ST. LOUIS — Purdue All-American point guard Braden Smith broke the all-time NCAA assists record Friday with a bounce pass to Trey Kaufman-Renn with 12:11 left in the first half of his 146th career game.
Smith tied former Duke point guard Bobby Hurley with his 1,076th assist, delivering a two-handed pass to a wide-open Oscar Cluff that gave Purdue an 11-4 lead.
Cluff couldn’t get a handle on the potential record-breaker at the 15:30 mark on a feed from Smith. He missed another chance on a traditional postup and Fletcher Loyer fired a 3 in transition on a feed from Smith but drew only the back iron seven minutes into the first half. A pick-and-roll with Kaufman-Renn failed the possession prior to the record-setting connection.
Hurley had 1,076 assists for the Blue Devils and is one of five players in NCAA history with at least 1,000 assists.
Smith just set a record for assists in the Big Ten tournament with 46 last week.
Smith, who scored the first basket of the game for Purdue on Friday, takes passing seriously.
An hour before tip-off at Enterprise Center, Smith was near midcourt working on passing — one-handed, jump passes, a hook pass or two — with both hands, maneuvering his body and changing the trajectory on the ball from lob to laser.
He said he worked to hone his skills by watching YouTube videos of NBA players and then put a unique spin on a few when necessary.
Smith, the 2025 Big Ten Player of the Year, played basketball in Westfield, about 50 miles from Purdue’s campus, and was named Mr. Basketball in Indiana in 2022. Purdue head coach Matt Painter made Smith a starter during his first season and he has never looked back, helping the Boilermakers reach the Final Four in 2024.
Smith has evolved as a scorer and has nine double-doubles this season. He entered the NCAA Tournament as Purdue’s top scorer (14.0 points per game) and he was second in the nation in assists (9.1 per game).
–Jeff Reynolds, Field Level Media
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