Purdue's future is being built in the shadow of its present
Future offers are starting to trickle out from Matt Painter and Purdue including offering a local guard for the 2027 season. That's obviously quite a bit aways, but the focus turning towards 2026 and 27 offers gives a good insight into where Purdue is looking for the future, but maybe even more illuminating, where it is currently.
The 2026 and 27 offer class will be heavy with guards as Purdue will have to transition to life without Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer.
Smith and Loyer's four years as starters has shaped Purdue's program as much as any tandem in the Painter era. They've won over 60 games as starters in their freshman and sophomore seasons. When all things are said and done, it's likely the pair will have wrapped up every win record for a career at Purdue and maybe the Big Ten as a conference.
That makes it a little difficult to recruit for younger guards while the starting spot seems locked up for the foreseeable future. That's why the 2026 and 2027 classes are going to be so fascinating.
It's no coincidence that 2024 saw Painter add just one freshman, Myles Colvin. With Purdue's starting lineup set in the backfield, high schools are going to be reticent to sign up to be on the bench for the next three or four years.
But with Purdue bringing in a class of five freshmen this year, Painter might have already settled the back court of his future with CJ Cox, Gicarri Harris, and Jack Benter all looking like potential long-term starters after Loyer and Smith graduate.
Which makes Painter's future freshmen a delicate dance of reinforcements, gems in the rough, and potential stars to challenge upper classmen.
Let's take a look at recent offers.
2027, smooth guard out of Fishers
Jason Gardner Jr.'s national ranking will probably depend on him getting taller and filling out, but there's a lot to like from the young guard out of Fishers. Gardner is a smooth guard, a team-leader guard that has good court vision and a bevy of creative finishes at the rim. A guard that can get to the hoop hasn't exactly worked out in Purdue's system of post ups and dominant bigs, but as PJ Thompson's offensive scheme transforms to involve more and more pick and rolls, the lanes to get to the hoop keep getting wider and a guard that can take advantage of it becomes more and more valuable for Purdue.
