Purdue to play Arkansas in preseason exhibition in Bud Walton Arena

Purdue will face Arkansas in an exhibition game on Oct. 28th inside Bud Walton Arena, per release. All proceeds from the event will be raised for charity. It will be a highly-anticipated matchup, as both teams are expected to be ranked in the preseason top 25 poll.

This time around, Arkansas matches up against a team seven months removed from being the 2023 NCAA Tournament’s No. 1 overall seed. More importantly, the Boilermakers will feature the 7-foot-4 reigning national player of the year in Zach Edey.

Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman expressed his excitement about playing one of the nation’s best teams early for his team’s sake — but also to raise money for charity.

“We are really excited to be hosting one of the premier programs in the country for an exhibition game,” Musselman said, via release. ”They will come to Bud Walton Arena with a preseason ranking among the top 5. Both programs will be playing in high-level, Thanksgiving tournaments (Arkansas at the Battle 4 Atlantis and Purdue in the Maui Invitation) so this game will have an incredible level of competition to help prepare us both early on and through March, much like the Texas game did for us last year.

“(Purdue head coach) Matt Painter’s teams are known for having great toughness, execution and consistency while winning at a high level. I can’t thank Coach Painter enough for bringing his Boilermaker team to Fayetteville. What a great experience it will be for our fans to see a game of this caliber so early in the year.”

The matchup will be the second year in a row the Razorbacks will play a marquee opponent during the preseason, having played Texas in Austin in 2022. Although, the Longhorns had their way with Arkansas and ran away with the game in the second half en route to a 90-60 final score.

It will be the third time in history the two teams will face off against each other. The all-time series is split down the middle at 1-1 after seeing Purdue win the first matchup in 1938 before Arkansas tied the series up with a 78-68 victory over the Boilermakers in the second round of the 1983 NCAA Tournament.

Details regarding the broadcast and ticket information will be announced at a later time. Tip-off is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET, and with this game being in the preseason — will not have an impact on the season schedule or preseason rankings.