Purdue basketball wrapped up its preseason slate in impressive fashion, doing what it was supposed to, cruising to a 99-41 victory over Grand Valley State in the final exhibition matchup before the bullets start flying for real on Monday.

In a game Braden Smith was held in check, at least from a scoring perspective, Trey Kaufman-Renn provided a glimpse into what the offense looks like running through him. The results were perfect, literally.

Kaufman-Renn finished the night with 15 points on a perfect 7-7 clip, and had a team-high ten rebounds.

The junior forward got going early and often, scoring eight of the first 16 points of the game for the Boilermakers. Mixing in jumpers with a pair of easy layups courtesy of PJ Thompson play calls. The fast start guided Purdue to a 16-3 advantage to begin the game. A theme of strong starts out of breaks continued in the second half as Kaufman-Renn knocked down an early three and had a put back layup in the paint.

Fletcher Loyer has seen it in practice, which makes the last two games unsurprising.

"Just intensity. I think we see it every day in practice. We've seen it all summer, every drill, even if it's not even live. You see him locked in and ready to go. So I knew come game time, he'd be ready to go and ready to hit somebody for an offensive rebound, defense rebound, whatever it was," Loyer said.

It seems obvious to say this is the best version of Trey Kaufman-Renn we've ever seen, but he is rounding into form as was the expectation coming into the year. He displayed the total package that the breakout candidate he is, has been capable of, but is only now receiving the opportunity to realize it on a consistent basis.

"Trey works really hard and puts in a lot of time, but you could see it in practice, you know, he would score on Zach in practice, he would make plays, but we didn't run a lot for him. You know, in the NCAA Tournament, like we went to him a couple times more," Painter said. "He'll get the basketball a lot more -- I think he's gonna have a fantastic year."

It's one thing to hope for it. It's another to see it. We're now seeing it out of Kaufman-Renn.

Matt Painter shook things up with the starting lineup, inserting Daniel Jacobsen into the top five in favor of Will Berg. The move could have provided Painter with the clarity he is searching for at the position. Instead, the opposite. The same question marks surround the Boilermakers' big men as the regular season opener quickly approaches.

Jacobsen earned the nod but struggled with the physicality and quickness of Grand Valley State's "bigs", the top two of which were all of 6-foot-7. The freshman was also getting pushed around on box outs, failing to get a rebound in nine first half minutes.

It wasn't until the second half that Jacobsen began settling into the game. Early after the break, the freshman big had an offensive rebound that led to two free throws and made a nice move in the post for another bucket a couple minutes later. Still, Jacobsen presented the similar issues to the ones that plagued him against Creighton last weekend.

"He just needs to get stronger. It reminds me a lot of like JaJuan Johnson, at that age. He gets his hands on a lot of things, but he's not catching a lot of things, and he's not getting that rebound. He's tapping things. He has to stop tapping things and get things with two hands," Painter said.

Spelling Jacobsen first was a bit of an experiment as fellow rookie Raleigh Burgess was the first Purdue big off the bench. Burgess has similar struggles, particularly in keeping Grand Valley State's quicker forwards in front of him and having a couple of mental errors on screen and rolls.

Matt Painter assessed the play of the two freshmen bigs on Wednesday night.

"Both promising big guys but, you know, it takes a lot of work," Painter said. "It's one of those deals where they're both going to be really good. When are they going to be really good, right? Just got to keep working and stay positive and keep them on edge."

After starting the previous exhibition against Creighton, Will Berg came off the bench on Wednesday and didn't check in until the 10:46 mark, when Caleb Furst also entered the game. While Berg was limited to ten minutes, Matt Painter did compliment the big man on his rebounding, after snagging six boards in limited playing time.

The question now becomes who can cement themselves as the best option alongside Kaufman-Renn, which is something Matt Painter is wrestling with.

"I think first and foremost, kind of thinking like, who can we be functional with offensively and who can rebound?," Painter said. "It was good to see Will tonight, got some good rebounds in there, but who can rebound at a high level for us, defend. I think that's the person that'll end up separating themselves."

Paul Lusk said it this week. For all the hype about their defensive capabilities, CJ Cox and Gicarri Harris are true "two-way players" for the Boilermakers.

In what was their first game day experience in Mackey, as players or viewers, they proved their coach right.

The energetic freshmen tandem both reached double-figures, with C.J. Cox notching a team-high 15 points, which were tied with Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn, on 4-7 shooting from the field and a perfect 6-6 mark from the charity stripe. Gicarri Harris also showed his offensive ability, chipping in 12 points of his own on 4-8 shooting.

Their performances scoring the rock started on the defensive end, however, with both making early impacts that then led to success on the other end of the floor.

"I just wanted to bring my defense, defensive intensity that started off the beginning of the game, you know, that'll just translate to offense," Harris said. "Just want to do my job, making the right reads, playing the right role on defense and offense."

Once they got the juices flowing defensively, having two steals apiece, it opened the gates for the pair to be go-to scorers while running with the second unit. Harris and Cox went on an 12-2 run by themselves with just over 10 minutes left in the first half, which included seven points from Cox.

Cox also proved why assistant coach PJ Thompson calls him a bucket. The shifty guard picked up a steal on one end, led a fast break, snagged an offensive rebound and immediately knocked down his first jumper of the night. That got him going. Cox would then knock down three more pull-up jumpers minutes later.

"C.J.'s pull up game speaks for itself. Like he's a threat, and you need that, especially late clock, right? You got to get somebody that can go make a play, besides Braden at the point," Painter said.

Purdue's question mark surrounding who will step up as a scorer off the bench could very well be the freshmen guard, who has impressed early in his Boilermaker tenure.

Matt Painter acknowledged that the pair since has a ways to go, particularly when it comes to the intricacies of team defense, but Harris and Cox showed how valuable they can be for the Boilermakers.