11/09/2025 Boilermaker Water Cooler Chat: Whirlwind Edition
Rants, ravings, and somewhat sensical opinions following the wild, wacky, and wide-wide world of Purdue sports.
I took a bit of a staycation this past week. Spent a week of date nights with my wife, and plenty of chores throughout the days. It was wonderful. The best part of the first week of November… Purdue basketball finally tips off. With several date nights, several honey do’s, several basketball games, several volleyball games, and a football game behind us, it has been a whirlwind of a week.
Now, speaking of whirlwinds, just in time for my Monday return to work, Northwest Indiana is experiencing a pre-winter lake effect snowstorm. 2 feet of snow. Blizzard like conditions. 25 foot waves on Lake Michigan. Horrible road conditions. People who haven’t driven on snow in 9 months. Its chaos.
Like any good Midwesterner, I have to play tribute. This bit of snow reminds me of that night, 50 years ago today, on Lake Superior, as we lost a legend.
The gales of November came early, in 2025.
Basketball:
Evansville 51, #1 Purdue 82
All American Trey Kaufman-Renn was absent due to a minor injury, but several others stepped up in a big way! Fletcher Loyer put up 30 points on 11 shots, Jack Benter got the start and scored 11 pts. The Oscar Cluff and Daniel Jacobsen combo position went for 20 points and 18 rebounds. Boilers looked pretty sharp all night, with one exception… Boilermakers tied the rebound battle. Not good.
Purdue-Evansville Photo Gallery: https://iscpurdue.com/purdue-mens-basketball-vs-evansville-11-4-25/
Oakland 77, #1 Purdue 87
TKR missed this game as well, but Braden Smith went for 20 points, 7 rebounds, and 9 assists, picking up a lack-luster performing Boilermaker squad. Loyer, Cluff, Cox, Benter, and Murhpy all joined Smith as scoring in double digits. While the box-score watchers and online trolls are talking a lot of trash about the final score of this game, this game was tight but hardly in doubt. Purdue’s lowest chance of victory was at 82.1%, which lasted for promptly 13 seconds. The numbers were worse than the eye test, and the eye test wasn’t great. Oh, worse yet, Purdue LOST the rebound battle. Not good.
Purdue-Oakland Photo Gallery by Mark Elsner: https://iscpurdue.com/purdue-mens-basketball-vs-oakland-11-7-25/
Break It Down:
Truth be told, Purdue didn’t look like the #1 team in the nation, particularly against Oakland. Purdue tied the rebounding margin in the first game, and lost it in the second game. TKR not being in the lineup is absolutely the difference here. While he may not be a rebound machine, he will flip 5-10 rebounds towards the Boilermakers. On the whole, however, Purdue did what they needed to do. They are 2-0 heading into the real competition of the early season. Hopefully they continue to gel, and rebound (literally and figuratively) next week.
Football:
#1 Ohio State 31, Purdue 10
The good news, Purdue had a very balanced offense, with only 2 yards between the passing and rushing yards and covered the spread. The bad news, Purdue did not eclipse 100 yards in either Passing (94) or rushing (92). Also Ohio State is really, really good.
Break it Down:
More of the same for this Purdue team, and I mean that respectfully. This team fights, claws, and never gives up. They might be out skilled, but they have pride. The Boilers won the first quarter of the game, tied the third, and barely lost the 4th. Unfortunately, Ohio State destroyed the Boilers in the second. The Boilers didn’t quit. Past teams would’ve rolled over and croaked. Not this team. Odom has them bought in, they’re just not in OSU’s league.
Volleyball:
Dave Shondell’s squad is firmly ranked #9 (as of this writing) in the land and had another undefeated week. This week the Boilermakers defeated then #25 ranked Penn State squad 3-0, as well as Iowa 3-1. Considering what Purdue lost in the off season, the Boilermaker head man, is making a compelling case for being the National Coach of the Year.
Big Man on Campus:
Fletcher Loyer gets the initial BMOC award for the 2025-26 basketball season. Fletcher averaged nearly 23 ppg this week, including a 30 point performance in the season opener. When the team is missing a leader and All-American, a different leader needed to step up, and Fletch was that guy!
A Look Ahead:
The Purdue Football team has one more road trip to end the season, as they travel west to Washington. The Huskies just suffered an embarrassing loss to Wisconsin, so they will be extra-motivated to prove something against Purdue. 7PM, Saturday, FS1.
The Purdue Basketball program makes their first road trip of the season, swinging south to take on (as of this writing) #15 Alabama. That game goes down Thursday night, 7 PM, ESPN2, and will be a huge litmus test to see how good this team really is. Following that Purdue will be back home to take on Akron. Sunday, 7:30, on Big Ten Network.
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