NCAA Basketball: 5 bounce-back teams, 5 teams with question marks entering 2024-25 season

Team with question marks No. 3: Purdue Boilermakers

Life without Zach Edey sporting the Purdue gold and black will take time to get used to. Still, to be clear, don’t expect Purdue to fall out of the national discussion anytime soon.

However, the biggest question surrounding Purdue’s offseason is how they adjust to life without the two-time National Player of the Year dominating the paint.

Although Purdue also lost Mason Gillis (Duke) and Lance Jones (graduation), no loss is as comparable to losing Zach Edey, a perennial double-double who led the nation in scoring at 25.2 PPG.

Painter, who elected not to land a single player from the portal and will instead utilize his knack for inter-program development, will hand larger roles over to Trey Kauffman-Renn, Myles Covin, Camden Heide and Caleb Furst.

Incoming 7-foot-3 freshman Daniel Jacobsen (shockingly, another seven-footer in West Lafayette) is a polarizing player to monitor down low.

With Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer running the one and two, the Boilermakers have much-needed continuity in the backcourt which will help ease the Zach Edey-less transition in 2024-25. 

Even if Purdue isn’t expected to take a step back from relevance, it's likely the Boilermakers will face a few bumps and bruises along the way as it adjusts to its life without Edey.