ST LOUIS — Playing its best basketball of the season, Purdue opens NCAA Tournament play Friday in St. Louis as the No. 2 seed in the West Region, facing No. 15 seed Queens University of Charlotte.

rDETAILS: Friday, March 20, 2026 | 7:35p.m. ET | TV: TruTV (Spero Dedes, Jim Spanarkel, Jon Rothstein) | Radio: Purdue Radio Network
PURDUE (27-8, 13-7 B1G): ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATS
QUEENS (21-13, 13-5 A-SUN): ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATS

A FEW THINGS ABOUT PURDUE

• Braden Smith needs just 12 assists to break NCAA all-time career assist record, which he may get done before the first media timeout the way things have gone lately. He averaged 11.5 assists in Purdue’s four Big Ten Tournament wins.

• Purdue’s frontcourt rolls in St. Louis on a tear.

In Chicago, Oscar Cluff played his best basketball of the season, averaging 17.3 points and 9.5 rebounds, including 20 offensive rebounds. Notably, he averaged 29.5 minutes over those four games.

Meanwhile, Trey Kaufman-Renn averaged 15.3 points on 69-percent shooting, plus seven rebounds per game.

• In the Big Ten Tournament, Purdue took a significant step forward defensively, allowing an average of just 66 points per game over its four wins, including only 72 to one of the nation’s top offenses in Michigan.

Since Fe. 1, Fletcher Loyer is 50-for-104 from three-point range, good for 48.1 percent over those 14 games. He’s Purdue’s all-time leader in made threes.

ABOUT QUEENS

• The Royals played their way into the field by winning the ASUN Tournament with three wins in as many days in Jacksonville, topped by an OT title-game win over top-seeded Central Arkansas.

• Queens’ defensive metrics are mostly in the high-200s and 300s nationally and in five high-major games, it allowed an average of 102.6 points, including 111 to Myles Colvin and Wake Forest. Colvin scored 33.

• Guard Nasir Mann averages a team-high 13.4 points, but is just one of his team’s six double-figure scorers. Queens’ M.O. is to play fast and attack the paint.

• Coach Grant Leonard recently made headlines for calling out a high-major program — later revealed as Auburn — for having an assistant coach at the ASUN Tournament scouting potential transfers.

“I never called out Auburn,” Leonard said Thursday in St. Louis. “My comment was that there was an SEC assistant. I want to make sure I am clear on this. Whether something is within the rules or not, coaches, no matter whether it is men’s or women’s, we are trying to lead and mold young people. We are trying to prepare them for their next phase in life through whatever sport we are coaching.

“I coach basketball. Basketball can be an unbelievable vehicle to change kids’ lives. As a leader of young men, I have an ethical thing that I have to do to teach them to do the right thing.

“I don’t think it is the right thing ethically to go to our conference tournament, sit on the floor and try to interact with my player in an elimination game. That is my opinion; it is not a fact. Is it permissible? Maybe, maybe not. Is it ethical? In my opinion, no. That’s my statement with that. I think as coaches we can draw the line and say enough is enough.”

THREE KEYS FOR PURDUE

PHYSICALITYDRIBBLE CONTAINMENTTEMPOPurdue should have enormous rebounding and size advantages around the basket, and lately the Boilermakers have really been maximizing those advantages.
Queens is undersized but effective as slashers. It can drive the ball from multiple positions, and that has at times been a delicate matter for Purdue. But after its defensive emergence in Chicago, Purdue is in the best position it’s been all season long to contain the dribble and carry out its assignments otherwise.
The Royals are going to want to play fast and try to run circles around the bigger Boilermakers. Purdue will want to run and get easy baskets when possible, but keeping this game in the half court would really put a spotlight on Purdue’s advantages and force Queens to work on defense and rebound above its means.

THREE THOUGHTS

• Purdue has crushed its first-round opponents the last two NCAA Tournaments. If there is anything real about this team being vulnerable to double-digit-seed losses, it hasn’t shown up lately. It is a dead topic at this point.
• Braden Smith’s record-breaking assist should be one that reflects his career. It doesn’t always work that way, and it doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things, but it would be funny if it’s replayed over and over—this record being broken on something like an inbound pass or some such thing.
• Is the Oscar Cluff you saw at the United Center the Oscar Cluff Purdue will get for the rest of the season? Because if it is, Purdue’s Big Three is really a Big Four.

Purdue is one of the best offenses in the country, and when you look at how Queens has fared defensively against competition at Purdue’s level, it has not been pretty. Queens might be able to score a little bit on Purdue, but it is going to have a really hard time stopping the Boilermakers, especially when it comes to rebounding against them.