How UK basketball matches up vs. Purdue in exhibition — with a game prediction
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Purdue leverages interior size and perimeter shooting; Kentucky offers guard depth.
- Key matchups tilt toward Purdue at four and five; guard duel remains pivotal.
- Prediction: Purdue wins 96-86 based on efficiency, size and clutch shooting.
How the No. 9 Kentucky Wildcats (0-0) and the No. 1 Purdue Boilermakers (0-0) match up at each position for Friday’s NCAA men’s college basketball exhibition contest — with a game prediction:
Small forward
• Kentucky’s Collin Chandler (2.7 points, 1 rebound a game in 2024-25) closed last season on the uptick. The 6-foot-5, 205-pound sophomore hit at least one 3-point shot in his final seven games. The product of Farmington, Utah, scored a combined 18 points in UK’s three 2025 NCAA Tournament contests, making 5 of 8 3-point attempts. Tulane transfer Kam Williams or freshman Jasper Johnson could get the start in this slot.
• Purdue’s Fletcher Loyer (13.8 ppg, 2.1 rpg, 44.4% treys) has started all 110 college basketball games in which he has played. The 6-5, 180-pound senior from Fort Wayne, Indiana, scored in double figures in 29 of the Boilermakers’ 36 games last season and had 20 points or more four times. How Loyer shoots is often a “tell” on whether the Boilermakers will win — he hit 49.6% of his 3-point attempts in Purdue’s 24 victories last season but only 28.6% in the 12 defeats.
Advantage: Purdue
Power forward
• A transfer from Alabama, Kentucky junior Mouhamed Dioubate (7.2 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 1.1 apg, 46.2% treys) caught the eye of UK fans with how well he played against the Wildcats. Coming off the bench for the Crimson Tide in four prior games vs. the Cats, the 6-7, 220-pound Dioubate averaged 9.3 points and 5.8 rebounds while making 14 of 21 shots. A product of Queens, New York, Dioubate had six points-rebounds double-doubles last season for Alabama, including 10 points and 16 boards in Bama’s 85-80 overtime win vs. Houston last November.
• Purdue’s Trey Kaufman-Renn (20.1 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 2.2 apg, 59.5% FGs) is expected to move back to the four position he manned next to Zach Edey on the Boilermakers’ NCAA Tournament runner-up team in 2023-24 after having to play center last season. The 6-9, 240-pound senior from Sellersburg, Indiana, missed by one point scoring in double figures in every game last season — he had nine points in a 73-58 loss at Indiana on Feb. 23. Over Purdue’s final eight games of last season, Kaufman-Renn averaged 23.1 ppg.
Advantage: Purdue
Center
• Kentucky’s Brandon Garrison (5.9 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 1.9 apg) averaged 17.3 minutes a game last season while backing up UK starting “five man” Amari Williams. A 6-10, 245-pound product of Oklahoma City, Garrison scored in double digits seven times last season, which included going for 13 points, six rebounds, two assists and two steals in UK’s 76-57 win over Troy in last season’s NCAA Tournament round of 64. With incoming transfer big man Jayden Quaintance still rehabbing from a torn ACL, Kentucky needs Garrison — a 2023 McDonald’s All-American who played his college freshman season at Oklahoma State — to take a big step upward in 2025-26.
• A transfer from South Dakota State, Oscar Cluff (17.6 ppg, 12.3 rpg, 2.8 apg, 63.4% FGs) was a darling last season of basketball statistics gurus for the efficiency with which he played. A 6-11, 255-pound senior from Sunshine Coast, Australia, Cluff had mixed results last season against power conference foes. In South Dakota State’s 105-82 loss to Alabama, Cluff had 21 points and 15 rebounds and made 9 of 18 shots. However, in the Jackrabbits’ 81-70 loss at Colorado, Cluff had nine points, nine rebounds and four assists, but got only eight shots, making four.
Advantage: Purdue
Shooting guard
• Kentucky senior Otega Oweh (16.2 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 1.7 apg, 49.2% FGs) is the preseason choice for SEC Player of the Year. A season ago, the 6-4, 220-pound product of Newark, New Jersey, scored in double figures in 33 of UK’s 36 games. In the Wildcats’ five postseason tournament contests last season — two SEC., three NCAA — Oweh was a tick better than his regular season averages, going for 16.6 ppg, 4.8 rpg and 2.6 apg. Oweh’s offseason preparation for his senior season was impeded by a turf toe injury that sidelined him for around 10 weeks. The good news for Kentucky is that Oweh now reports he is fully healthy.
