Highlighting Purdue Basketball 2024-25 B10 Schedule

Welcome to the new world of the Big Ten. For the first time, the west coast will become Big ten country with Oregon, Washington, USC, and UCLA joining the Big Ten Conference.

That means over the next few years, new matchups in new places will be taking place. The shock value will make for must watch viewing.

With that entertainment in mind, the Big Ten has let out the schedule in teases and it's been announced where all of Purdue's games will be in the Big Ten and who it will play.

With the four extra teams, schedules are not nearly as clean as they were before. Purdue will play seven teams only at home, three home and a away series, and seven road only match ups.

Purdue is the reigning back to back champions of the Big Ten where its won each of the last two seasons by three games, but Zach Edey is gone and Purdue's next stage begins, led by junior guard Braden Smith.

But not all games are created equal, so let's take a look at some of the highlights of Purdue's conference play.

Purdue's away trip out west will miss both the California schools, and will instead head north to Oregon and Washington.

While neither of those programs have the same historic heft, it's the first time Purdue will be making the trip in conference. That's notable. More exciting, Oregon's stain-infested court appears to be gone to conferences past.

Oregon had a good season last year, getting into the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, but as with most teams with the portal craziness this year, they'll be a relative unknown going into its first season in the Big Ten. It has added Stanford forward Brandon Angel and returned former McDonald's All-American Kwame Evans Jr..

The Huskies of Washington didn't quite have as much success last season, finishing with a 17-15 record on a roster that's gonna have a lot of turnover this season.

Good thing they brought in a coach who knows how to turn over a roster. Washington hired Danny Sprinkle soon after Sprinkle's Utah State team lost to Purdue in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Sprinkle was able to change over Utah State's roster with transfers and built a program quickly. He'll be expected to do the same at Washington. Purdue's Matt Painter had a lot of praise for Sprinkle's job last season getting his team so well prepared.

Now the young coach will get to host Purdue and see how he can fair at a power five school.

The Big Ten is going to come down to schedules more than ever before with teams playing less and less home and aways. Instead, teams will be given massive edges in certain years by their schedule and who they get on the road. That's just the state of things now.

Purdue can't be too displeased with its draw with its first western expanded Big Ten.

It's long trips are Oregon and Washington, but the two marquee road only games are against Illinois and Michigan State. Purdue's victory against Illinois on the road last season was a performance that helped wrap up the Big Ten and assert itself as the singular dominant force in the Big Ten.

Purdue didn't get that chance against one of the other power houses of the conference. Michigan State made the trip down to West Lafayette, but Purdue avoided Izzo and the Spartans on the road. That won't be the case this year as Purdue will head to East Lansing where it won two seasons ago on a last second bucket by Zach Edey.

The Spartans will look a lot different this season with Tyson Walker gone and A.J. Hoggard in the portal. It's added Omaha transfer Frankie Fidler to add a tall scorer to the roster, and there's always talent on an Izzo roster, but Izzo has struggled to grapple with the new portal world of college basketball.

How many more Painter versus Izzo matchups are left?

With Washington and Oregon on the road schedule, that means Purdue will play host to USC and college basketball blue blood UCLA.

That's pretty cool.

Purdue went undefeated at home last season and there's a chance, even with the loss of Edey, that it will go undefeated again. But it's hard to really know what's coming to Mackey Arena this season but the home only schedule looks generous with rebuilding teams like Nebraska, Northwestern, and Maryland.

Usual Big Ten favorite Wisconsin has been leaking talent without replacing it, Boo Buie is gone from Northwestern, and Maryland was a dysfunctional team on the court last year. Could Purdue go undefeated again?

Dusty May has taken over Michigan's program and just in time. Last season, Purdue's trip up to Ann Arbor was a disturbing picture of what had become of Wolverines basketball. Purdue fans took over the Crisler Center bringing Mackey Magic all the way to Ann Arbor and outnumbering Michigan fans in attendance.

This off season saw Michigan move on from Juwan Howard and May immediately got to work at restocking the Wolverine's roster. He just got huge news in former FAU big man Vladislav Goldin following him to the Wolverines, spurring his NBA ambitions for a year.

May has also gone to rival Ohio State and added Roddy Gayle Jr., an experienced and talented guard that has real Big Ten experience.

Purdue will host and travel to Ann Arbor again. Will the new regime mean more energy from the fan base?

There won't be an issue with ticket sales when Purdue and IU play their two games. No surprise, the in-state rivalry will be protected.

Mike Woodson has gone to the portal and added a lot of talent, but there are still questions about how the pieces fit together. IU was the last team to win in Mackey Arena. It'll try to make a statement and take back the state against Purdue.

And while it doesn't have the same top-25 implications, Purdue will be heading back to Rutgers and hosting the Scarlet Knights - two things that have been difficult for Purdue over the last few years even though Purdue swept Rutgers last year. Rutgers has beaten Purdue twice while Purdue was ranked #1 in the country in the last three seasons.