INDIANAPOLIS -- Purdue star guard Braden Smith's parents both played college basketball at Arkansas Tech, meeting for the first time in the training room. Ginny and Dustin Smith spent countless hours in the gym shooting baskets there, with Ginny describing the sport as their "love language."
Ginny Smith began coaching after college in Arkansas and coached high school basketball in Indiana for more than 15 years. Dustin Smith has run the local AAU program Grand Park Premier for the past seven years. Ginny jokes that their home in nearby Westfield, Indiana, "smells like gym," an aroma tied to the place the family spends the most time.
Braden Smith began attending his mom's games in a carrier, ambled around her practices soon after learning to walk and later tagged along to his dad's men's leagues in Indiana to fire up shots at halftime. By the time he reached junior high, he performed spot duty as a practice player with his mother's high school teams. Breakfast came with a side of YouTube highlights of point guards such as Steve Nash and Jason Williams.
As a baby, it wouldn't be unusual for Braden to nap in the gym, with Ginny noting that was long before parents put headphones on kids to block out the noise. "He was used to the sounds," she said, "so I don't know if he knew it was loud."
Before Braden Smith became Purdue's all-time assists leader this year as a junior and his "Peaky Blinders" beard became the face of the post-Zach Edey Boilermakers, he grew up in the quintessential basketball childhood.
With the No. 4 Boilermakers playing No. 1 Houston in the Midwest Regional at Lucas Oil Stadium on Friday night, the undersized, under-recruited and underrated Smith gets another local showcase to prove just how much he has overachieved.
"I love him; I love him," Houston coach Kelvin Sampson marveled to ESPN. "He's a Chris Paul, the other coach's nightmare. He's got a winning nastiness about him."
Shaped by the varied gyms he grew up in, Smith has emerged as one of college basketball's best players. He earned Big Ten Player of the Year honors this season, averaging 16.0 points, 8.5 assists and 4.5 rebounds. And Purdue coach Matt Painter's decision to give Smith his first high-major offer turned out to be one of the best recruiting decisions of his illustrious career.
After all those hours in the gym, it still took a serendipitous assist -- from the school's all-time leader -- to get Smith noticed by the Purdue staff.
Smith is listed at 6-foot, which would be considered a generous round-up by the media guide's author. He's 175 pounds these days, but he started high school somewhere around 130 pounds, a fiery ball of athleticism and skill in a tiny body.
Smith's recruiting problem came, in part, because of his size. He got an offer from the NAIA's Indiana Wesleyan after his freshman year, and added a few low-major and mid-major schools -- Montana, Toledo, Appalachian State -- as his high school career went on.
Belmont recruited Smith the hardest. Coach Casey Alexander plays an open and free-flowing style, predicated on 3-point shooting. For three or four months, Alexander was convinced that he'd get a commitment from Smith.
Alexander recalled with a chuckle by phone on Thursday: "My conversations with mom and dad went like, 'We don't know what he's waiting on. We like you guys. He just won't pull the trigger for some reason.'"
The same way a wisp of a 130-pound player found a way to start as a freshman in high school, Smith believed he could play at the highest level of college basketball.
As high school went on, a team of advocates for Smith began to form. It began with Bruce Parkinson, 70, who played at Purdue in the 1970s and left as the all-time assist leader.
Parkinson moved to Westfield around 2017, and he had deep ties to the Smith family because Dustin played in the same high school backcourt as his son, Austin Parkinson. (Austin is now the Butler women's basketball coach.)
Bruce Parkinson asked Dustin Smith's permission to contact Painter to advocate for him to recruit Braden. Parkinson said he'd never called Painter about a player before, but he felt compelled to do so in this case. Parkinson, who left Purdue with 690 assists, gave Painter a compelling pitch: "He saw the game like I saw the game. Meaning, he could score and was always the best passer always on the floor."
The COVID-19 pandemic basically eliminated the recruiting circuit the summer after Smith's sophomore year. And during the shutdown, Smith put on nearly 30 pounds of good weight by working out with his high school strength coach and drinking endless protein shakes to consume 7,200 calories a day.
As he grew and developed at a time when much of recruiting was done on Zoom and via film, a few twists of fate occurred. Purdue assistant Micah Shrewsberry got the Penn State job in March 2021.
That led to the decommitment from Purdue of guard Jameel Brown, a Pennsylvania native who soon joined Shrewsberry in State College.
There were plenty of eyes on Smith, as Indiana Pacers general manager Chad Buchanan's son, Trey, played with Smith at Westfield and Pacers vice president of player personnel Ryan Carr's son, Austin, worked as a team manager there.
Painter kept doing his homework, making calls to local contacts and evaluating other players to fill the scholarship that Brown vacated. The film indicated Smith was clearly the best point guard available, as Painter saw a "Scott Skiles" skill set.
"But film can trick you sometimes, you still want to see somebody in person, but it just looked too obvious, and then the people that contacted me all know basketball, understand basketball," Painter said. "So we're very fortunate. We're very fortunate to have him."
The Purdue staff didn't take long to realize what it had. Painter called Westfield High School coach Shane Sumpter a few weeks into practice during Smith's freshman year. Sumpter had said that Smith was the best high school passer he'd ever seen, and Painter lauded his passing ability.
Purdue assistant Terry Johnson jokes about Smith's passing affinity: "You have to yell at him to shoot it."
Smith has started every game at Purdue in his three seasons, vacillating between the historic low of losing to No. 16 Fairleigh Dickenson two years ago and leading the Boilermakers to the title game last year.
This year, fortune came full circle for the Purdue program on the night of Feb. 28, as a pass to Myles Colvin for a jump shot made Smith the school's all-time assist leader.
That put him above Parkinson on the list, breaking a nearly 50-year-old record. It marked a storybook moment from Parkinson's biggest assist to his alma mater, his faith in Smith.
"I just can't tell you how gratifying it has been," Parkinson said, "to play a little hand in pulling Matt and him together."
Smith has reciprocated the joy and expressed appreciation for Parkinson's support. Parkinson usually attends Purdue's games and chats with Dustin at halftime. But he was in Florida and sent a congratulatory text to Braden.
"I'm kind of glad it was me because we're good family friends, so I mean, I think he's good with that too," Smith said. "That's what he told me. So just having him always being there has been great, and he's super encouraging."
Alexander said he doesn't spend too much time regretting not landing Smith as a recruit. He joked that in the portal era, Smith likely would have played so well that would have jumped elsewhere.
"It's the perfect place for him," Alexander said about Smith landing at Purdue. "Matt has a tough-minded program built with winners who are about the right stuff. I'm really, really happy for Braden."
The reality of life at a mid-major is that years of work can be shattered in a few days when a high-major program offers.
But Alexander is undeterred. He jokes with Dustin Smith when he sees him on the recruiting trail to remember something about his younger son, Maddox, who is now in seventh grade.
"I offered him when he was 10," Alexander joked.
That's an affirmation in the faith in the Smith family as a basketball incubator, a love language that keeps being passed down.
