65-63. You could feel the air getting sucked out of Assembly Hall. The “here we go again” energy was shifting from the Purdue bench to the IU crowd.

But then, reality snapped back. Purdue needed one stop. Just one. Instead, they left Conor Enright wide open. He buried a three-pointer that felt like a dagger to the heart. Game, set, match.

Trey Kaufman-Renn and the Free Throw Line Blues

If you look at the box score, you’ll see Trey Kaufman-Renn dropped a game-high 23 points. He was a beast in the second half, especially when he moved to center. But stats can be liars.

The glaring number wasn’t the 23 points; it was the 5-of-10 shooting from the free-throw line. In a game you lose by five, leaving five points at the charity stripe is going to keep you awake at night. He missed two critical free throws late that could have cut the lead to four. It wasn’t entirely on him, but those misses in crunch time are the difference between a gritty road win and a “moral victory” loss.

Where Does Purdue Go From Here?

So, here we are. Purdue has plummeted out of the top 10. They’ve gone from sitting alone atop the Big Ten to a three-way tie for sixth place.

Braden Smith, usually the engine of this team, had a pedestrian night by his standards—14 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists. Sure, he’s closing in on Bobby Hurley’s NCAA assist record (he needs 128 more), but personal accolades feel hollow when the team is in free fall.

This was the third time in four seasons that IU has humbled Purdue in Bloomington. It’s becoming a painful tradition. The Boilers are in a funk, and the “dream season” is quickly turning into a nightmare. They need to find a wake-up call, and they need to find it fast, or this season is going to slip away completely.