Purdue's Braden Smith breaks Bobby Hurley’s Division I career assist record in NCAA tourney opener
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Purdue guard Braden Smith broke former Duke star Bobby Hurley's Division I assist record, picking up his second of the game and the 1,077th of his career with a feed to Trey Kaufman-Renn with 12:11 to go in the first half of the Boilermakers' NCAA Tournament game against Queens on Friday night. The All-American already was the only player in NCAA history with at least 1,500 points, 1,000 assists and 500 career rebounds, and he is one of two players along with Southern's Avery Johnson to have had at least 300 assists in two different seasons.
“It is surreal,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said during a break in the action. “Happy for him. Really happy for him.
He has worked really hard. He’s an unbelievable passer, man. He makes the game look easy at times.
" Last weekend, Smith set the Big Ten Tournament assists record while helping Purdue beat Michigan for the championship. Smith picked up his first assist for the second-seeded Boilermakers on Friday night on a feed to Oscar Cluff a couple of minutes into their game against the No. 15 seed.
But it seemed as if the second might never come when Fletcher Loyer missed a wide-open 3-pointer that would have done it, and Kaufman-Renn missed an even more wide-open jumper from the foul line. Kaufman-Renn finally converted off Smith's feed a few minutes later — and all the senior guard did was ever-so-briefly stick a finger in the air as the crowd tilted heavily toward Purdue fans gave him a standing ovation. Smith was good enough coming out of Westfield High School, located about an hour southeast of West Lafayette and on the northern outskirts of Indianapolis — the site of this year's Final Four — that he was voted Indiana Mr.