NCAA Final Four: Ticked off Braden Smith enters the title game

For a whole summer Braden Smith had to stew.

7 points on 2 of 10 shooting, 3 rebounds, 6 assists, and, most glaring, 7 turnovers.

Those numbers are a story that stuck with Purdue during the summer, and Braden Smith's only collection of stats in an NCAA Tournament game going into his sophomore year. Entering the 2024 season, Braden Smith had only ever known defeat in the NCAA Tournament. It's a loss that came with a lot of baggage. Purdue was just the second ever #1 seed to lose to a #16 seed.

And the NCAA Tournament is about guard play. That loss was about guard play. The numbers, 63-58, glare at Smith, reflecting his inability to generate offense at the highest level against the lowest seed.

Purdue had a guard problem, everyone seemed to know it. Everyone was certainly saying it. He heard it, but he didn't need to.

Smith is his own harshest critic, a swarm of twitter like trolls in his head screaming at him, and sometimes they come out like they did against Grambling State in his second game against a #16 seed when the offense wasn't buzzing and he was wide open at the three-point line and his shot didn't go.

He went to his bench, mouth wide open, full throat yelling at himself.

For a full year, he had to live with that last NCAA Tournament performance and it was his first real moment to respond. He wanted perfect, he demands it of himself, he found iron.

But after the volume of his play on the court, losses like last year, it turns Braden quiet.

"I was just quiet," Smith told me this week. "Just thought in my head, what went wrong? What could I have done to do better? Why I wasn't what I should be?"

Then Smith dropped 11 points and 10 assists against Grambling State. Then, he damn near triple doubled against Gonzaga, scoring 14, dishing 16 assists, and grabbing 6 rebounds. He almost did it again in the Elite Eight, scoring 9, but controlling the game and getting 7 rebounds and 7 assists.

Fueled by last year's March, Smith found his best. He became tough as iron.

And now Purdue is heading to the National Title game with perhaps the best possible situation.

Purdue won a Final Four game in spite of its point guard play at times, with Smith turning the ball over 5 times in the first half, and making just one shot on the night.

Smith's his own toughest critic, and he has plenty to critique about his play on Saturday night. Smith will enter the National Title game pissed off with himself and he'll get to take it out on whoever wins between Alabama and UConn.

Purdue went into half with a six point lead, but its offense didn't look like itself. Smith had scored zero points and turned the ball over five times. Smith had a towel over his head, head down in the locker room at halftime.

"Zach's [Edey] the first one to come in here," Carson Barrett told me after the game about half time in Purdue's locker room and what Edey said to Smith. "'Man we aren't worried about you [Smith]. This is your team. We're good. We're up six in a Final Four game. We have all the confidence in you."

Loyer had a similar message he told Smith all game. We're good and we're going to the National title game, but part of Purdue's entire season is not shying away from bad news.

Braden Smith played bad, even if he played the final twenty minutes without a turnover. Even if he was rebounding and distributing. Even if he had three steals, two of them after Purdue turnovers that helped ensure that Purdue shooting itself in the foot wouldn't turn fatal.

That wasn't Smith's game, and Purdue still won.

"Only thing Braden Smith is gonna do tonight is wonder how he had 5 turnovers and how he went 1 of 9 tonight," Purdue assistant coach PJ Thompson said after the game. "When you're that good and talented, you're different and it eats at you."

It's not just Thompson that has those expectations of Smith. His backcourt running mate, Fletcher Loyer, expects the best of Smith to show up on Monday.

I asked him what a pissed off Smith looked like and Loyer responded, "What he did at Arizona. What he did at Alabama. Why he should be an All-American this season."

In two of Purdue's highest profile games of the season, Smith went for 26 and 27 points respectively.

The game before those two? Smith had just two points.

But what happens to Smith for these next 48 hours? What is Smith like off the court after not living up to his own lofty standards?

"He's quiet," Barrett tells me. "If it's a road game, I take him home from the airport. He's usually pretty quiet. He's in his head a little bit."

But Barrett will repeat what every Purdue player will say about Smith. He's the best point guard in the country. They believe in him. They know that he'll respond.

"I wasn't too worried about him, he's responded his whole career," Thompson said. "I look forward to Monday because I know a Braden on edge is a really good Braden. And I expect him to be on edge Monday."

Purdue will need that edge as it heads to just its second National Championship, the first in the last fifty some years.

And if the pissed off Smith shows up that toppled Alabama once already, and crushed Arizona, Purdue will be using sharp edges to cut down the nets in Phoenix.