NCAA Basketball: Arizona, Indiana, and Ole Miss rise in updated 2024-25 WTE power rankings

15. Purdue Boilermakers

While we’re still waiting on some star players to make their respective NBA Draft decisions, we’ve known for months that star big man Zach Edey wasn’t coming back. He finished his NCAA Basketball career by averaging around 30 points in the NCAA Tournament, including 37 points in the title game loss to UConn.

The two-time National Player of the Year center is gone, along with starting guard Lance Jones. Two more hit the portal, including Ethan Morton and Mason Gillis, who was the Big Ten 6th Man of the Year, averaging 6.5 ppg and 3.9 rpg on 47% shooting from deep on limited minutes.

Everyone else is back, including the backcourt duo of Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer. How good they are without Edey will be one of the biggest storylines to watch and it’ll determine how good the team is altogether. Edey’s departure also opens up the frontcourt for other forwards such as Trey Kaufmann-Renn, Caleb Furst, and Will Berg.

Add a 6-man incoming recruiting class and the Boilermakers are pretty much set for next season. They didn’t add a transfer to this point and technically can’t since the roster is full. The hope is that there won’t be much of a drop-off at all, even without the best player in the country.