Purdue freshman Braden Smith plays wingman to the biggest story in college basketball

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — At 6-foot flat, Braden Smith simply needed to come to terms with reality.

Amongst the giants of college basketball’s top programs, he just didn’t fit. As the calendar turned to 2022, 99.9% of college basketball was sure of it.

Dealing with a foot injury that jeopardized the latter half of his final prep season at Westfield High School north of Indianapolis, Smith watched from the bench. His three scholarship offers were from Toledo, Montana State, and Purdue.

Other schools that showed interest during the recruiting process surely empathized with the 18-year-old point guard. After all, Smith was a nice kid who undeniably overachieved with the physical tools he was given. He would likely sit out the rest of his senior season, head to Purdue, and redshirt for head coach Matt Painter as a freshman.

No one on the outside expected to hear Braden Smith’s name again for some time.

And then, it happened.

After a grueling, expedited rehab process, Smith returned to action for Westfield as the postseason tipped off.

His first act? Twenty-eight points, 10 assists, and six rebounds in the Rocks’ upset of No. 1 ranked Fishers High School.

Back-to-back 22-point performances followed as Smith and Westfield knocked off central Indiana powerhouse Carmel High School and handed the storied program its first defeat in IHSAA postseason play in four seasons.

For the first time in program history, Westfield hoisted a sectional title trophy; Smith, committed to Purdue, stirred up excitement amongst Painter and his coaching staff.

Westfield’s postseason run was stopped in the regional final by Kokomo High School and its sensational junior center, Flory Bidunga, but Smith had done enough to earn Indiana’s most prestigious high school basketball award: Indiana Mr. Basketball.

The honor marked the first time Purdue landed back-to-back Indiana Mr. Basketball winners — Smith and 2021 winner Caleb Furst — since landing three players in the mid-1960s. That group — Rick Mount, Billy Keller, and Denny Brady — turned out to be pretty decent.

“When Matt Painter called me for the very first time, I said, ‘Braden Smith is the best point guard in the state of Indiana right now, and he has been for two years,’” Westfield head basketball coach Shane Sumpter said. “Matt Painter called me back near the end of the season, and he said, ‘You are right.’ He makes some passes, and you just have to be around him every day to understand it. It is really special watching him play. I get goosebumps watching him run out there with the starters.”

The road ahead, once again, didn’t prove easy.

After his senior season with Westfield, Smith underwent foot surgery and missed all of Purdue’s summer practice sessions.

Once healthy, the departure of all three of Painter’s top options at point guard — Jaden Ivey (NBA), Eric Hunter Jr. (Butler University), and Isaiah Thompson (Florida Gulf Coast University) — left Smith as a potential option to orchestrate the offense as a true freshman.

Quickly, Smith proved to be what Painter cared about most: Reliable with the basketball.

“That’s what I like about those guys. They are not just those high school scorers,” Painter said earlier this season, referring to Smith and guard Fletcher Loyer.  “When their shots don’t go down, they give you a lot of things with their intangibles. He (Smith) is diving for loose balls. You have to get on the floor and he loves sticking his nose in there. He’s really good at it.”

Purdue center Zach Edey is the clear reason why, racking up eight double-doubles in 11 contests while leading the nation in rebounding.

If the season ended today, the National Player of the Year Award would go to the ferocious and nimble Edey, a 7-foot-4-inch tower who has only played organized basketball for six years.

But every star needs a supporting cast, and Painter has molded pieces old and new into a consistent unit that is equipped to shoot and defend with any team in the college game this season.

Smith dazzled with a 20-point night in a victory over Marquette in the first of Purdue’s six consecutive victories over Power Five conference teams, including 18+ point defeats of No. 6 Gonzaga and No. 8 Duke en route to the Phil Knight Legacy Classic Championship in Portland over Thanksgiving.

With Big Ten competition bearing down after the start of the new year, expectations have skyrocketed around West Lafayette, and the road ahead to March will be no less grueling than in the past.

However, Smith’s ability to keep a proper perspective should serve him well.

An example of this occurred last weekend at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Following the Boilers’ victory over Davidson, Smith broke away from the locker room postgame to meet his former Westfield coaches and teammates, who had moved their game just so they could catch him in action in person.

It’s just one example of who Braden Smith, the person, is.

Upon high school graduation, Smith left a pair of signed sneakers in an unmarked locker for an unassuming future Westfield high schooler to find.

Months later, Coach Sumpter sprung from his office during an eruption inside the locker room. Neither he nor anyone else knew Smith had hidden the sneakers. There, in the hands of a Westfield freshman, was the signed pair of Pumas, accompanied by a giant smile.

“The one thing people don’t understand about Braden Smith…they watch him play on the floor, and people say he plays a little bit arrogant,” Sumpter said. “He just plays with a chip on his shoulder. But, off the floor, Braden Smith is not like that at all. He is just a tremendous person.”

A freshman point guard, in the Big Ten, on the No. 1 ranked team in America? You need a little crazy to make it. And there are plenty more adjectives to describe Braden Smith than that.