SAN JOSE — Trey Kaufman-Renn is a smart guy. A thinker. A philosophy major who sometimes annoys his teammates with existential questions that have no easy answers. If Shaq is the Big Aristotle, Kaufman-Renn might be the Big Sartre.
He likes to process information, absorb it, then act upon it. In the split-second game of basketball, that can occasionally be a drawback.
“I always compare it to watching TV and listening to the radio,” says Kaufman-Renn’s coach at Purdue, Matt Painter. “He’s like a second behind.”
Except for the very end of a riveting NCAA men’s tournament Sweet 16 game Thursday night. With everything on the line—including Kaufman-Renn’s college career—he was a second ahead. That reaction was the difference between winning and losing.
Eighteen sneakered feet were on the hardwood as Purdue point guard Braden Smith’s driving banker bounced off the rim. Two were in the air. They belonged to Kaufman-Renn, as he jumped over Texas’s Dailyn Swain. Kaufman-Renn’s right hand rose above everyone else and tipped in the miss with less than a second left, delivering a 79–77 triumph over the Longhorns.
TREY KAUFMAN-RENN GAME-WINNER 🚨
PURDUE ADVANCES TO THE ELITE 8 🤯 pic.twitter.com/CYj7ltsGXT
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 27, 2026
In fact, Kaufman-Renn was thinking and acting ahead of all Texas’s players on the decisive play. As Smith drove hard to his right to the basket, Purdue’s big man was doing his work early on the other side of the rim to get position for his hero play. Kaufman-Renn used his left forearm and a 15-pound weight advantage to displace Swain, shoving him under the rim. When the ball came off, Swain was trying to reestablish his balance while Kaufman-Renn was lifting off to win the game.
“Coach always says that a lot of times it’s not the first shot that goes,” said Kaufman-Renn, a senior from Sellersburg, Ind. “It’s the tip-in at the end of games. He said that my four years here, so it’s kind of cool to actually experience that.”
For Texas, Sean Miller’s late substitution presents itself for second-guessing. He removed 7-footer Matas Vokietaitis for the final play, opting for more defensive quickness and less size. The sight of Kaufman-Renn rooting out Swain made Vokietaitis’s absence all the more glaring.
“By playing quicker or smaller, we could switch [a Purdue pick-and-roll] and really defend the drive in a better fashion, because Matas can’t really switch,” Miller said. “You can’t put Matas on Braden Smith on a switch.
“Look, we did get the stop. They got us with their size on the offensive rebound.”
Yes, exactly. That’s the point.
Credit Smith with the internal clock to get the shot up with only time for an offensive rebound, not a Texas possession. Then credit Kaufman-Renn with his own sense of timing. All the Longhorns had time for was an 80-foot heave at the buzzer.
As it bounced harmlessly off the top of the backboard, Kaufman-Renn reacted with his characteristic calm. Standing alone 60 feet away from his teammates, he pumped a single first, a single time. Then the rest of the Boilermakers mobbed him.
This victory—Purdue’s seventh in a row after a stumbling finish to the regular season—makes Kaufman-Renn, Smith and fellow senior Fletcher Loyer the winningest players in school history. This was victory No. 117, and on Saturday, it gives them a chance at 118 and a second Final Four.
They combined for 54 points against Texas, rising up in turns to make huge plays. Loyer got Purdue off quickly with two three-pointers to open the game. Smith, who said he played poorly most of the night, still had several key plays in a game that was glove-tight the entire way. And Kaufman-Renn had the winning putback as part of his team-high 20 points.
“I think [the continuity] benefits us more than anybody in the country,” Smith said. “Like, we’ve played together for four years. We know our strengths and our weaknesses, and we understand what gets each other going. Honestly, I respect these two guys so much.”
Purdue guard Fletcher Loyer celebrates during the Boilermakers’ win over Texas. | Christine Tannous/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
They are an extreme rarity in modern college basketball, a core group that never went anywhere. They were overwhelmed freshmen when No. 1 seed Purdue was stunned by No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson in 2023; supporting actors to national player of the year Zach Edey as they advanced to the national championship game in ’24; key players in last year’s Sweet 16 run; and now the seemingly ancient nucleus of a regional final team (at least).
“These guys here, they make your job easy,” Painter said. “They’ll spoil you.”
It’s a symbiotic spoiling, really. Painter benefits from the loyalty and continuity of veteran players, but he also builds teams that put them in these leadership positions. He honors his seniors.
“What you want to have more than anything is that you want a players-led team,” Painter said. “That’s always the best team. That’s what we have. These guys are very selfless, but they have a big voice in what we do and how we go about things, and they have a lot of pride in that.”
The evidence of that could be seen in the Purdue locker room postgame. Smith called over freshman guard Omer Mayer for a heart-to-heart talk after Mayer struggled, going 0 of 4 from three and 0 of 2 from the foul line. Smith was coaching him up for Saturday, but also life beyond this season.
The old Boilermakers might be limping into the regional final. Smith had an ice bag taped to his left knee, and Loyer received treatment during the game and after to his back. (“I’m fine, staying loose and staying warm,” he said, adding that the treatment was a heating pad.)
But there is no way that a group this battle-tested and resilient goes down without a fierce fight. Purdue won’t be eliminated easily. They’ve been at this way too long.
More March Madness From Sports Illustrated
Listen to SI’s college sports podcast, Others Receiving Votes, below or on Apple and Spotify. Watch the show on the SI College YouTube channel.
