SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Braden Smith, Trey Kaufman-Renn and Fletcher Loyer began their time at Purdue with a lopsided win at Mackey Arena against Milwaukee.
With a win against top-seeded Arizona in the NCAA Tournament's West Region final on Saturday night, the trio of stars can end their decorated careers a short drive from campus on college basketball's biggest stage: the Final Four in Indianapolis.
The four-year journey for Smith, Kaufman-Renn and Loyer has been a bit of a roller coaster, with some heartbreaking lows like losing as a No. 1 seed in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to Fairleigh Dickinson as freshmen and exhilarating highs like reaching the title game the following season. This year, the second-seeded Boilermakers beat Texas in the Sweet 16 on Thursday night on a last-second tip-in by Kaufman-Renn.
“I think having that experience what it takes to be there before, I think it helps,” Smith said Friday. “Having a core group of guys that have done it.”
It has also been extremely unusual in the modern era of college basketball, when players can freely transfer and are often searching for better opportunities. The game on Saturday will be the 147th the three have played together, with Kaufman-Renn missing two others to start this season when he was injured.
That's more than 50 games more than the next-highest active trio have played together — Connecticut's Alex Karaban, Solo Ball and Jaylin Stewart — and the most for any three teammates since Richmond's Jacob Gilyard, Nathan Cayo and Grant Golden played 150 games together from 2017-18 to 2021-22, according to Sportradar.
“We’ve played together for four years,” Smith said. “We know our strengths and our weaknesses, and we understand what gets each other going. Honestly, I respect these two guys so much. They got on me for my performance, and I want that, because they would want me to do the same for them. They hold me accountable.”
The three Boilermakers have combined for 5,385 points — with each topping 1,600 — 1,732 rebounds and 1,629 assists, including an NCAA record-breaking 1,096 by Smith. Only eight other players who were active in Division I this season have scored at least 1,600 points at one school over the past four seasons Purdue is the only one with multiple such players.
The three have played more than 12,000 minutes and helped Purdue win 117 games over the past four years. But their tournament careers started with an excruciating loss when the Boilermakers became the second No. 1 seed ever to lose to a No. 16 seed in the first round.
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That is mostly a distant memory now, thanks to a run to the finals the following year, a trip to the Sweet 16 last season and winning a Big Ten tournament title and reaching the Elite Eight as seniors after Kaufman-Renn's game-winner.
“When you have so much experience, I think you stay composed and then you execute,” Kaufman-Renn said. “When you have either younger teams or teams where there are so many different guys from different schools, you just don’t have that connectivity, synergy, whatever you want to call it.”
That connectivity has allowed Purdue to bounce back from a 6-7 finish to the regular season with seven straight wins in the postseason, including a Big Ten title.
“It makes your job easier when you are talking to someone who has been there for four years or five years,” coach Matt Painter said. “It makes it a lot easier, because what you want to have more than anything is that you want a players-led team. That’s always the best team. That’s what we have. These guys are very selfless, but they have a big voice in what we do and how we go about things, and they have a lot of pride in that.”
The situation is different for Arizona, which has no one on the roster who has spent four seasons with the Wildcats, relying instead on transfers and a talented freshman class led by Brayden Burries, Koa Peat and Ivan Kharchenkov.
Those three combined for 59 points in a 109-88 victory over Arkansas in the Sweet 16. The Wildcats have gotten a higher share of scoring from freshmen than any team other than Duke that made the tournament.
“We have a talented group of freshmen,” senior Jaden Bradley said. “They’re very poised. They control the tempo. ... We’re talented. Purdue’s a great team, very poised, like you said, an older team. It’s going to be a battle.”
AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
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