Trending: Purdue Basketball to Host Incarnate Word December 21

Former Purdue basketball standouts Carson Cunningham and Ryne Smith will return to Mackey Arena next season to face the Boilermakers.

Incarnate Word, where Cunningham has served as head coach the past two seasons, will play Purdue on Dec. 21. Smith is an assistant to Cunningham’s staff.

The non-conference game will be the Boilermakers’ final one before Christmas.  This will be the second meeting between Purdue and the Cardinals. The Boilermakers won the previous matchup 96-61 during the 2015-16 season.

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Before Incarnate Word, Cunningham coached at Carroll, an NAIA school in Montana. Cunningham brought Carroll to Mackey Arena twice to face the Boilermakers in exhibition games.

Purdue has played Incarnate Word before, beating them 96-61 during the 2015-16 season. Purdue had a great balance that night with five players scoring in double figures. Isaac Haas had 17, Raphael Davis had 14, Vince Edwards had 13, Kendall Stephens had 12, and Caleb Swanigan had 10.

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Incarnate Word fills the ninth known slot of the 11 non-conference games during the 2020-21 season. We know for sure there will be an ACC/Ten Challenge game, likely on the road since Purdue hosted Virginia last season. The 11th and final slot will almost certainly be a home game, either a buy game against a mid- to low-major or a home game in the Gavitt Games.

Purdue has one game remaining on the Gavitt Games contract (it was originally for two home and two road games in 8 years) and it has already played its two road games (at Marquette in both 2017 and 2019). We basically have three years left to get the remaining game at home.