WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Earning first-team All-America honors from the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) and National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), Braden Smith has officially become Purdue’s 30th consensus first-team All-America selection, the second most in NCAA history.
Smith is joined on the consensus All-America first team by Arkansas’ Darius Acuff Jr., Duke’s Cameron Boozer, BYU’s A.J. Dybantsa and Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg.
Purdue now becomes the first team since Duke in 1999 to 2002 to have a player earn consensus first-team All-America honors in four straight seasons. In addition, Purdue is now the first program since UCLA (1971 to 1979) to have a player earn at least one first-team All-America honor in five straight years (Jaden Ivey, 2022; Zach Edey, 2023 and 2024; Braden Smith, 2025 and 2026).
Smith becomes the fourth player in school history to be named a consensus first-team All-American twice, joining legends Terry Dischinger (1961, 1962), Rick Mount (1969, 1970) and Zach Edey (2023, 2024) as two-time first-team All-Americans.
The three-time first-team All-Big Ten honoree just capped off one of the greatest careers for a point guard in NCAA history. In addition to being a two-time first-team All-American, Smith was a three-time first-team All-Big Ten honoree, the 2025 Cousy Award winner and 2026 Big Ten Tournament MVP and West Regional All-Tournament team member.
Smith ended the season averaging 14.3 points, 8.8 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 1.7 steals, shooting 44.0 percent from the field and 82.5 percent from the free throw line. He finished the season with 345 assists, leading the country and ranking fifth all-time on the NCAA single-season assists list, recording the second-most assists in a season in the last 35 years (351 by Kendall Marshall, North Carolina; 2012). Smith became just the second player in NCAA history to have at least 550 points (557), 325 assists (345) and 125 rebounds (138) in a single, joining Murray State standout Ja Morant (2018-19 season) on the list.
Smith became the NCAA’s all-time leader in career assists in the NCAA Tournament first-round victory over Queens, ending his career with 1,103 assists, 27 more than Duke’s Bobby Hurley (1991-94). Smith is the only player in NCAA history to have at least 1,500 points, 1,000 assists and 500 rebounds and he blew away those marks with 1,932 career points, 1,103 career assists and 673 career rebounds. Smith is one of two players in NCAA history to have at least 300 assists in two different seasons (Southern’s Avery Johnson; 1987 and 1988) and is the only player in NCAA history to have three seasons of at least 450 points, 250 assists and 125 rebounds.
In addition to being the NCAA’s all-time leader in career assists, Smith is also the NCAA leader in career minutes played by a four-year player with 5,067 minutes.
On the Purdue career record board, Smith is the all-time leader in minutes played (5,067), games played (149), games started (149) and assists (1,103), while ranking eighth in points (1,932), third in steals (249), 16th in rebounds (673), sixth in 3-pointers made (241), ninth in free throw percentage (.832), 13th in double-doubles (27) and third in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.79).