Braden Smith had a banner season for Purdue basketball, proving his statistics as the Boilermaker point guard in his first two seasons weren't solely a product of having Zach Edey as a teammate.
In his first college season without Edey, Smith had his best season individually.
Smith averaged career highs of 15.8 points, 8.7 assists, and 2.2 steals while also pulling down 4.5 rebounds per game.
He was named a consensus first-team All-American, Big Ten Player of the Year and is a finalist for the Wooden Award as the nation's top point guard and a finalist for the Naismith Trophy awarded to the National Player of the Year.
Smith's season of highlight reel-worthy plays also had no shortage of eye-popping stats. Here are seven numbers from Braden Smith's 2024-25 season that sound made up (but totally aren't).
Purdue basketball's Braden Smith by the numbers
3: A player has recorded a season with at least 450 points, 250 assists, 125 rebounds and 60 steals in a season three times in Big Ten history. Magic Johnson did it for Michigan State in 1978-79. Smith is the only player in college basketball history with at least 500 points, 300 assists, 150 rebounds and 75 steals in a single season. Georgia Tech’s Kenny Anderson in 1989-90 achieved three of the four, but finished with 285 assists and Murray State’s Ja Morant in 2018-19 also achieved three of the four by finished with 58 steals.
5: Twenty-two times in the history of college basketball a player has had at least 300 assists in a season. Only five scored at least 550 points in the same season. Sherman Douglas (Syracuse, 1988-89), Keith Jennings (East Tennessee State, 1990-91), Kay Felder (Oakland, 2015-16), and Ja Morant (Murray State, 2018-19) all went on to play in the NBA. The other is Braden Smith this season.
14: Braden Smith played an entire 40 minutes 14 times this season. He played 39-plus ...
