TicketsPurdue men's basketball has won 12 straight season openers.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- The No. 1-ranked Purdue Boilermakers open their 2025-26 season on Tuesday night when it hosts in-state foe Evansville at Mackey Arena. It marks the first meeting with the Purple Aces since Matt Painter's first year on the sideline in December 2005. It marks just the fourth meeting between the two teams this century.
Purdue will host an in-state, non-conference team for the first time since topping Indiana State 92-67 on Nov. 12, 2021.
Purdue has won 12 straight season openers by an average of 29.6 points per game. Eight of the 12 wins have come by 30 or more points.
Purdue leads the series with Evansville by a 9-5 advantage, but the Purple Aces have won five of the last nine meetings dating to Dec. 1963.
Purdue has won 33 straight home games against in-state, non-conference opposition, dating to a Nov. 27, 2001, loss to Butler.
Career assists for Braden Smith, who needs eight assists to move past Illinois' Bruce Douglas (765; 1983-86) for third on the all-time Big Ten list.
Career 3-pointers for Fletcher Loyer, who needs three made 3-pointers to become the 10th player in Purdue history with 200 career 3-pointers.
THE NOTES TO KNOW
• Tuesday's opener marks the start of Purdue's 128th season of basketball. Purdue owns a 1,953 - 1,092 all-time record (.641), ranking 10th all-time on the NCAA victories list. Purdue is 106-21 (.835) all-time in season openers.
• Purdue will play its 11th game all-time at Mackey Arena as the nation's No. 1-ranked team. The Boilermakers are 9-1 with the lone loss coming to Rutgers on Jan. 2, 2023 (65-64). Purdue's nine wins at home when ranked No. 1 have come by an average of 25.3 points, with just two of the 10 games being decided by less than 14 points. Overall, Purdue is 16-6 as the nation's No. 1-ranked team.
• With the win over UIndy, Purdue has won its last four home exhibition games by a total of 193 points (48.3 points per game).
• Purdue set an exhibition-game school record with 15 made 3-pointers in the win over UIndy. Eight different players made triples.
• In three season openers, all starts, Fletcher Loyer is averaging 16.7 points while shooting 12-of-23 (.522) from long distance. Loyer needs three 3-pointers to become the 10th player in Purdue history with 200 made 3-pointers in his career.
• A year ago, Braden Smith dished out 15 assists in the season opener against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, the most for a Purdue player in a season opener in school history. Smith needs just eight assists to move past Illinois' Bruce Douglas (1983-86; 765 assists) into third place on the Big Ten's career assists list.
• Under Matt Painter, Purdue is 31-4 (.886) against in-state teams in Mackey Arena. Purdue has won 33 straight games against non-conference teams from the state of Indiana, dating to a 74-68 setback to Butler on Nov. 27, 2001.
• Purdue has won 32 straight non-conference home games, dating to Nov. 9, 2019 (Texas). It's the longest streak in school history.
• 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 had four players (Smith, Loyer, Kaufman-Renn, Cluff) nominated by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame for their position awards. Purdue is one-of-five schools to have at least four players nominated (UConn, Houston - 5; Purdue, Duke, Florida - 4).
• 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.
• 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).