Purdue’s Braden Smith sets all-time assists record in NCAA Tournament opener

ST. LOUIS — Braden Smith’s dream scenario was to break the NCAA’s all-time assists record to Trey Kaufman-Renn on a short roll. Smith got his wish.

At the 12:11 mark of the first half on Friday night at the Enterprise Center, Kaufman-Renn set a ball screen for Smith, and Smith delivered the pocket pass to Kaufman-Renn for an and-one record-breaker.

Smith now has 1,076 assists, breaking Duke great Bobby Hurley’s 33-year old record.

CONGRATS TO BRADEN SMITH 👏#MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/mX8sx2kIPC

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 20, 2026

Kaufman-Renn also made the bucket on Smith’s first-ever assist.

As the record was announced to those in attendance, Smith was yelling at his teammates on the bench. The Boilermakers came out a little tight and the nerves of trying to help Smith break the record almost got to them. He almost broke it with a behind-the-back pass to Oscar Cluff, but Cluff fumbled it away. He almost broke it with another pick-and-roll to Kaufman-Renn, who missed his first two tries at being the one to help him break the record. Cluff also missed a layup and Fletcher Loyer missed a 3.

But, finally, Kaufman-Renn scored on the short roll. It wasn’t a floater, but Smith will take it.

There were still 32 minutes left in the game, which might be a challenge. Last month when talking to The Athletic about the record, Smith said that when he broke the Big Ten record this season against Wisconsin, “I lost complete focus the last 10 minutes of the game, because I was just like so excited.”

BRADEN SMITH TIES BOBBY HURLEY IN ALL-TIME ASSISTS 👀 pic.twitter.com/1fs6eOy59m

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 20, 2026