Boilers Hold First Summer Practice Ahead of Upcoming Season

Purdue will enter the 2025/2026 season as a national title favorite but what did they look like on day one?

It is a rarity in today’s era of sports secrecy to have a program as open and available as what Matt Painter has done with the Purdue Boilermakers. That included opening up the doors for any media members to come watch the first practice of what is likely to be another one of the most anticipated seasons in Purdue’s history.

I’ve formulated some thoughts from the nearly two hours I spent inside Cardinal Court watching the team take their initial steps into the season. Let’s jump into it!

• Antione West looks the part of college guard, similar to how CJ Cox looked physically prepared to handle a physical conference like the B1G. Purdue had him running as a point guard and as an off guard, but he looked really impressive with the ball in his hands. Most importantly, he picks up concepts quickly and takes to the hard coaching easily. An explosive type player, he reminds me of former Purdue guard Willie Dean.

• Transfer Liam Murphy was a limited participant today as he is recovering from an injury and surgery. He participated in the non-contact type stuff and flashed a really smooth shot from behind the arc during a three point shooting drill where he knocked down 10-12 straight shots at one point. He’ll play the four and provide what Purdue hopes is an option to go to when it needs shooting from the outside.

• As for others that weren’t there or unable to practice: Raleigh Burgess (surgery), Oscar Cluff (Travel), and Omer Mayer (Israeli U-19 National Team). Cluff was taking care of items relating to his visa back home in Australia and Mayer is with the Israeli U-19 Team (same tourney Daniel Jacobsen will try out for in the coming weeks). Burgess looks like he is still several weeks away.
• Daniel Jacobsen looks the part of a B1G center and one the NBA is going to have a very close eye on. He really took the biggest question mark entering last season, his overall size, serious during that redshirt. Adding 45-50 pounds, Jacobsen looks thicker in his lower half. He still needs to learn how to use that lower half and use it to displace the defense more, but anything within 6-7 feet of the rim is going to be his more oftentimes than not.

• Was interesting to see Jack Benter get some playing time at the four spot on the opening day. Some of that may be necessity as Murphy is still getting back, Burgess being out, and Cluff being gone pushing TKR to the center position), but Benter at that four spot is intriguing. He’s a big guard at 6’5 or 6’6 and can shoot it lights out while also providing another high level ball handler…and he has a big time basketball IQ. He seemingly just makes the right decision in every situation.

• Benter looked slimmer and fit this season than he did as an incoming freshman. Kudos again to the training staff for his improvement in that regard just as they have so many times before with other redshirts. He’s going to be a really good player for Purdue, but like some other guys he has to buy his time with so many talented guards and wings on the roster. It’s a good problem to have.
• I’m not sure many other programs were able to be as detail oriented as Purdue was on day one. That’s the advantages of bringing back so many veterans players that are proven winners. Purdue returns all five starters from game one last season (Smith, Loyer, Harris, TKR, Jacobsen) along with CJ Cox who started most of the season as well. It’s a luxury that is going to play in Purdue’s favor early on in the season and with the new pieces, they’ll have room to grow into March as well.
• More on West’s first day: The absence of a lot of the Mayer and Cluff along with Murphy being sidelined for the more contact type parts of practice, West got a lot of individual instruction from coaches and teammates. That’s a benefit for the young guard who will have some lofty expectations as soon as next season with Smith and Loyer graduating.
• TKR and DJ looked really good together at times when Purdue did some controlled scrimmage type stuff. Both are really solid passers out of that short roll that was Purdue’s best look last season and having both of them on the floor at once causes absolute nightmare fuel for opposing teams. You just can’t defend it all and with a guard like Smith controlling everything, it could mean lots of easy looks for those two (plus Cluff) from that dunker spot on the opposite low-side (think of where Furst was mostly last season).
• This is Smith’s team but TKR looks really, really good. Seems he has taken another step in his improvement as he just looked quicker and leaner than he did at any point last season. At times over the last several years, he looked like he had some heavy feet at times as his body adjusted to the muscle and weight he had put on. That doesn’t appear to be an issue this season.
• The yearly ‘has Loyer put on any weight’ argument went out the door on day one. He looks bigger AND taller.