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#1 Purdue Travels to #9 Kentucky for Exhibition Game#1 Purdue Travels to #9 Kentucky for Exhibition Game
Chris Johnson/Purdue Athletics

#1 Purdue Travels to #9 Kentucky for Exhibition Game

The highly-anticipated 2025-26 season unofficially tips off on Friday night as the No. 1 Boilermakers head to Lexington, Kentucky, to face No. 9 Kentucky in an exhibition game in Rupp Arena.

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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- The highly-anticipated 2025-26 season unofficially tips off on Friday night as the No. 1 Boilermakers head to Lexington, Kentucky, to face No. 9 Kentucky in an exhibition game in Rupp Arena. Purdue last visited Lexington 1994 for the NCAA Tournament, but hasn't faced the Wildcats in Lexington since the 1979-80 season -- a year the Boilermakers reached the Final Four played in Indianapolis.

This will mark Purdue's first visit to Lexington since the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament in 1994. The Boilermakers defeated UCF (98-67) and Alabama (83-73) in the two games, behind 64 points and 22 rebounds from National Player of the Year Glenn "Big Dog" Robinson.

Purdue is 0-2 in exhibitions against collegiate teams the last two seasons, falling at #14 Arkansas (2023) and at #15 Creighton (2024).

INSIDE THE SERIES

Go inside the exhibition games with the Boilermakers.

The game with Kentucky marks the second SEC opponent in the last three years for an exhibition game.
The Exhibition Game Numbers

The Exhibition Game Numbers

First Meeting: Dec. 28, 1973 (Purdue 106, SubPac 91)
Purdue in Exhibition Games: 70-9
Under Matt Painter: 30-2
Current Streak: Purdue, win-1
At Purdue: 70-7
     Mackey Arena: 70-7
     Current Streak: Purdue, win-35
On the Road: 0-2
     Current Streak: Opponent, win-2
In Overtime: Opponent leads, 1-0
Most Purdue Points: 117 vs. Russia Select (Nov. 9, 1997)
     Mackey Arena: 117 vs. Russia Select (Nov. 9, 1997)
     On the Road: 87 at [15] Creighton (Oct. 26, 2024)
Most Opponent Points: 93 by [15] Creighton (Oct. 26, 2024)
     Mackey Arena: 91 by SubPac (Dec. 28, 1973)
     On the Road: 93 by [15] Creighton (Oct. 26, 2024)
Largest Purdue Victory: 58 (99-41) vs. Grand Valley State (Oct. 30, 2024)
Largest Opponent Victory: 19 (64-83) vs. Harlem Globetrotters (Nov. 5, 2002)
Purdue vs. Opponent When Both Teams are Ranked: 0-2
Top-10 Showdowns: 0-0

