WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – A pair of Boilermakers were named to the preseason All-Big Ten team in voting done by the league coaches and media, the Big Ten office announced today.
Senior guard Braden Smith, last season’s Big Ten Player of the Year, was named the preseason selection for Big Ten Player of the Year and was the league’s only unanimous selection to the preseason All-Big Ten team.
Smith was joined on the preseason All-Big Ten team by senior forward Trey Kaufman-Renn, who was a first-team All-Big Ten honoree a year ago.
It marks the third straight season that a Purdue player has been named the preseason Big Ten Player of the Year (Zach Edey – 2024; Braden Smith – 2025, 2026). In addition, Purdue has won three straight Big Ten Players of the Year, the only program in league history to accomplish that.
Smith and Kaufman-Renn were joined on the team by Bennett Stirtz (Iowa), Yaxel Lendeborg (Michigan), Nick Martinelli (Northwestern), Nate Bittle and Jackson Shelstad (Oregon), Donovan Dent (UCLA) and John Blackwell (Wisconsin).
Smith, a senior guard from Westfield, Indiana, is the lone returning first-team All-American in the country after averaging 15.8 points, 8.7 assists and 4.5 rebounds a year ago. He won the Cousy Award as the nation’s top point guard last season and has 1,375 points, 758 assists and 535 rebounds in his three seasons at Purdue. He is the only player in Big Ten history, and one of 16 players in NCAA history, to have even 1,300 career points, 700 assists and 500 rebounds, and he has a full season to play.
Smith needs just 125 points and 242 assists to become the first player in NCAA history with 1,500 points, 1,000 assists and 500 rebounds.
Meanwhile, Kaufman-Renn, a senior forward from Sellersburg, Indiana, was voted to the team after averaging 20.1 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.2 assists a year while shooting just under 60 percent the field. Kaufman-Renn, a first-team All-Big Ten honoree a year ago, is the only returning high-major player nationally from last season to average at least 20 points, six rebounds and two assists per game.
Kaufman-Renn has scored in double-figures in eight straight games and finished last year with 723 points, the 10th-most points scored by a Purdue player in school history. He had 12, 20-point games in the last 15 contests last season.
Purdue opens its exhibition season on Oct. 24, when it travels to Rupp Arena to face Kentucky. The regular-season opener is Nov. 4, when Evansville visits Mackey Arena.
The Boilermakers are ranked in the top three of almost every early top-25 poll ranking released so far. The official AP Top 25 will come out Oct. 13.