Doyel: Unlike recent Boiler greats, Omer Mayer will come to Purdue with greatness expected

Indianapolis Star

6 days ago

Normally we don't have any idea what's about to happen with the Purdue basketball team. Well, slow down. We know what's going to happen, in the larger sense: Purdue's going to win. That's just about all the Boilermakers have done under Matt Painter since 2006.
We just don't know exactly how.
Because most of the time, we don't know who.
Painter tends to recruit players slightly off the beaten path, players with more game than name, players who come to Purdue with little fanfare and leave with school records or All-American honors or both. Some of these players tend to surprise Painter himself, recruits like Carsen Edwards in 2016 and Jaden Ivey in 2020. Painter liked both out of high school, obviously, but did he see Edwards scoring 1,920 career points in three seasons, or Ivey being a two-and-done lottery pick in the 2022 NBA Draft?
No chance.
Did he see current Purdue senior Braden Smith, mostly a mid-major recruit out of Westfield until Purdue offered a scholarship, becoming the best point guard in college basketball? Did any of us?
No chance.
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And don't get me started on Zach Edey, the No. 429 recruit in the high school class of 2020 who became one of the most decorated, most dominant players in college basketball history.
All of this makes what will happen this season in West Lafayette so unusual. Because this time, we see the guy coming. This time we know how.
This time, we know who.
But in some ways, this is the most Purdue basketball story ever. Because until a few months ago, most people had never heard of Omer Mayer.
Thing is, Omer Mayer might not even start for Purdue as a freshman. The Boilermakers are that loaded, returning four starters from last season's 24-win team, including the backcourt of seniors Smith and Fletcher Loyer, who have started since they were freshmen.
Thing is, Omer Mayer could be gone after one season, a first-round pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. The noise around him is that loud, and while I'm not calling that likely, I'm not calling it impossible either.
I mean, did you see what he did at the FIBA Under-19 World Cup the last few weeks in Lausanne, Switzerland? These are the best young prospects in the world, from the United States and Germany, Slovenia and Serbia, Canada and France.
And Omer Mayer was just about the best player there.
Seriously. Did you see what he did? We were posting highlight links almost every time he played, because here at the IndyStar we couldn't believe what we were seeing and there on your cell phone, wherever you are, you couldn't get enough of … what's his name again?
Omer Mayer.
Big games: Omer Mayer showcased at FIBA U19 World Cup what he brings to Purdue basketball backcourt
He's a 6-foot-4 guard for Israel, and it occurs to me that this is awfully late in the story for me to be telling you his height, position and nationality. But it also occurs to me: Most of you know who he is, now. Which is the point of this story.
This is the first time Purdue has had one of these — a potentially great college player — show up with the name to match his game since … well, since when? Since Caleb Swanigan in 2015? Biggie Swanigan reported to Purdue with the highest of expectations. The Purdue greats who came after the beloved Biggie (Edwards and Ivey, Edey and Smith) had no such burden. They were able to catch us by surprise.
Mayer won't surprise anyone.
He's already done that.
You see what he did in Switzerland?
Mayer played just four games in the FIBA U19 World Cup, but entering his final game he was leading the whole tournament in scoring. Sixteen teams, the best of the best young players from around the world, and nobody was scoring as much as Omer Mayer's 23.3 ppg.
Mayer injured his finger early in the fourth game, Israel's quarterfinal loss to Slovenia. He scored just nine points, dropping his tournament scoring average to third in the competition at 20 ppg — and then missed the next two games. X-rays were negative, so this doesn't sound like a major concern entering his freshman season at Purdue, with the first day of practice more than three months away.
For the tournament Mayer averaged 20 points, 5 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 2 steals. He also averaged 3 turnovers per game, but that was inflated by the six he committed against Slovenia, when he was 1 for 7 on 3-pointers. In the first three games, before the finger injury, Mayer committed six turnovers, total, and was 12 for 27 on 3-pointers (44.4%).
These are small sample sizes, obviously, which is why — to get a better feel for Mayer — you need to talk with NBA scouts and college coaches who've seen him play. And here's what you'll learn: That he's a future pro.
Gold in Switzerland: Sophomore returning to Purdue basketball as gold medalist after FIBA U19 World Cup
After one year at Purdue? Nobody's saying he will do that. But nobody's saying he won't, either. He was that good at Switzerland, and he was impressive at the 2025 Nike Hoop Summit in Portland in April, when he had seven assists for the international team playing against top U.S. prospects.
Before that Mayer was playing for Maccabi Tel Aviv in the EuroLeague, and he was playing more and more as the season went along. In the final game of the season, against Bayern Munich — led by Carsen Edwards, who set a EuroLeague record that day with eight 3-pointers in one quarter — Mayer had 11 points and three assists.
Mayer's 18. That's the highest level of pro basketball outside the NBA.
If you want a comp, this will have to do until we can see the 6-4, 215-pound Mayer with our own eyes: His production in the EuroLeague, and in FIBA age-group events, dovetails nicely with that of Kasparas Jakucionis. Ring a bell? Jakucionis was a freshman this past season at Illinois. He's big guard like Mayer — taller at 6-6, lighter at 200 pounds — and more reliant on strength and guile than explosion, and Jakucionis averaged 15 ppg, 5.7 rpg and 4.7 apg for the Illini before turning pro and being selected 20th overall by the Miami Heat in the 2025 NBA Draft.
Is Omer Mayer on a similar career path? Probably not, no. Illinois needed Jakucionis, its best player, to play 32 minutes per game. Purdue will ask no such thing of Mayer, not with Smith and Loyer back for their fourth season, and with All-American candidate Trey Kaufman-Renn also back as a senior, and with 7-4 sophomore Daniel Jacobsen coming off his own standout performance at the FIBA U19 World Cup. Purdue was entering the 2025-26 season as a Final Four favorite, and that was before Mayer's play last week in Switzerland.
Smith and Loyer are lineup locks, but you can see a scenario where Mayer eventually starts alongside them in a three-guard lineup, getting minutes that went last season to wings Myles Colvin (who transferred to Wake Forest) and Camden Heide (gone to Texas), and to returning sophomore guards C.J. Cox and Gicarri Harris.
What you can't see, not anymore, is a scenario where Purdue has found its long-term replacement for Braden Smith. Perhaps in 2026-27, sure. Smith will be an NBA rookie next year. Mayer would be a sophomore at Purdue. Will he stick around for his junior season? That might be the only way Omer Mayer surprises folks around here.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Threads, or on BlueSky and Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar, or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar. Subscribe to the free weekly Doyel on Demand newsletter.