Welcome Back to Purdue Basketball! Forward, Senior Trey Kaufman-Renn has been chosen as the top candidate for Big Ten Player of the Year.
As part of a “Welcome Back/Welcome Aboard” series, Purdue Boilermakers on SI will showcase players from the 2025–26 Purdue men’s basketball team over the offseason. The 2024–25 campaign recaps and the forthcoming season will be the main topics of this series.
Trey Kaufman-Renn, today’s featured player, went from being a role player to being named to the first team of the All-Big Ten in a single season. He is among the nation’s top returning big men.
If there had been a prize for college basketball’s best improved player, Kaufman-Renn would have been a deserving winner. From playing just 17 minutes a game as a sophomore to averaging 20.1 points a game in 2024–25, the 6-foot-9 forward became Purdue’s top scorer.
Kaufman-Renn talked confidently about his skill set and new role with the Boilermakers before to the start of his junior season. He thought his game would improve as one of the top two attacking options now that Zach Edey was gone.
According to Kaufman-Renn, “It’s a huge opportunity for me,” last summer. “I’m not stupid, I feel like if I got double the amount of touches I got last year or triple the amount of touches, I’d be one of the leading scorers on the team.”
In 19 of Purdue’s 36 games, he scored 20 points or more, and he was only ever restricted to a single-digit point total once. In a victory over Alabama at Mackey Arena in November, the junior forward scored 26 points. The Boilers defeated Indiana 81-76 at West Lafayette, and he finished with 23 points and a game-winning jump hook. In a Big Ten Tournament victory over USC, Kaufman-Renn scored thirty points.
Kaufman-Renn was named to the first team of the Big Ten at the end of the season, although he was not considered one of the nation’s best centers or power forwards. Late in the season, his teammate Braden Smith complained that he was left off of the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (center) and Karl Malone (power forward) award lists.
“Every night, you guys witness what he does and how he does it. He is a modest man. simply shows up, works, and completes his tasks. You know, you can’t not like it,” Smith remarked. “We’re back with this BS again, excuse my language,” he replied. “We’ve returned with it. You may observe his actions, the figures he displays, and the harm he causes to others.
Last season, Kaufman-Renn was one of the most dominant big men in college basketball, regardless of whether he garnered national notoriety. His talent and work dedication are evident in his ability to make such a significant improvement in just one season.
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