History Maker? Braden Smith's Path to Breaking NCAA's All-Time Assist Record
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It felt like Braden Smith made history in every single game he played during the 2024-25 season. The junior guard enjoyed a tremendous year, joining Purdue's 1,000-point club, grabbing his 500th career rebound and becoming the program's all-time assist leader. And, assuming he returns for his senior year, Smith will have a shot to make college basketball history.
Smith finished his junior year dishing out 313 assists in 36 games, bringing his career total to 758 assists. He posted an average of 8.7 assists per contest, the second-best mark in the country this past season.
College basketball's all-time assist record at the Division I level was set by Duke's Bobby Hurley, who registered 1,076 assists between 1989-93. That means Smith would need 319 assists to set a new NCAA record.
What would Smith need to do in order to pass Hurley in the all-time record book?
For simplicity sake, let's start by assuming Purdue plays in 32 games next season — 31 regular season games and one Big Ten Tournament game. In order to pass Hurley's mark, Smith would need to average 9.94 assists per game to set a new record.
In the 2024-25 campaign, Purdue played in 36 games. If the Boilermakers hit that game total again next season, Smith would need to average 8.3 assists per game to pass Hurley's mark.
Finally, let's imagine Purdue plays 40 games in Smith's senior season. The guard would then need to average 7.95 assists per game to become the all-time career assist leader in college basketball history.
It's not going to be easy, but Smith's path to becoming the all-time assist leader is certainly an achievable goal.
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Dustin Schutte is the publisher of Purdue Boilermakers on SI and has spent more than a decade working in sports journalism. His career began in 2013, when he covered Big Ten football. He remained in that role for eight years before working at On SI to cover the Boilermakers. Dustin graduated from Manchester University in Indiana in 2010, where he played for the men's tennis team.
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