Purdue's Braden Smith can become the all-time NCAA assists champion, but he wants a different NCAA title

All Braden Smith needs to do is once again average 8.7 assists per game, and all Purdue needs to do is play one more game than the Boilermakers managed in reaching the 2025 March Madness Sweet 16, and if all of that happens – OK, we get neither is a minor achievement – he will stand as the most prolific passer in NCAA men’s basketball history.

By the time Smith gets anywhere near the Division I career assists record, the great Bobby Hurley will have held it for 33 years. North Carolina’s Ed Cota and Jason Brickman of LIU Brooklyn came along later and entered the neighborhood, but neither made it all the way to the top. If Smith comes close, he’ll encounter no resistance from Hurley.

(Unless Hurley happens to be coaching the Arizona State Sun Devils from the opposing bench.)

“I’m not like the Dolphins or something,” Hurley told The Sporting News, citing the undefeated 1972 Miami squad that celebrates each season when the last unbeaten NFL team falls. “When people would say, ‘all-time assists leader’, that’s great, but I don’t think it changes my legacy at all and what I did in my four years. Because everything was focused to Final Fours and winning championships.

“He plays with the type of passion and type of fighting mentality I can really relate to, so I certainly would be happy for him if he achieves it.”

The inherent beauty of Smith’s attempt to break one of college basketball’s most prestigious individual records is there’s nothing about it that says “me”.

The assist is, by its nature, a selfless act, each one granted to the player whose pass leads directly to a teammate’s basket. The other guy gets the points, which is usually where the glory resides. And, perhaps even more germane, climbing beyond Hurley to the top of the NCAA Division I career assists chart will require coach Matt Painter and the Boilers to play as many games as possible. And the way to do that in college basketball is to win as many games as possible.

Smith needs 318 assists to pass Hurley. If Smith matches last season’s exceptional per-game average, he would need to play in 37 games. There are 31 on the Boilers’ schedule, which means they must earn at least four postseason victories combined, and play in at least six games, in the Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments.

MORE: Breaking down Purdue's 2025-26 schedule

“What I always go by is winning. That’s really what matters,” Smith told SN. “I’d say the self goals and accolades that can be won and achieved are obviously a huge deal, but I’d rather make it to that first weekend in April, the last couple games in the tournament. That’s obviously more important.”

Smith is the only member of The Sporting News 2024-25 All-America first team to return to college basketball, the only one in the past three seasons. He is a significant favorite to earn national Player of the Year honors. He acknowledged to SN there were substantial NIL offers from other major programs to transfer schools and play point guard for them, but even though he expresses more concern with reaching the Final Four than any individual achievement, among the reasons he chose to remain at Purdue was a sense of history.

“One-hundred percent. Legacy’s a huge part of it. My goal is to get my number hung up in the rafters, and my goal is to be remembered as one of the guys that brought a championship to Purdue,” Smith told SN. “Some of the stuff, accolades I could get this year, that’s obviously my goal as well, and I feel this is the best place for me to do so.

“There’s a lot of people that threw a lot of stuff out, but at the end of the day, those things I mentioned are way more important.”

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The assist was permanently adopted as an official NCAA statistic in 1983-84, so a couple of generations of tremendous playmakers never got the chance to have their passing ability quantified. It was installed just in time, though, for NC State’s Chris Corchiani.

He arrived in Raleigh to play for coach Jim Valvano in the fall of 1987, and as a senior he led the nation with an average of 9.7 per game. Corchiani acknowledges the first ingredient of such success is being surrounded by exceptional teammates, particularly 2,500-point scorer Rodney Monroe and versatile big man Tom Gugliotta. He passed record-holder Sherman Douglas of Syracuse on the way to 1,038 career assists. There still are only four members of the 1,000 club.

“You’ve got to have a special talent, to know how to penetrate and get in the lane and find the guys, but it kind of takes two. You can’t do that by yourself,” Corchiani told SN. “I was very fortunate to have guy that could finish. You could be a great point guard with guys that don’t score, and you don’t get credit for the assist.”