• Purdue sophomore C.J. Cox (6 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 46.1% FGs) came up big for the Boilermakers in the 62-60 loss to Houston in the NCAA Tournament round of 16 that ended the 2024-25 Purdue season. Cox, a 6-3, 195-pound sophomore from Lexington, Massachusetts, had seven points, five rebounds and an assist in 19 minutes against the eventual NCAA tourney runner-up. Over the entire season, Cox scored in double figures 10 times, including a 23-point explosion in a 104-68 win over Nebraska. International recruit Omer Mayer and incoming freshman Antoine West Jr. are other contenders to start for Purdue at shooting guard.
Advantage: Kentucky
Point guard
• With Kentucky presumptive starting lead guard Jaland Lowe expected to be sidelined by a should injury suffered in UK’s Blue-White Game, Florida transfer Denzel Aberdeen (7.7 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 1.7 apg) will likely run the point for the Wildcats. A 6-5, 195-pound senior from Orlando, Aberdeen was the top backcourt reserve last season for the 2025 NCAA Tournament champion Gators. In UF’s tense 65-63 win over Houston in the NCAA finals, Aberdeen contributed seven points in 19 minutes. In five starts last season for Florida, Aberdeen averaged 14.4 points and hit 12 of 29 3-point shots.
• Purdue senior Braden Smith (15.8 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 8.7 apg) is the only member of last season’s AP First Team All-America squad who remains in college. A 6-foot, 170-pound product of Westfield, Indiana, Smith needs 319 assists during the 2025-26 season to eclipse ex-Duke great Bobby Hurley’s all-time NCAA Division I mark of 1,076 career assists. Last season, Smith had 313 assists in 36 games. In last season’s 62-60 loss to Houston in the NCAA tourney, Smith had 15 assists — and assisted on all 11 Purdue field goals in the second half of the game.
Advantage: Purdue
Bench
• Kentucky sophomore Kam Williams (9.3 ppg, 4.5 rpb, 41.2% treys), is a 6-8 205-pound product of Lafayette, Louisiana. A transfer from Tulane, Williams had 16 points and eight rebounds in a 78-77 loss to Memphis in the American Athletic Conference Tournament in his final game with the Green Wave. ... Sophomore forward Trent Noah (2.7 ppg, 1.9 rpg), the 6-5, 220-pound former Harlan County star, has drawn raves throughout the offseason for the accuracy of his perimeter shooting. ... Homegrown freshman Jasper Johnson, the 6-5, 180-pound former Woodford County star, and McDonald’s All-American and 2025 Kentucky Mr. Basketball Malachi Moreno, the 7-foot, 250-pound former Great Crossing star, are both expected to be in UK’s regular playing rotation. ... It will be interesting to see how big a role international big man Andrija Jelavic and high-potential but willowy 6-8, 190-pound freshman Braydon Hawthorne carve out in 2025-26. ... A transfer from Miami (Ohio), Reece Potter, the 7-1, 230-pound ex-Lexington Catholic standout, will be the first recruited, scholarship men’s hoops player from Lexington to play for UK in the 21st Century.
• Purdue’s Daniel Jacobsen is a 7-4, 250-pound redshirt freshman who began last season as Zach Edey’s replacement as the Boilermakers’ starting center. However, Jacobsen saw his season end with a fractured tibia in the season’s second game. The Chicago product carries the reputation as an effective perimeter shooter. ... A 6-4, 215-pound freshman from Tel Aviv, Israel, Omer Mayer averaged 20 points, 5 rebounds and 4.3 assists during this past summer’s FIBA Under-19 World Cup. ... A transfer from North Florida, 6-8, 225-pounds senior Liam Murphy (13 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 42.3% treys) was recruited to give Purdue a “stretch four.” ... Sophomore Gicarri Harris (3.8 ppg, 1.9 rpg) and incoming freshman Antione West Jr. are both expected to contend for backcourt minutes.
Advantage: Even
Trends and history
• Kentucky is 6-2 all-time vs. Purdue, but the teams have not met since an 89-75 UK win over the Boilermakers in Chicago on Dec. 3, 1997.
• Mark Pope has never coached against Purdue; Matt Painter has never coached against Kentucky.
• UK has won its past 33 exhibition games in a row. The last time the Wildcats lost in an exhibition was on Aug. 17, 2014, a 63-62 loss to the Dominican Republic National Team in Nassau, Bahamas.
Advantage: Kentucky
Prediction
Purdue 96, Kentucky 86
