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Purdue Basketball: 2019-20 season preview for the Boilermakers

By Adam Childs

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY - MARCH 28: Nojel Eastern #20 of the Purdue Boilermakers goes up for a dunk against the Tennessee Volunteers during the first half of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament South Regional at the KFC YUM! Center on March 28, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY - MARCH 28: Nojel Eastern #20 of the Purdue Boilermakers goes up for a dunk against the Tennessee Volunteers during the first half of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament South Regional at the KFC YUM! Center on March 28, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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MILWAUKEE, WI – MARCH 16: The Purdue Boilermakers mascot cheers in the first half against the Vermont Catamounts during the first round of the 2017 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at BMO Harris Bradley Center on March 16, 2017 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
MILWAUKEE, WI – MARCH 16: The Purdue Boilermakers mascot cheers in the first half against the Vermont Catamounts during the first round of the 2017 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at BMO Harris Bradley Center on March 16, 2017 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) /

Purdue Basketball is coming off a near-miss of the Final Four last year. Can they bounce back without Carsen Edwards and get back to the top of the Big Ten?

Purdue Basketball started off slow last year losing some non-conference games they shouldn’t have including a bad loss to Notre Dame. But then something funny happened when the Big Ten started and the team gelled and they started rolling off win after win.

They finished tied with Michigan State for the regular-season title, before getting upset by Minnesota in the Big Ten tournament. Not many people were expecting much of them in the NCAA tournament as Carsen Edwards was mired in a terrible slump. But then he got hot, really hot.

The Boilermakers rode Edwards in the tournament to big wins over Villanova and Tennessee before a heartbreaking loss to Virginia in the Elite Eight. If they could have just grabbed a rebound on a missed foul shot they would have upset the eventual national champions and going to the last week for the first time in 39 years.

Gone is Edwards and Ryan Cline and the scoring that went along with them. But with them gone it should open more shots for guys like Nojel Eastern and Matt Haarms among others. The one thing we do know is this team is deep. Unproven, but deep.

Matt Painter has done a lot with a lot less, so expectations are cautiously high for Purdue this year. Michigan State is the class of the Big Ten, but the Boilermakers have could be right behind them.

So how will the Boilermakers do this year? We preview Purdue’s starting five and reserves and give a glimpse into their outlook for the year.

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