John Fanta
College Basketball Omroep and Reporter
Life continues to swell in Mackey Arena in West Lafayette. Purdue will again have a national player of the year Front-Runner and the best recurring guard in the sport, as Braden Smith announced that he will be back for his senior season.
The winner of the Bob Cousy Award and the Big Ten Player of the Year, the 6-foot Smith went from a three-star recruit from high school to a consensus first team All-American. While many people wondered how the first year was without Zach Edey, like for Matt Paintr and Crew, Smith de Ketels helped to a 24-Win season and a trip to Sweet 16, the sixth in the last eight NCAA tournaments.
Smith broke the Big ten record for assists in the conference game this season and released 175 of them, who destroyed the previous record of Cassius Winston by Michigan State (157). The striking guard of the boiler makers also became the second player in the NCAA history who recorded at least 550 points, 300 assists and 150 rebounds in a season and wore the JA Morant of Murray State as the only one that can say that.
Smith was made by Houston in the Sweet 16 of this year’s big dance. The do-long guard shoved 15 assists against the cougars and became the first player in the history of the NCAA tournament with two games with at least 15 assists (2024-Gonzaga; 2025-Hourston).
Smith has already shattered the Assists program and recorded 758 in just 110 career games. In three seasons he has been in Big Ten History in Big Ten History in Assists.
What does Smith’s return to West Lafeyette mean?
First of all, it is great for college basketball to let stars stay in a place and to return, where Smith comes to the hefty zero package to agree to stay. Secondly, if you link Smith’s return with Freother Loyer and Trey Kaufman -are back and then add a great transfer transfer Pick -up in Oscar Cluff and recurring guard CJ Cox, there is far too more fun to go into the next Sext season. That is why the boiler makers are the number 2-ranked team in my temporary top 25 rankings.
Purdue is currently listed on +1200 to win next year’s national championship, connected to Houston for the second best opportunities and only Duke backlog (+1000).
John Fanta is a national basketball broadcaster and writer for FOX Sports. He shows the sport in different training, from calling games on FS1 to serving as a hive on the Big East Digital Network to Providery Comments in the field of 68 media Network. Follow him on @John_fanta.
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