On Saturday evening, the Purdue basketball program's 2025-26 season came to an end with a tough loss against the Arizona Wildcats in the Elite Eight of March Madness. It was a solid start for the Boilermakers in this one, who took a lead into halftime, but ultimately ended up falling apart down the stretch of the game, losing by a final score of 79-64.
This game marked the end of the line at Purdue for guard Braden Smith, who established himself as a legend of the program over the last four years, leading the team on multiple deep tournament runs.
Last week, during an earlier round of the ongoing NCAA Tournament, Smith became the NCAA's all-time division one assists leader, breaking a record held by Bobby Hurley.
With the game against Arizona, Smith also broke another NCAA record, taking over for the most minutes played in a four-year career in history, with 5,067, per NCAA March Madness on X, formerly Twitter.
Smith had a rough shooting night from the field on Saturday against Arizona, finishing the game at just 4-15 for 13 points, but he did add to his assist record by adding seven more dimes in the loss.
Smith helped guide the Boilermakers on multiple deep forays into March Madness, including all the way to the NCAA championship game back in 2023-24, where they ultimately lost to the UConn Huskies.
While it was a disappointing ending for Purdue against Arizona, especially considering the fact that they had a seven-point lead going into the locker room at halftime, that still doesn't take away from the legend that Smith established for himself during his time with the program.
