Basketball is back in the air in West Lafayette. Purdue returns to the hardwood at Mackey Arena on Sunday afternoon, hosting Ball State in the team's first exhibition game of the 2026-27 season. The results may not matter in terms of wins and losses, but everyone is excited to have the Boilers back in action.

Sunday is the first time fans can catch the Boilermakers in action. it's the opener to the exhibition, as Purdue will play three preseason games this year. It's also the only game played at Mackey Arena, traveling to Fort Wayne to play Purdue-Fort Wayne next week and UConn on Oct. 27.

Here's all the information you need to catch the Boilermakers in Sunday's exhibition game.

How to follow along

• What: Purdue (0-0) vs. Ball State (0-0)
• When: Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026
• Where: Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Ind.
• Time: 2 p.m. ET
• Stream: Big Ten-Plus (subscription needed)
• Stream announcers: Gavin Connolly (play-by-play), Blak Godfrey (analyst), Kayla Helman (reporter)
• Radio: Purdue Global Radio Network | 96.5 FM WAZY (Lafayette), 100.9 FM WKJG (Fort Wayne), 1260 AM WNDE (Indianapolis), 99.5 FM WFNB (Terre Haute), 1450 AM WXVW (Louisville)
• Radio announcers: Rob Blackman (play-by-play), Bobby Riddell (analyst)
• Live stats: StatBroadcast

Scouting Ball State

Chris Capko, head coach

• 1st season at Ball State, 1st season as a head coach
• Played at Florida (2002-03) and USF (2003-07)
• Spent 2024-26 as associate head coach at SMU
• Was an assistant at USC from 2016-2024
• Also had stops at Marshall, Stetson, Georgia Southern & FIU

Key players

• Zaon Collins, G — The 6-foot-1 guard was a primary starter at Fresno State the last two seasons and is coming off a year in which he averaged 11.6 points, 4.6 assists and 3.4 rebounds per game. He can both find his own shot and is also great at finding his teammates for easy buckets.

• Javion Guy-King, G — Guy-King is a bigger guard at 6-foot-6 and provides a strong rebounding presence at that position. He spent last season at Central Arkansas, where he averaged 9.8 points and 4.2 rebounds per contest. He can light it up quickly, scoring 31 points in a game against Austin Peay last season.

• K'Jei Parker, G — It's not easy to be productive off the bench, but Parker found a way. He played in all 33 games at UMass last year, but only made one start. Still, he averaged 10.7 points and 2.0 assists per contest. Parker is also a quality three-point shooter, hitting nearly 41% of his attempts during the 2025-26 season.

• Mason Jones, F — One of the few returners to Ball State's 2026-27 squad. Jones started in 30 of the team's 31 games last season and averaged 4.2 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.5 steals per contest for the Cardinals. He is a do-it-all player and serves as the "glue guy" for this team.

• Sean Blake, G — Blake is another effective guard who can do a little bit of everything. Last season at Vermont, the 6-foot-2 guard averaged 9.9 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.9 assists. He was the team's leader in both assists and steals, and is a solid two-way player.

Boilers to watch

• Omer Mayer, G — After playing behind Braden Smith last season, Mayer is expected to be Purdue's starting point guard. He averaged 5.5 points per game, but his usage and production will increase dramatically from last season. How effective will he be with more minutes?

• Daniel Jacobsen, C — Jacobsen provides Purdue with great rim protection at the defensive end and a versatile five man offensively. the 7-foot-4 center averaged 5.5 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per contest for the Boilermakers in his first full season of college basketball.

• Gicarri Harris, G — When the Boilermakers were in Canada over the summer, Harris was one player who really popped off the screen. Is he primed for a breakout campaign? Last year, Harris averaged 4.6 points per contest, but proved to be an asset on the defensive end of the court.

• C.J. Cox, G — Cox is the only returning starter from last year's squad and is the most experienced player on the roster. He scored 8.5 points per game, but really came on strong late in the season and scored in double figures in three of Purdue's four NCAA Tournament games. Is he one of the top scoring options for the Boilers this year?

• Antione West Jr., G — We don't know much about West in game situations, but there's plenty of hype and anticipation surrounding the guard after redshirting his freshman year. He really exploded in Canada and may be the best two-way player on Purdue's roster for the 2026-27 season.

2025-26 stats

What to watch

Aaron Fine back in Mackey

Fine spent two years at Purdue before transferring to Ball State. He was the only player from the 2025-26 roster to enter the transfer portal, but found a home quickly in Muncie. There's a good chance we'll see a lot of Fine on Sunday afternoon in Mackey Arena.

The Noblesville product was an excellent scout-team player for the Boilers, making life tough for guard Braden Smith in practice during his two seasons in West Lafayette. We'll probably see that same tenacity on Sunday.

Starting lineup and rotations

Exhibition games are a great opportunity for Painter to experiment with lineups and rotations. He's done this plenty in the past and wouldn't expect anything different this weekend. At Big Ten Media Days, he said that he'd look over the rotations he used in Canada, but things could still change.

Purdue has three games to work with when it comes to trying out different rotations and lineups. It'll be interesting to see how many unique lineups we see on the court.

Three-point frenzy?

What will be Purdue's offensive identity this year? This won't be a team that works through the post as much as it has in previous seasons with Zach Edey and Trey Kaufman-Renn. The Boilermakers can shoot the ball well at all positions and from all areas of the court.

In Canada, we saw this team rely heavily on the three-point shot. Will there be more of the same in the exhibition game against Ball State? And, if that's the case, is that something we can anticipate from the Boilers for the 2026-27 regular season?