Purdue Basketball: Review of 2020-21 depth chart and season outlook

Transfers have upended the roster for Purdue Basketball this offseason. What will they look like heading into next year?

Heading into the 2020-21 basketball season there is an elephant in the Purdue Basketball locker room. A program that rarely experiences player turnover to the transfer market has lost two guys (Matt Haarms and Nojel Eastern) who played significant minutes this past season in the last couple of months. While these are relatively uncharted waters for Purdue, this is college basketball in today’s climate.

According to NCAA.com, roughly 80% of college hoops programs had at least one student-athlete transfer in 2019. Amid the pandemic, there are 23 teams that had five players or more enter the transfer portal as of this May. With those numbers in mind, the notion that there is “something wrong” with Matt Painter’s program is a complete myth.

Today’s college athlete is different, and any media member that is going to point fingers at the coach (especially one who has had the consistent success in the Big Dance AND in producing first-round draft picks as Painter) due to a couple of guys seeking a bigger role is misguided. The Boilermakers have plenty returning in 2020-21 to make another long run as well. Let’s break them down.