Jersey Number Changes For Purdue Basketball Next Season

As a rather large roster turnover happens this offseason for Purdue men’s basketball, there are also a few changes in jersey numbers. Purdue basketball announced these new numbers and changes via Twitter over the last week or so. Here’s a look at the returning players who are swapping numbers and what number the incoming players will be wearing as well.

• Caleb Furst is the most notable jersey change going into next season as he will wear No. 1 after sporting No. 3 last year.
• Redshirt freshman Brian Waddell is also changing his number as a result. Although he did not appear in a game last year, he repped No. 1 and will wear No. 11 when he makes his official Purdue debut in November.

As far as the incoming freshmen, here are the jerseys that they will rep in their first years with the program.

• Reigning Mr. Basketball in the state of Indiana, Braden Smith will wear No. 3.
• Runner-up to Smith in the Mr. Basketball voting, Fletcher Loyer, will take over Eric Hunter Jr’s No. 2 jersey after Hunter transferred to Butler this offseason.
• Cam Heide will also take over a departing player’s number as he will wear No. 23 with Jaden Ivey headed to the NBA in the coming weeks.
• The final member of the four-man recruiting class, William Berg will wear No. 44, which has not been used since the giant Isaac Haas graduated in 2018.

It is interesting to see how quickly numbers are used after great Boilermakers sported them just a year before. Fans might recall, that Carsen Edwards was upset that Jahaad Proctor wore No. 3 in 2019.

The reason for this is, that there are only a finite amount of numbers that are eligible to be used in college basketball. Numbers 6-9 are not permitted because referees have to be able to call fouls on one hand. That means 20 numbers between 0-55 are not able to be used. It may seem a bit odd or disrespectful for some fans that Jaden Ivey, Carsen Edwards, etc jerseys are being used so quickly, but that is the reason why.