Purdue star Braden Smith saved his best for last in March Madness loss vs. Houston
INDIANAPOLIS — Purdue point guard Braden Smith is trying to get through the handshake line, trying to get back to the locker room, to his team — his guys — after pulling and tugging and dragging the Boilermakers to within an eyelash of the Elite Eight. Fourth-seeded Purdue has just fallen short in the Sweet 16 of the 2025 NCAA tournament dropping a 62-60 heartbreaker to top-seeded Houston, and Smith is trudging through the handshake line, wanting this to be over, wanting to be with his guys, but the Cougars aren’t cooperating.
The Cougars want a word with Braden Smith. Which Cougars? All of them. Coach Kelvin Sampson and his son, Kellen. The Houston big men whom Smith has just tormented for 40 minutes. The nearly 2,000-point scorer Smith nearly shut out, L.J. Cryer. Smith wants to pat hands and keep moving, but Houston’s players recognize greatness in their midst.
And they want to recognize Braden Smith.
When the handshake line is over, the rest of the Boilermakers are off the floor, halfway to the locker room on the other side of cavernous Lucas Oil Stadium. All of them but Braden Smith, who’s still on the court, all by himself, just Houston forming a victorious circle at one end of the floor and Smith at the other, head down, moving slowly toward the locker room and the last moments of the last night together for the 2025 Purdue basketball team.
Smith is wiping sweat from his face, unless those are tears in his eyes. Probably some of both. He has just played all 40 minutes against one of the most physical, most ferocious teams in college basketball. Kelvin Sampson coaches a particularly visceral style of defense, and for 40 minutes his longer, deeper, more athletic team has devoted all of its attention to slowing down Smith.
Stopping Smith? Come on. That was never an option. He’s a consensus All-American, the best point guard in the country, a former IndyStar Mr. Basketball winner at Westfield and future NBA player.
But they did slow him down. Smith scored seven points, less than half his average, and before you do that thing people do — look at one fact and think you know the whole story — understand this: Purdue had 11 field goals in the second half. Smith had 11 assists in the second half.
Did you know that? That’s my question to you, here, same as it was my question to Purdue coach Matt Painter after the game: You had 11 field goals in the second half. Braden had 11 assists. Did you know that?
Painter’s eyes go wide.
“I do now.”
I follow up. Ever seen that before?
“I don’t think so.”
And so this season ends, a season where Purdue showed it was more than Zach Edey by getting back to the Sweet 16. A year ago Edey was doing things college basketball hadn’t seen in years, posting combinations of points, rebounds and blocked shots unseen since the courts were roamed by giants named Shaquille O’Neal and David Robinson and Lew Alcindor. This season it was Braden Smith doing things college basketball hadn’t seen in years, posting combinations of points, rebounds and assists unseen since the likes of Jason Kidd or Kenny Anderson or Ja Morant.
But Braden Smith maybe saved his finest trick for last, and I do mean last. I also do mean maybe.
More on that in a moment.
But in the Sweet 16, against the No. 1 defense in college basketball, a unit hellbent on harassing Braden Smith, he had 15 assists. And he had 11 in the second half, when Purdue didn’t score a basket — not one — that wasn’t created by him.
This season, Purdue showed it was more than Zach Edey.
Next season, will Purdue have to show it’s more than Braden Smith?
And … is it?
Houston focused on Braden Smith, and almost failed
After the game, after the handshake line, after the postgame news conferences, Braden Smith is walking slowly to the locker room. He’s alone, after spending a moment with Painter, and he’s just barely moving through the halls of Lucas Oil Stadium.
During a game, when Smith uses an electric first step to create space, I couldn’t catch him with an Uber. After the game? After this game? I catch him without even breaking into a trot.
This looks different, I’m telling Smith as he trudges toward the locker room. He was among national leaders at 37 minutes per game this season, setting a school record with 1,333 minutes played — breaking the mark he set last year — but he looks battered. And I’m detecting a small limp.
“This is how it feels every night,” he says.
But that defense wasn’t normal, I’m telling Smith, as if he needs the reminder. Purdue runs the pick-and-roll all game, Smith and big man Trey Kaufman-Renn (14 points Friday), and most teams go with Smith over the screen, meaning: They don’t give him the space to uncork an open 3-pointer. They make him decide what to do next: Attack the defender by going to the rim, or pass to Kaufman-Renn as he heads to the basket. Some teams defended Smith under the screen, meaning: They gave him an open 3-pointer rather than letting him create havoc with TKR.
