An athletic team with a head coach that’s leaving town.
Everyone wants a cinderella story, X wanted it to badly be the High Point Panthers over Purdue.
That story quickly ended when Purdue went on to beat HPU 75 to 63 on the shoulders of Braden Smith and Trey Kaufman-Renn.
Enter the next Cinderella favorite, McNeese State.
Purdue just seems to get matched up with these “favorites” every year, St. Peter’s marched to the Elite 8 a few years back, last year Purdue beat a NC State team in the final four that took the world by storm.
Now, they set their eyes on the Cowboys and their tumultuous head coach, Will Wade, who has both feet out the door already and the social media superstar Amir Khan, who might as well be a package deal to NC State with Wade.
But, the loud and once sanctioned head basketball coach will have his hands full prepping for All American Point Guard, Braden Smith and All American snub, Trey Kaufman-Renn.
The Cowboys came out with their hair on fire against Clemson before nearly blowing the game late, and lets be honest, if that game was one minute longer, Clemson probably wins.
But now, Matt Painter and his Boilermakers turn their attention to McNeese State, who is ultra athletic and is coached well.
The Cowboys average 77 points per game on 47.9% shooting, including 35.9% from deep.
They are led by senior guard, Jahvon Garcia, who is averaging 12.8 ppg.
Sincere Parker is their 2nd leading scorer at 12.1 ppg.
The Cowboys are not a big team, and Trey Kaufman-Renn should be able to have his way in the post, but they will throw double teams at him. While they don’t have a true center on the roster to match with TKR, they have plenty of athletes that will be able to defend above the rim.
After the win today against 13 seed High Point, Purdue is now 4-0 against double digit seeds since the lost to FDU in 2023.