GAMEDAY INFORMATION -- EXHIBITION GAME 03
Purdue (0-0, 0-0 B1G) at [4] Connecticut (0-0, 0-0 Big East)
Tuesday, October 27, 2026 | 7 p.m. ET
Hartford, Conn. | PeoplesBank Arena (15,495)
STREAM: UConnHuskies.com (PPV: $9.95)
RADIO: Purdue Global Radio Network (Rob Blackman, Bobby Riddell)
THE SCENE SETTER
• After topping two in-state mid-major opponents in the first two exhibition games, Purdue steps up in weight class for its final exhibition battle, traveling to Hartford, Connecticut, to take on No. 4-ranked Connecticut. It marks the final exhibition game of the year before the Boilermakers open the season in the TNT Sports Hall of Fame Series Las Vegas against Gonzaga on opening night.
• Although not an official game, it marks the first meeting between Purdue and UConn since the 2024 National Championship game. The squads are among the most successful in college basketball over the last four seasons, combining for a 243-60 (.802) record during that span.
• Purdue has good memories in Hartford, Connecticut, last playing in the arena in the 2019 NCAA Tournament. The Boilermakers defeated Old Dominion (61-48) and defending National Champion Villanova (87-61), advancing the Sweet 16. Carsen Edwards averaged 34.0 points in the two games, including a 42-point explosion with nine 3-pointers against the Wildcats.
BOILER NOTES
• Purdue owns a 73-10 record all-time in exhibition games, but is just 3-3 against collegiate teams in exhibition games. With wins over Purdue Fort Wayne and Ball State, the Boilermakers snapped a three-game exhibition losing skid to Division I teams. Purdue had lost to No. 14 Arkansas in Oct. 2023 (81-77), No. 15 Creighton in Oct. 2024 (93-87) and No. 9 Kentucky in Oct. 2025 (78-65).
• Matt Painter is 33-3 as the Purdue coach in exhibition games, but just 1-3 in road games.
• Since the start of the 2016-17 season, Purdue is 28-7 against in-state schools (D-I only), including 15-1 in Mackey Arena. The record balloons to 35-7 and 22-1 if you include exhibition games against all in-state foes.
• Purdue leads the series with UConn by a 4-2 margin, but haven’t beaten the Huskies since Glenn “Big Dog” Robinson scored 30 points with nine rebounds to lead the Boilermakers over the 16th-ranked Huskies 73-69 on Nov. 29, 1982. Matt Painter had six points and five assists in that contest.
• Purdue freshman Luke Ertel and UConn sophomore Braylon Mullins waged memorable battles in high school and were grassroots teammates with Indiana Elite, growing up in Hancock County. Ertel’s Mount Vernon team topped Mullins’ Greenfield Central squad in a memorable sectional battle on March 9, 2025, with an 83-76 overtime decision. Mullins scored 38 points, while Ertel had 36 in the win. The pair are the last two Indiana Mr. Basketball recipients (Mullins 2025; Ertel 2026).
• Purdue returns just 41 starts (21.0 percent from last year) and 34.6 percent of its scoring from last year’s team that posted a 30-9 overall record. During the Matt Painter era, Purdue has returned under 40 percent of its starters from the previous year five previous times, posting a combined 118-55 record while winning the Big Ten regular-season championship the last two times it happened (2019, 2023).
• Purdue was third among “others receiving votes” in the preseason AP Top 25 poll, ending a streak of 79 straight weeks ranked in the AP Top 25. The streak had been the second longest in the country and longest in school history. Since March 1, 2021, Purdue has been ranked in 101 of the last 104 AP Top 25 polls. Two of the three weeks the Boilermakers were unranked were from preseason polls (2022-23; 2026-27). In 2022-23, the last time Purdue was unranked in the preseason, Purdue rose to No. 1 in the country just five weeks later.
• For the first time since the 2014-15 season, Purdue did not have a player named on the preseason All-Big Ten Team.
• Matt Painter (501) is just 12 wins from passing his mentor and Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Gene Keady (512) on the school’s all-time wins list with 513. The earliest that Painter could pass Keady would be Dec. 11, vs. Tennessee.
• With Painter reaching 500 wins last season against Miami, Fla., in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, Purdue became the second school in NCAA history to have two coaches with 500 victories (Kansas - Bill Self, Phog Allen).