Which Boilermakers Earned 2026 All-Big Ten Basketball Honors?
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The Big Ten has revealed all-conference honors for the 2025-26 season. For a third consecutive season, Purdue star Braden Smith received first-team All-Big Ten honors. He was the only Boilermaker to make any of the three all-conference teams this year.
Senior forward Trey Kaufman-Renn received All-Big Ten honorable mention accolades. Those were the only two players to receive recognition from the conference. Last season, both Smith and Kaufman-Renn were first-team selections.
Outside of the Big Ten, former Purdue center Will Berg was recognized by the AAC as the Sixth Man of the Year. He transferred to Wichita State following the 2024-25 campaign.
Michigan's Yaxel Lendeborg was named the Big Ten's Player of the Year, ending Purdue's three-year run with the title. The Boilermakers had claimed the award from 2023 through 2025, with Zach Edey winning twice (2023, 2024) and Smith taking home last year's honor.
Braden Smith earns first-team honors
Smith had another outstanding season in West Lafayette. The senior guard ended the year averaging 14.9 points, 8.7 assists and 3.6 rebounds per game. He became the Big Ten's all-time assist leader and is one of just five players in college basketball history to surpass 1,000 career assists.
Smith was selected as the Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year after winning the award last season. The senior guard had a stellar year on the hardwood, but Purdue's seventh-placed finish in the conference likely hindered his ability to win the award.
Kaufman-Renn receives honorable mention
With the addition of Oscar Cluff to the roster, Kaufman-Renn moved back to the four spot for Purdue this season. He saw a dip in his scoring production but improved dramatically as a rebounder this season. He concluded his senior year averaging 13.4 points, 8.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists per contest.
Kaufman-Renn was a first-team selection one year ago and a third-team All-American. Because of Purdue's lineup changes, the senior forward was not the team's primary scoring weapon, sharing that responsibility with Smith, Cluff and Fletcher Loyer.
Former Boiler earns Sixth Man of the Year
Although he no longer wears a Purdue uniform, it's worth mentioning that Berg was named the AAC's Sixth Man of the Year. The Wichita State center averaged 8.7 points, 8.2 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game off the bench for the Shockers.
Berg helped Wichita State to a 21-10 record, a 13-5 mark in AAC play and a third-place finish in the conference. As a result, the Shockers are in position to win their conference tournament and potentially earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament.
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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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