With the Sweet 16 rolling on, the quest to crown a national champion in the 2025 NCAA Tournament is nearing its conclusion. One team still dancing that also made a deep run in the 2024 tourney is Purdue, the No. 4 seed in the Midwest region, which is set to take on Houston on Friday night in Indianapolis.
Matt Painter's team deserves tremendous credit for finding a way back to this point without the services of big man Zach Edey, the reigning National Player of the Year, who went pro after last year's runner-up finish. The experience the rest of the Boilermakers gained from that run was a big part of their success this season, and it is a true rarity in the modern age of college basketball.
Purdue is the exception to the new reality of college basketball
The advent of new rules like NIL and the transfer portal has turned college basketball into a lesser version of professional sports. Over 700 players entered the transfer portal when it opened on Monday, and rosters have become unrecognizable as the increased freedom of movement has led each offseason to turn into a form of free agency across the country.
Where every Sweet 16 Team's Starting-5 began playing college basketball.
— NCAA Buzzer Beaters & Game Winners (@NCAABuzzerBters) March 25, 2025
(Try to figure out which teams are which) pic.twitter.com/MPomf1dyuT
The above tweet, which indicates where the projected starting five of each Sweet 16 school began their college career, is a remarkable reflection of the new reality of college basketball. The only Sweet 16 team that has a starting lineup composed entirely of players that began their careers at the same school is indeed Purdue, which takes it a step further by having only one transfer on their entire roster.
That one transfer, sophomore guard Jack Lusk, transferred up from a D-III school and is walking on. The entirety of Purdue's rotation has played together, allowing the Boilermakers to develop remarkable continuity in an era where coaches have to integrate players from all over the country into their program in a given season.
Painter is a bit of a throwback, like fellow Big Ten coach Tom Izzo, who made news earlier this week by saying he wasn't going to pay any attention to the transfer portal while his team still had games to play. The portal is the way of the future, and is going to remain the Wild West of college basketball as long as the NCAA makes no attempt to regulate it, but Purdue's success shows that there is still a path for traditional recruiting and team development to succeed in today's game.