Purdue lost one of their greatest senior classes in program history, so they desperately needed rising junior Carsen Edwards to return. Indiana is welcoming in one of their most heralded freshman classes in recent history, so they desperately needed rising senior Juwan Morgan to return to help bring them along.
The rivals each got their wish.
Edwards will be in the mix for Big Ten Player of the Year, as will Morgan, and both should be preseason All-Big Ten First Team selections. Prognosticators have both Purdue and Indiana as borderline Top 25 teams with questions about the Boilermakers' departures (Edwards, Haas, Mathias, Thompson) and the Hoosiers' inexperience (leaning heavily on a five-player freshman class).