Tag / NCAA Tournament

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Braden Watch

Tying his career high with 16 assists in yesterday’s victory over Northwestern in the third round of the Big Ten Tournament, Braden Smith has surpassed both Ed Cota and Chris Corchiani and now sits in second place on the NCAA’s career assists chart.  Smith is now just 31 assists away from tying Duke’s Bobby Hurley’s record of 1,076.  At his current pace of 8.9 assists per game, Smith would need Purdue to play four more games between the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA Tournament in order to best Hurley.  Suddenly, with two of those games guaranteed, this once again feels possible.

1,076 – Bobby Hurley
1,045 – Braden Smith

 

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Braden Watch

Braden Smith finished Big Ten Conference play with nine assists in Saturday’s loss to Wisconsin, keeping him in fourth place on the NCAA’s career assists chart.  Smith is now just one assists away from tying North Carolina’s Ed Cota for third place and 47 away from Bobby Hurley’s record of 1076 as we head into the Big Ten Tournament.  At his current pace of 8.7 assists per game, Smith would need Purdue to play at six games between the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA Tournament in order to best Hurley.  With the way they have been playing, that does not seem likely.

1,076 – Bobby Hurley
1,038 – Chris Corchiani
1,030 – Ed Cota
1,029 – Braden Smith

Smith ends his career with 585 assists in Big Ten Conference games, extending his record by 107 assists over Cassius Winston.  Purdue makes their first appearance in the Big Ten Conference Tournament on Thursday.

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Braden Watch

With nine assists in yesterday’s victory over Northwestern, Braden Smith remains in fourth place on the NCAA’s career assists chart.  With just one regular season game remaining, Smith is now ten assists away from tying North Carolina’s Ed Cota for third place and 54 away from Bobby Hurley’s record of 1076.  At his current pace of 8.7 assists per game, Smith would need over six more games to reach Hurley, meaning Purdue would need to play at least five games between the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA Tournament.

1,076 – Bobby Hurley
1,038 – Chris Corchiani
1,030 – Ed Cota
1,020 – Braden Smith

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Braden Watch

With seven assists in yesterday’s loss to Ohio State, Braden Smith has surpassed Jason Brickman and sits in fourth place on the NCAA’s career assists chart.  With two regular season games remaining, Smith is now 19 assists away from tying North Carolina’s Ed Cota for third place and 65 away from Bobby Hurley’s record of 1076.  At his current pace of 8.7 assists per game, Smith would need a nearly seven and a half more games to reach Hurley, meaning Purdue would need to play at least five games between the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA Tournament.

1,076 – Bobby Hurley
1,038 – Chris Corchiani
1,030 – Ed Cota
1,011 – Braden Smith

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Braden Watch

As we head into the final week of the regular season, Braden Smith sits in fifth place for the all-time NCAA assist leaderboard.  During Thursday’s loss to Michigan State, Smith notched ten assists, giving him 1004 for his career and becoming just the fifth player to surpass 1000.  With three non-tournament games remaining, Smith is five assists away from tying LIU’s Jason Brickman for fourth place and 72 away from Bobby Hurley’s record of 1076.  At his current pace of 8.8 assists per game, Smith would need a little over eight more games to reach Hurley, meaning Purdue would need at least five games between the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA Tournament.

1,076 – Bobby Hurley
1,038 – Chris Corchiani
1,030 – Ed Cota
1,009 – Jason Brickman
1,004 – Braden Smith

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2024-2025 Final Standings

Purdue’s men’s basketball season came to an end last weekend, falling to Houston in the Sweet Sixteen.  It was a strong showing, coming off their appearance in the title game last year and the loss of Zach Edey.  Tickets were hard to come by this season, and the only game I was able to attend was in Iowa City, adding Carver-Hawkeye Arena to my collection.

2025 Team Records – Men

Team Won Loss Winning Pctg
Purdue Boilermakers 1 0 1.000
Iowa Hawkeyes 0 1 0.000
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Oh So Sweet

The Sweet Sixteen kicks off today following an opening weekend light on upsets and heavy on top seeds.  Three of my Final Four picks are still intact, which is better than usual.

Things look good here in the South region, as I have a clean bracket heading into this weekend.

A few picked upsets that didn’t happen mar the bottom half of this region, but the top half, including my reginal champion, is clean.

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Dancing Time

The nation’s attention turns to the college hoops scene for the next few weeks as the NCAA tournament kicks off later today.  I found myself joining a free pool at work this year, so while most of these selections have no ultimate bearing on my life, there is some personal pride on the line.  Things are not looking good for me to attend any game should a certain school from West Lafayette manage to make another run this year.  So, without further ado, let’s take a look at this year’s selections.

My selections here are mostly chalk, with a couple early upsets but with the top two seeds heading to the Sweet Sixteen.  Michigan State is my pick to advance to the Final Four, though that may be some inherent bias towards the Big Ten.

Old friend Mason Gillis shows up with top seed Duke, who I have heading to San Antonio for the Final Four.

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College Basketball Tipoff

Fresh off of an appearance in the championship game of last year’s NCAA tournament, the Purdue men’s basketball team kicks off the 2024-2025 regular season tomorrow night.  With Danny out of school and an expanded Big Ten limiting how often each team visits the other schools in the conference, it may be a while before I attend another regular season game.  So, with the 128th season in school history about to get underway, let’s take a look at the results of the now 24 men’s college basketball games I have attended in my lifetime. You’d think it would be more, since I was a big fan and we had a great team while I was in school, but for some reason I only made it to two games while enrolled in college. The other 22 have been post-graduation, having added four games last year, two at Mackey and two in Detroit for the NCAA tournament.  Anyway, without further ado, here are the standings for those 24 games.

All-Time Team Records – Men

Team Won Loss Winning Pctg
North Texas Mean Green 1 0 1.000
Indiana Hoosiers 1 0 1.000
Virginia Commonwealth Rams 1 0 1.000
Butler Bulldogs 1 0 1.000
Purdue Boilermakers 16 7 0.696
Northwestern Wildcats 2 3 0.400
Illinois Fighting Illini 2 4 0.333
Gonzaga Bulldogs 0 1 0.000
Houston Cougars 0 1 0.000
Iowa State Cyclones 0 1 0.000
Jacksonville Dolphins 0 1 0.000
Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders 0 1 0.000
Ohio State Buckeyes 0 1 0.000
Penn State Nittany Lions 0 1 0.000
Tennessee Volunteers 0 1 0.000
Vermont Catamounts 0 1 0.000
Long Beach State 49ers 0 1 0.000