Corchiani explained the chemistry of a basketball team develops from an understanding among the members that allows the player with the ball to anticipate what his teammates will do in a given situation and where best to get it to them. Monroe, for instance, was among the pioneers of flaring to the 3-point line on a fastbreak rather than streaking to the rim for a layup or dunk.

“It really becomes a feel you create with your teammates over the years,” Corchiani said. “Coach V wanted me to get the ball to Rodney. ‘Don’t you shoot; get the ball to Rodney.’ ”

Now the successful owner of a mortgage business, Corchiani has remained an ardent fan of NC State and college basketball generally. He has been impressed in his opportunities to watch Smith run the Boilers’ attack.

“He’s outstanding. He’s really a throwback player to the 80s/90s, where he plays every possession 100 percent, both offensively and defensively,” Corchiani said. “He can score, but he’s also pass-first. He’s very fun to watch.

“Not to say that guys don’t play hard now, but I go back to the 80s and 90s with John Crotty, Bobby Hurley, Kenny Anderson, and every possession was valuable. Braden never takes a play off.”

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The story of how Smith rose from the 198^th ranked prospect in the 247 Sports composite for the 2022 recruiting class to stand as the current No. 1 college player, of how Purdue’s competition to sign him came from Toledo, Montana and Appalachian State – it’s all so romantic it feels reckless to mess with the narrative.

Part of the challenge of properly evaluating Smith, however, came from limitations that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic. It just wasn’t as easy for coaches and analysts to see him, either at Westfield High in Indiana or on the Under Armour summer circuit with Grand Park Premier. With Smith then at 5-10, 165 pounds, it also wasn’t terribly hard to overlook him.

He wound up committing to Purdue toward the end of his junior season, and he still won Indiana’s coveted Mr. Basketball Award as a senior.

“It’s just timing, and everything works itself out how it’s supposed to be,” Smith said. “COVID sucked, and it probably hurt it (the ranking) a little bit, but you can’t do anything about it.”

His talent was obvious as he picked up seven steals and four assists and played 30 minutes in his first-ever college game, which started the advance toward dual Big Ten championships (and a humbling loss as a No. 1 seed to No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson). In his second season, the Boilers made it all the way to the NCAA title game and a loss to back-to-back champion Connecticut.

Center Zach Edey was Purdue’s best player both seasons and twice won every national Player of the Year trophy, but there was little doubt who was running things. There were those who posited Smith’s early success was the product of playing with Edey, but when Kaufman-Renn became the featured player in the post, Smith’s assist numbers increased.

It's all of the little things with Braden Smith's passing ability. The patience and composure to draw the big out and hold him. The retreat dribble back to the middle of the floor to give him the angle. The corner look on the pass, moving the defender a half step that was needed pic.twitter.com/pMnfr810IN

— Joe Jackson (@joejacksonCBB) August 7, 2025

Now listed at 6-0, 170, Smith has continued to improve as a scorer and passer throughout his career, from averages of 9.7 points and 4.4 assists his freshman year to 12.0 and 7.5 to 15.8 and 8.7 as a junior. He said it’s what he was used to playing in high school – not having a 7-4 center to field his passes – and simply a matter of understanding TKR’s game.

“He’s got good hands, along with Zach. People say it’s easier to throw it to Zach and all this, but honestly, I thought it was easier to throw it to Trey,” Smith said. “He can post up, just like Zach can, and honestly, in the short roll, Trey’s a little more athletic.

“Ever since I played, what I felt was my job was to get everyone else better around me, just make it easier for everybody else. And then, obviously, be aggressive when the time is needed.”

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When Mike Krzyzewski was trying to assure Duke’s advancement from a perennial Final Four program to the national championship, it made perfect sense to pursue Bobby Hurley from Jersey City. Playing for his father Bob at St. Anthony High, Bobby led his team to four consecutive state championships and an undefeated season and New Jersey Tournament of Champions title as a senior.

“For me, it was more so than even the time I spent with my dad on the fundamentals – which was obviously a huge advantage for me to have access to someone as good as he was – it was all the hours I played on the playgrounds of Jersey City just developing those instincts, knowing where people are,” Bobby told SN. “You learn to see things 1½ to 2 seconds ahead. Before I had the ball, I knew where the ball was going.

