12/8/2025 Boilermaker Water Cooler Chat: Stock Market Edition
Rants, ravings, and somewhat sensical opinions following the wild, wacky, and wide-wide world of Purdue sports.
Back in the 1980s and 90s there was a slew of business movies. Weather it was the go-go 80s Reaganauts, or the high rolling swings on Wall Street, there was a fascination with the potential drama and star studded nature of high stakes business. Movies like “Wallstreet” paved the way for the drama filled economic swings. “Trading Places” had a more comedic presence. “Family Ties” even had a business aspect to it. The 90s brought in “Glengarry Glen Ross”, “American Psycho”, hell, even cult movies like “Office Space” all became parts of American business media.
Each of these shows/movies flirts with one thing. The stock market. Bull markets, good. Bear markets, bad. Fortunes won and lost in a single day, often times with hilarious or dramatic consequences. The types of swings that change your future in an instant. Great entertainment!
Those swings aren’t as great when they happen in sports, however.
The Games:
#1 Purdue 81, Rutgers 65
A solid, businesslike performance, Purdue did what they needed to do. Dismantle a very weak Rutgers team on the road. While the 16 point differential covers the spread, this point total doesn’t show how lopsided this performance really was.
Trey Kaufman-Renn had 19 pts and 13 rbs. Braden Smith scored 16 pts and dished out 8 assists. Both Fletcher Loyer (12) and Gicarri Harris (11) scored in double digits.
Bull market.
#10 Iowa State 81, #1 Purdue 58
Purdue played really well for about a half, and peed their pants for the rest of the game. A slow motion car crash, in which Purdue’s offense never left second gear. Shots were missing, free throws were missing, and 15 turnovers all led to the Boilermakers’ first loss of the season. A historic one at that, as it ties the NCAA record for worst home loss for a #1 ranked team at home, 23 pts. There seems to be some new record every time Purdue plays basketball, unfortunately, this time for a negative reason.
Props to Iowa State! Spectacular performance on the road.
Bear market.
Break It Down:
As the stock market goes, so goes Purdue’s basketball futures. The Boilermaker 2025-26 stock portfolio has 8 days of solid gains. The same portfolio has a pretty rocky one day loss. The collateral lost on Saturday does not bankrupt the program, just like the win earlier in the week doesn’t coronate them either.
Iowa State steamrolled the Boilermakers in their own driveway. That smarts. Just like the overconfident day-traders on Wall Street, sometimes you need a rocky day or two to force you to refocus. Reading your own GQ articles, falling in love with your own headlines… Purdue was due for a bit of humbling. Luckily, these players will respond accordingly. Two All Americans, several All Big Ten types, with senior leadership know what they need to do.
What is scary is that we caught a whiff of Purdue actually giving up against Iowa State. That better be an outlier. The Boilermakers shot isn’t always going to be this cold, but as a team you can’t allow a cold shooting night to turn into a complete shut down. We will see going forward. I have faith that the market will rebound.
What Went Well:
- 8: … assists, is what Braden Smith averaged this week. This keeps him on pace to break the NCAA all time assists record sometime in the early post season.
- 12: … more rebounds than their opponents this week.
Opportunities for Improvement:
- Never Give Up: Isn’t just a John Cena catch phrase… when everything was going wrong against Iowa State, it seemed like several Purdue basketball players decided to pout rather than to increase their intensity. Seniors need to recalculate and get back to business.
- 22%: From 3 against Iowa State is incredibly low. You don’t expect EVERY Purdue player to go cold at once, yet, here we are.
- 43%: From the free throw line showed that the Boilermakers weren’t just cold from deep, they were cold in general.
- Big 10 Officiating: Nope, Purdue didn’t lose because of the officials. Purdue got their doors blown off. However, the officiating crew on Saturday allowed every bit of contact possible without it being deemed assault. Both ways. That wasn’t basketball, that was WWE. Iowa State adapted, Purdue did not.
Volleyball:
Dave Shondell’s squad is currently playing with house money, as the #3 seeded Boilermakers have advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Volleyball tournament. They travel to Pittsburgh to take on #2 seed SMU (Whom the Boilers have already defeated this season), with a chance to take on the winner of #4 Minnesota and #1 Pittsburgh. Best of luck to the volleyball team, and hopefully onward to the Final 4!
A Look Ahead:
On Wednesday the 10th, a very angry Purdue basketball team is hosting Minnesota. I suspect a “motivated” Purdue squad to end this game quickly(7 PM, BTN). Following up that contest, Purdue will also host Marquette, on Saturday (2 PM, Peacock). Boilermakers should be heavily favored in both of these games, and likewise, will have extra motivation to make up for the hiccup of this weekend. We will see where the Boilermakers land in the rankings, as they will justifiably not be ranked #1 on Monday’s poll.
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