A Look Back at Purdue Basketball: Braden Smith

2025-2026 Stats:
39 games played (39 starts)
557 points (14.3)
138 rebounds (3.5)
345 assists (8.8)
66 steals (1.7)
8 blocks (0.2)
113 turnovers (2.9)
.440 field goal percentage
.362 3-point percentage
.825 free throw percentage

2025-2026 Awards / Honors
1st Team All- Big Ten
All-Big Ten Tournament Team
Big Ten Tournament MVP
Consensus All-American
NCAA Tournament All-Region Team
NCAA Record for Career Assists (1103)

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Season Retrospective

Honestly, what more can we say about number 3 (or 41 for a short time). Braden Smith came into the season as the #1 player on the #1 team in the country. The preseason favorite to win the Wooden Award, Smith and the Purdue team had sky-high expectations and what looked to be a magical path to glory with tournament host cities in St. Louis, Chicago, and the Final Four in Indianapolis. It was obvious where this team wanted to get to: back home again in Indiana, but for Smith, there was another goal to reach. Starting the season with 758 career assists, Smith needed 319 to reach 1077 and stand alone at the top of the NCAA career assist mountain. Everyone started contemplating how many games Purdue needed to play and how many assists Smith needed to average to reach the top. Braden was all but guaranteed 33 games meaning he needed to average a maximum of 9.7 assists per game, which was an entire assist better per game than his previous year. Then again, at the start of the season, the odds had Purdue playing 40 games and Smith shattering the record. Only time would tell.

To start the year, Braden simply did what he needed to do to help Purdue win. Whether is was a 29-point performance to help beat Alabama on the road or a 12-assist game to win the opening round of the Baha Mar invitational, Smith and Purdue stormed out to an 8-0 start and kept up with their lofty expectations.

Then a humbling performance in Mackey against Iowa State took some wind out of their sails. Smith finished that game with 11 points and 8 assists but a then season-high 6…

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Publish date : 2026-04-14 01:24:00

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