Sometimes players, great players in particular, seem like they've been around forever. That they are who they have always been.

That's both the case and not the case for Braden Smith as a freshman to now. Smith now isn't showing up early to a bunch of random media days anymore, but he's still Purdue's point guard, a revelation at the position, and very much carrying the mantle for what's possible in Matt Painter and PJ Thompson's offense.

He's still defiant and real, to the point, and not about someone else's narrative.

It's fun to look back at Smith from his freshmen year and see how much things have and haven't changed.

"It feels good... feels good to get it under your belt."

Braden Smith shows up early to the media scrum. Usually we're left sitting around waiting for players and coaches to fit us in between practice, classes, and to be honest, anything that seems more fun than talking to a bunch of middle-aged people with pens. (Okay, iphones, not sure I've seen actual notes being taken.)

But there Smith is, ready to go just a little after 1:00, with practice ahead of him at 2:00.

My first question is about being on this side of his first game. Now that it's over, it's got to feel good, right? A sigh of relief. He's made it.

Smith doesn't give the impression that he's made anything, certainly hasn't checked anything off the list of to do's. Which I ask him about at the end of the interview, 'What kind of goals have you set for yourself this season?' and his list is both simple and somewhat impossible seeming, the way every truly worthy goal is.

"Just do what I can to make the team better. Obviously we all want to win and want to win a Big Ten Championship and then go to the National Championship. That's our goal."

I'll be honest, I came into this interview with a narrative already forming. Watching Braden Smith, all I could think of was how much he's not like point guards of Coach Painter's past.

Eric Hunter Jr. was a scorer in high school, but when he put on a Purdue jersey he became a tough competitor, a great defender, but something of a game manager. His shot never clicked. He averaged 10 points a game his sophomore season, and then regressed in scoring the next two years with Purdue. He's off now to Butler, showing the state of Indiana and Purdue fans and maybe, most importantly, himself that the player that was a top-10 scorer in Indiana high school basketball history was still in him.

But that's another story for another day.

Isaiah Thompson has already made his mark in a new jersey, another Purdue point guard now somewhere else.

He scored 16 points in Florida Gulf Coast's upset of USC to start the season.

It's a stigma, being a Purdue point guard. At least it is on the internet, between twitter and message boards, being that field general for Coach Painter is like saying you're the nice guy on the basketball team. I try to address this with Smith, asking if he's heard this, if this was a concern of his when selecting Purdue and Coach Painter's program.

I think my question went a little like, 'There's a belief that Purdue point guards aren't asked to do much... is that something you've heard?'

Braden Smith didn't record a block in his first career game but he did set the record for steals for a Boilermaker in his first game. Came just 1 steal shy of the single game record for Purdue, in fact. What I'm saying is he can play defense. He knows how to shut someone down.

"Not really, actually. I've actually heard the opposite. I was really close with P. J. [Thompson] and then Isaiah [Thompson] from last year. Just hearing from their side and their perspective. Just the way they played, the way they got their coach's trust. How they were able to run the offense. Be that coach out there on the floor. I kind of look forward to that and was hoping that could kind of be me."

"When you get the coach's trust and you see something you can tell them, 'Go change that.' Like there's a certain play you run and you see a certain defense, the way they're playing, and you can read it and say let's run this and they'll trust you."

I thought my narrative talking to Braden Smith and writing this column was going to be how different Braden Smith was than previous point guards. When he's on the court, he looks different. He's just 6'0, but the Westfield native plays big. He's explosive. He leaps for rebounds, every rebound, and hurtles down the court in transition and semi-transition, or any time with the ball really, until he crosses half court and there's nothing there. Then it's time to go to work. Then it's time to start the offense. Then it's time to build the trust.

What makes Braden Smith special might actually be that he just wants to be another point guard in Coach Painter's system.

It also might be that he's so explosive and exciting that he allows us to look past what we think we know about Purdue's offense.

"It's guards making the right plays. They get to do what they want when they're trust worthy of the coach," he tells me about playing Coach Painter's system.

When I asked Smith what about Painter's system made him choose Purdue I was open to a lot of different answers and types of considerations. Purdue has had a lot of success. Home's not far away. They shoot a lot of threes. There's been guards that have have really thrived in West Lafayette. One, not a point guard but point guard adjacent, just got taken in the top 5 of the NBA Draft.

But Smith transcended all the silly x's and o's, and stated politely, with an earnestness that's impressive for someone that young or any age at all, all he really wanted was a chance.

"I just saw an opportunity. Coach Painter told me it doesn't matter how old you are, if you're good enough to play you'll play. You put in the work, you'll be fine. You'll be great. Just hearing those words from him gave me the confidence."

That's probably the definition we should apply to point guards and players at all programs. No hyperbole. Just put in the work.

Braden Smith will put more work in Friday night against Austin Peay.

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