THE NOTES TO KNOW

• Although this game won't count in the official record, Purdue and Kentucky will be "meeting" for the first time since Dec. 3, 1997. The No. 7-ranked Wildcats topped the No. 6-ranked Boilermakers 89-75 in the "Great Eight" in Chicago. Kentucky has won two straight games against the Boilermakers, owning a 6-2 series advantage. Purdue last defeated Kentucky on Dec. 1, 1984, in Mackey Arena (66-56).
• Purdue is ranked No. 1 in the AP preseason poll for the first time in school history. It marks the fourth time in the last five seasons that Purdue has achieved a No. 1 ranking in the AP poll, after never reaching No. 1 prior to the 2021-22 season.
• Purdue has now been ranked No. 1 in four of the last five seasons (2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, 2025-26), becoming the seventh school in AP poll history to do so (Duke, UCLA, Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, Gonzaga, Purdue). 
• Purdue's 14 weeks ranked No. 1 in the AP poll since the 2021-22 season are the most in the country (Auburn - 11; Houston 10; Gonzaga - 9).
• Purdue's No. 1 ranking in the preseason poll marks just the fifth time in school history that Purdue has been ranked in the preseason top five (2023-24 --> 3; 1987-88 --> 2; 1986-87 --> 4; 1969-70 --> 3). Since the 2010-11 season, Purdue has exceeded its preseason ranking by being ranked higher in the final AP poll nine times. Only twice (2021-22, 2019-20) has Purdue not lived up to its preseason ranking.
• Among players returning nationally, Braden Smith is the top-returning assist man, Oscar Cluff is the second-leading rebounder and double-double man, Liam Murphy is ninth among all players in 3-pointers made last season and Trey Kaufman-Renn is the 10th-returning leading scorer. 
• Braden Smith has been named as the preseason Big Ten Player of the Year, while Trey Kaufman-Renn joined him on the first team. 
• Braden Smith is already the only player in Big Ten conference history to amass 1,350 points, 750 assists, 500 rebounds and 175 steals in a career. He is one of 14 players in NCAA history to reach those marks.
• A Purdue player has won Big Ten Player of the Year in three straight seasons -- the only time a team has had three straight Big Ten Players of the Year (Zach Edey - 2023; Zach Edey - 2024; Braden Smith - 2025). 
• Purdue has had a consensus First- or Second-Team All-American in seven of the past nine seasons despite never enrolling a top-30 recruiting class or a top-30 prospect at any point during that span.
• Matt Painter ranks fourth on the Big Ten's list for career wins with 471, trailing only Tom Izzo (737), Bob Knight (662) and Gene Keady (512) in Big Ten history. Painter has 496 career victories and with four more victories, Painter will become the seventh-fastest active coach to reach 500 wins (Few, Calipari, Self, Pitino, Izzo, Bennett). 
• Purdue has sold out its ticket allotment for the upcoming season, stretching its sellout streak in Mackey Arena to 106 games by the time the March 7, game against Wisconsin rolls around. Purdue enters the season with 89 straight sellouts dating to Jan. 15, 2019 (Rutgers).

QUICK HITTERS

• Purdue basketball has had two coaches in 46 seasons (Gene Keady, Matt Painter), accounting for 983 wins and 11 Big Ten titles. 
• The only schools nationally to have just two coaches since 1980 are Duke (Mike Krzyzewski, Jon Scheyer), Syracuse (Jim Boeheim, Adrian Autry), Oakland (Lee Frederick, Greg Kampe), Michigan State (Jud Heathcote, Tom Izzo) and Purdue. 
• Painter is the ninth-longest tenured head coach at one school in the country (Kampe, Izzo, Mark Few - Gonzaga, James Jones - Yale, Randy Bennett - Saint Mary's, Scott Drew - Baylor, Bill Self - Kansas, Gary Manchel - Mercyhurst). 
• Braden Smith has been named first-team All-Big Ten twice previously (2024, 2025). With another first-team honor this season, he would become the fifth Purdue player since 1948 (Dave Schellhase, Terry Dischinger, Rick Mount, Robbie Hummel) to be named to three All-Big Ten first teams.
• Purdue became the first school in Big Ten history to have its players win three straight Player of the Year honors (Zach Edey - 2023, 2024; Braden Smith - 2025). 
• Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer is the only set of teammates nationally to have scored at least 1,250 career points while playing every year at the same school. 

• Smith ranks second in career scoring among players that have been in the Big Ten for their whole careers (1,375 points) behind Ohio State's Bruce Thornton (1,487 points). Fletcher Loyer is third (1,281 points).
• A Purdue player has led the country in two-point field goals made in each of the last two seasons (2024 - Zach Edey; 2025 - Trey Kaufman-Renn). Since the year 2000, Purdue has three of the top-nine single-season totals in 2-point field goals made (Edey - 335; Edey - 290; Kaufman-Renn - 289). 
• Purdue's senior class enters the year needing 36 wins to tie the Big Ten record for the most wins by a class during their four years. The record is 123 by Ohio State (Class of 2013). 
• Purdue's senior class has won in every Big Ten arena that it has played in except Northwestern. It will get a chance to win in Welsh-Ryan Arena on March 4. In addition, it will get a chance to win at both UCLA and USC, which would give the group a win in road games against the other 17 programs in the Big Ten. 
• Braden Smith (758) needs just eight assists to move into third place on the Big Ten's caeer assists chart (Illinois' Bruce Douglas - 765).