“I always played with older guys, and the only way they would let you play was if you passed them the ball. That was my ticket.

“I wasn’t a guy to play above the rim. I couldn’t make those spectacular dunks. So my way of showcasing my instincts was to pass: behind the back, over the shoulder, lobs. Those things excited me.”

Hurley played in the NCAA title game in each of his first three seasons, from the misery of a nausea-impaired 0-for-3, five-turnover implosion against UNLV in his freshman year to being the hero of the Blue Devils’ Final Four upset of the Rebels a year later to Most Outstanding Player of a second consecutive NCAA championship victory in 1992.

“I was always taught to win, playing for my dad and Coach K. So I wanted to make the right play to facilitate winning,” Hurley said. “That’s where that desire to pass and get that assist was something I always took a lot of pride in.

“I’m not in that league and not in that region, but I’ve watched Braden. I think he’s relentless. He’s got a tremendous motor, very active, and he plays winning basketball. He’s very fun to watch.”

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Smith will get his jersey number honored eventually, given his achievements to date, but he also has the opportunity to join all-time greats Rick Mount (1969, 1970) and Edey (2022, 2023) as the program’s only two-time consensus first-team All-Americans in the AP poll era. He and teammates Trey Kaufman-Renn and Fletcher Loyer can be the first Boilers ever to play twice in the Final Four. And they and the rest of the 2025-26 squad can become the first men from the school to win the NCAA Championship.

“I think it’s just what Coach Paint has built, and the respect I have for him and he has for us. Everybody here, the people, the coaching staff, the players – we’ve never had issues. I’ve never had a guy that I hated to be around. We all spend time together. That’s all you hear about, stories of other teams getting in fights, stuff that just shouldn’t be, getting in trouble … you don’t hear anything like that with us.

“Who wouldn’t want to be a part of a winning program that continues to do it over and over and over again? Obviously, we came up short, but we’re getting to where we want to be.

“Yeah, there’s money being thrown out there. But I got my spot here, with a group of guys I enjoy playing with, the ball in my hands and the coaching staff behind me. I wouldn’t want to risk that for something else.”

After three seasons as Purdue’s starting point guard – he’s played in 110 games and made 110 starts – Smith has accumulated 758 assists. That’s a Purdue record already and places him 79^th on the NCAA career list. He will be passing legends almost on a game-by-game basis if he remains healthy through the 2025-26 season.

North Carolina’s Kenny Smith, even better known for his decades broadcasting the NBA, is basically two games away in 70^th place. Jacque Vaughn, who has spent 25 years as an NBA player and coach and returned to Kansas to serve as Bill Self’s assistant, stands in 52^nd place with 804. Notre Dame’s Chris Thomas is 37^th with 833. And way up there at No. 13 is Hall of Famer Gary Payton of Oregon State. With a typical season by Smith’s standards, he should climb comfortably into the top 10 within the boundaries of the regular season.

That is not the objective, by any means.

Smith wants to win a national title. Though no fan of mock drafts – “stupid” he calls them – he wants to play in the NBA. And just as it would help him to break the assists record if Purdue were to reach the Final Four, it probably would help the Boilers to win their first title if his performance in 2025-26 convinces at least one NBA team they’d be foolish not to select him in the first round.

There has not been an NCAA champ without a first-round pick in its rotation since 1987, when that other Big Ten team from Indiana defeated Syracuse in the final. That’s a 37-year track record. Smith appears to be the Boiler best positioned to become a first-rounder next June; Sam Vecenie of The Athletic even had Smith listed at No. 28 overall in his mock this past summer. 

When the NCAA Tournament opened last March, Florida’s Walter Clayton was not universally considered to be a first-round selection. Not long after he was named MOP at the Final Four in San Antonio, he was chosen No. 18 overall by the Wizards.

“Whether I get drafted or whether I don’t, I think our team is good enough to compete at any level,” Smith said. “We have the team, we have the right pieces. We’ve been together a long time, the core group. I don’t think it matters if we have a first-rounder or not.

“The group that’s here now is capable of going no matter what.”