Arizona freshman forward Koa Peat walks off the court after a win over Arkansas in a Sweet 16 game in San Jose on Thursday.
Kelley L Cox/Associated Press
Arizona forward Koa Peat dunks during the second half in a Sweet 16 game against Arkansas at SAP Center in San Jose on Thursday.
Kelley L Cox/Associated Press
Texas forward Dailyn Swain drives between Purdue guard Fletcher Loyer (2) and guard Braden Smith in the second half of Texas’ 79-77 loss at SAP Center in San Jose on Thursday.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
In a college sports era revolving around the transfer portal, and in a basketball season defined by fabulous freshmen, Purdue counts as an old-school throwback.
Three seniors, all of whom have spent their entire college careers wearing the same uniform? Is that even allowed these days?
The Boilermakers will play Arizona on Saturday in San Jose for a spot in the Final Four, mostly because of Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn. Smith is the NCAA’s all-time leader in assists, Loyer shoots 43.5% from long distance and Kaufman-Renn made the game-winning tip-in Thursday against Texas in the Sweet 16.
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All three players started playing college basketball in West Lafayette, Ind. All three will finish there, too.
This presents a sharp contrast to many top teams in the nation, including Purdue’s opponent Saturday at SAP Center. Arizona, the No. 1 seed in the West Region, starts three freshmen, one junior and one senior — a more typical lineup composition in 2026.
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One point worth making: Arizona’s youngsters are uber skilled. Freshmen have scored 50.4% of the Wildcats’ points this season, the fourth-highest percentage in the nation and second-highest among NCAA Tournament teams (behind only Duke).
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By contrast, the second-seeded Boilermakers lean into their maturity and experience — which showed down the stretch Thursday, when they survived a taut duel with Texas 79-77.
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“When you have so much experience, I think you stay composed and then you execute,” Kaufman-Renn said. “When you have either younger teams or teams where there are so many different guys from different schools, you just don’t have that connectivity or synergy.
“I’m glad to be part of it. I wouldn’t trade it for anything else.”
Purdue (30-8), which won the Big Ten tournament championship, certainly is not immune to the modern realities of big-time college basketball. Oscar Cluff, a rugged 6-foot-11 center, started his hoops journey in junior college, then played one season at Washington State and one at South Dakota State before arriving at Purdue.
C.J. Cox, the fifth starter, is a sophomore who also played for the Boilermakers as a freshman.
Matt Painter, Purdue’s longtime head coach, embraces his team’s continuity but acknowledges it doesn’t solve all problems. The Boilermakers still lost three consecutive games in mid-January. They still finished the regular season with four losses in six games.
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But they responded by running the table in the Big Ten tournament, culminating in a victory over Michigan. And now they’ve won three straight NCAA games, setting up Saturday’s Elite Eight showdown.
“It makes your job easier when you’re talking to someone who has been there for four or five years,” Painter said. “It makes it a lot easier, because what you want to have more than anything is a player-led team.
“That’s always the best team and that’s what we have. These guys are very selfless, but they have a big voice in what we do and how we go about things. And they have a lot of pride in that.”
Arizona (35-2) might lack this kind of roster stability, but that obviously hasn’t slowed the Wildcats. They showed off their dynamic talent in racing past Arkansas 109-88 on Thursday night, shooting 64% from the field while launching only eight shots from long range.
The top three scorers for Arizona were freshmen: guard Brayden Burries and forwards Koa Peat and Ivan Kharchenkov. And this speaks to the extraordinary job head coach Tommy Lloyd has done in developing his team.
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If you’re going to rely on freshmen or transfers, and try to get them to mesh, they must listen. That’s the behind-the-scenes explanation for Arizona’s dominant run to the brink of its first Final Four since 2001.
“Those freshmen didn’t come in like they know it all,” Lloyd said. “They’ve been very coachable. My philosophy is really simple: I coach dudes where they are.
“If you need work on your ballhandling, we’ll work on your ballhandling. If you need work on your passing, we’ll work on your passing. If you need work on jump stops, we’ll work on jump stops.
“I’m not afraid to challenge players to get better at the basics. I’ll give those guys credit: Maybe it’s hard for a young player to have a coach like me say, ‘Hey, you need to work on jump stops.’ That doesn’t sound like fun, but it’s really effective.”
Lloyd will test this formula against Purdue and its senior core. The Boilermakers are counting on their experience and familiarity to matter most when the stakes are highest.
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Smith, Loyer and Kaufman-Renn already have one Final Four on their résumés: They advanced to the national championship game in 2024, before falling to Connecticut.
Now they get another chance Saturday.
“I think it benefits us more than anybody in the country,” Smith said of his partnership with Loyer and Kaufman-Renn. “We know our strengths and our weaknesses, and we understand what gets each other going.”
It might not be a fashionable formula these days, but it works for Purdue.