Houston went with Option C: All of the above.
Houston defended the 6-foot, 170-pound Smith over the screen and under it, double-teaming him with the guard already defending him — generally someone 4 inches bigger (6-4 Milos Uzan) or 35 pounds heavier (6-3, 205-pound Emanuel Sharp) — plus the big man who has just left TKR to hound Smith. It was physical and ferocious, and Houston was basically saying this:
Someone might beat us today, but it won’t be Braden Smith.
Houston almost got that wrong.
Smith couldn’t get off many shots — he was 2 for 7 from the floor, including 1 for 5 on 3s — but found a way to assist on 15 of Purdue’s other 19 field goals, including all 11 in the second half. Houston opened a 56-46 lead with 7:55 left, but here came Smith: Breaking free from the double team to find Myles Colvin (seven points) for a 16-footer, or Fletcher Loyer (16) for a leaner off the glass, or Camden Heide (nine) for a 3-pointer.
Smith ran the pick and roll with TKR and did one of those eye-level bounce passes only he can do, driving the ball beneath the hands of all those Houston defenders and bouncing it up into TKR’s mitts for a dunk. And then, with 35 seconds left and Houston determined not to let Smith or Kaufman-Renn beat them, Smith got loose in the lane and found Heide alone in the corner for another 3. That tied the score at 60 with 35 seconds left.
Houston scored with less than a second left, after retaining possession thanks to its 16th offensive rebound of the game, and that was that. Purdue had time for one more shot, a catch-and-shoot 40-foot heave by Smith that had two chances, slim and none, and slim wasn’t in the mood. Slim was like Braden Smith after this game. Slim was exhausted.
Purdue's Braden Smith entering 2025 NBA Draft?
Will Braden Smith enter the 2025 NBA Draft, or at least declare for the draft to see what NBA teams have to say? Walking alone with him toward the Purdue locker room, the clock nearing 1 a.m. Saturday morning, I asked him about exploring the upcoming NBA Draft.
He didn’t say no.
Well, he didn’t.
“No clue,” he said about the NBA question, which is one of those nobody wants to ask an underclassman minutes after his final game of the season — almost always a loss, almost always in the NCAA tournament — but it’s one we ask anyway. We have to ask. You want to know his answer. Hey, so do I.
“No clue?” I asked Braden, repeating his answer.
“Nope,” he said, and he trudged off.
Three years ago, before Smith’s debut, the idea of him leaving early for the NBA would have generated giggles. Purdue was his only high-major offer, you remember. Then came his first game, against Milwaukee, when Smith offered a taste of the stat-stuffing monster Purdue had just signed: seven points, seven steals, four assists, four rebounds. Two games later he scored 20 points against Marquette. Two games later, 14 points against Gonzaga.
Three years later, on Friday night, Smith joined Murray State’s Ja Morant — yeah, that Ja Morant — as the only players in NCAA history with at least 500 points, 300 assists and 150 rebounds in a season. Smith has already posted various combinations of numbers not seen since Jason Kidd at Cal in 1994, or Kenny Anderson at Georgia Tech in 1992. Those guys became NBA stars as well.
Is that Braden Smith’s future? Not just an NBA player, but an NBA star?
We’ll see. But generally the question about a player like this — the same question was asked of Purdue’s last 6-0 star guard, Carsen Edwards — focuses on the defensive end:
Who can he guard?
On Friday night, Smith devastated Houston star L.J. Cryer. Last time we saw Cryer, he was scoring 30 points in Houston’s 81-76 win against Gonzaga in the Round of 32. He had 30 against Alabama earlier this season, 28 against Iowa State, and 20 against BYU in the Big 12 tournament. L.J. Cryer is a scorer.
And Braden Smith made him disappear. Smith does this a lot. Last year he became the second player in Big Ten history with 450 points, 250 assists, 125 rebounds and 60 steals in a season. The first? Michigan State's Magic Johnson. This season Smith reached those numbers again. He’s done it twice. The rest of the Big Ten, forever, has done it once.
Who can Braden Smith guard? The other team’s point guard. Smith is fourth on the Purdue career steals list with 183, and he has one more season to play in West Lafayette. Will he come back next season to play it? We’ll see. The NBA, if given the chance this spring, will be a lot like Houston’s players and coaches Friday night:
They’ll want a few words with Braden Smith.
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