← Eye On College Basketball
Eye On College Basketball
Purdue All-Americans Trey Kaufman-Renn & Braden Smith PREVIEW Boilermakers Season
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Gary Parrish
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Trey Kaufman-Wren
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Trey Kaufman-Wren
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Gary Parrish
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Trey Kaufman-Wren
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Gary Parrish (Podcast Host)
Hey there, Gary Parish. Welcome back to the CBS Sports Ion College Basketball podcast where we sometimes discuss camel fighting, Dodo birds and Leaky Black. If you're watching on YouTube, you know what to do to the like button shouts to Brandon Davies. And if you haven't yet subscribed to the CBS Sports college basketball YouTube channel, please also do that while you're here. Let's get into it. Different deal today. As you'll soon realize, Matt Norlander is not here with me. And that's because I'm in Chicago for Big Ten Media Day. And while here, I sat down with most of the coaches and some of the players for quick conversations about their programs and college basketball in general. And we figured, or at least we hoped, that you guys might like to listen to those conversations. So we're placing them in the odd I own College Basketball feed. It's me, GP at Big Ten Media Day. The conversations I had with coaches and players, they are on tap. I hope you enjoy them right after.
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Gary Parrish
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Gary Parrish
Gary Parrish here with Purdue All American candidate Trey Kaufman Wren Trey, I don't know that it's too often that a basketball program has two guys on the roster at the same time, either of whom could end up being the national player of the year. But everybody agrees that's the case at Purdue right now because of you and your teammate, Braden Smith, how excited are you getting ready for what many people think could theoretically be the best season in Purdue basketball history?
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Trey Kaufman-Wren
I mean, I'm incredibly excited. You know, I remember Sasha telling me when I redshirted my first year that you have to make your senior year the best year. And the. To figure out, you know, what we have going for us this year, all the great pieces, all the great personalities. I'm excited to do it this year.
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Gary Parrish
I was talking to Coach Painter earlier. He acknowledges freely, yes, I have a team that's good enough to win the national championship. I have a team that is perhaps, you know, on paper, capable of being the best team that I've ever coached. And as you know, he has coached a team that's played in a national championship game. How much does it help that you're not just sprinkling transfers here and there and trying to, you know, learn everybody over one off season, that there's constants in the program, like you, like Braden, like Fletcher, that have allowed some continuity from year to year to. To be in play here?
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Trey Kaufman-Wren
Yeah, it's continuity of culture.
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Gary Parrish
Yeah.
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Trey Kaufman-Wren
You know, I think, you know, Coach Paints has done a great job of being honest with every player he's recruited, and that's led to people staying. And, you know, what that allows us to do, obviously, is really learn the system, learn the ins and outs of it, and allow us to perform best when we get on the floor. And so I think that's a big competitive advantage we have versus every team we play.
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Gary Parrish
Over@cbssports.com over the past few weeks, we've done a series we call the Candid Coaches Series, where me and my colleague, Matt Norlander, ask more than 100 college coaches a variety of questions, and we grant them anonymity in exchange for honesty, and then we publish the results. One of the questions we asked this off season was, if you had a son and he was getting ready to go play Division 1 basketball, who would you want him to play for? And the leading vote getter was Matt Painter, your coach. What makes Matt Painter the type of coach that other college coaches say they would like their son to play for him?
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Trey Kaufman-Wren
I mean, I can't speak for everybody, but for me, it was just the combination of his honesty as, you know, him telling me what I needed to work on and, you know, what I needed to do to get us to the next level, but also just his basketball knowledge. I mean, he's the smartest basketball coach that I've been with. And so, as a student of the game myself, you Know, I just wanted to learn from the best and the most knowledgeable. And so, you know, being around that, you know, day to day, really helps.
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Gary Parrish
Coaches also told us that they believe he, Matt Painter, is the best X's and O's coach in the country. So you're getting elite instruction from your head coach and then you also happen to play with somebody who has been labeled the best point guard in the country. That is Braden Smith, who has a chance to become the NCAA's all time assist leader by the time his college career is done. What makes Braden a special point guard.
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Trey Kaufman-Wren
It just, I think it allows everybody to do their job to the best of their ability. Their ability. He just puts him and coach Paint do a great job of putting everybody in the right place to be effective. And, you know, whether it's making plays offensively, defensively, he just impacts the game more than any player I've played with. Zach, I've played with a lot of great players, but as far as the pace of the game, the impact that they make on their team, you know, he's number one as far as just total winning impact.
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Gary Parrish
You guys have added some newcomers to help complement the roster. Oscar Clough from South Dakota State and then Omer Meyer, an Israeli guard. What have you seen since they've been on campus in the gym with you?
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Trey Kaufman-Wren
The biggest thing is just again, that, you know, when you can return, a lot of guys, you do have that continuity. But when you bring in guys, you never know how they'll fit in. You know, with what we already had, we already had something special. I mean, we lost about, what, two points to a team that made the national championship game. And so we could compete with the best last year. And so when you get new players, on paper it looks good, but you know, when you go into practice, you want to see how they're actually going to play. And they've. Everybody that we, you know, we've gotten, whether it's, you know, the freshmen that have come in or some of the older guys have came in, they've. They've done a great job of, you know, knowing their roles and just trying to learn from what we're doing here.
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Gary Parrish
Obviously, Michigan State won a national championship in 2000. That is the last time a Big Ten school was able to hold the trophy at the end of the season. How much do you guys talk about that? I talked to coach Painter earlier. He said, I want to talk to my team about the national championship. I want to talk to him about the Final Four. I don't think I did it enough last season. I want this on their radar. Is this something that you guys talk about with each other?
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Trey Kaufman-Wren
Yeah, every day. Every day. Every day, before practice, after practice, you know, when we're more stacking it up, we're breaking down. You know, I try to ask myself, we try to ask ourselves, you know, what did we do today? And did we give ourselves, you know, did we give our best effort to try to win a national championship? And so when you approach every single day like that, you're hoping, you know, by the end of the year, it comes true.
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Gary Parrish
Congrats on everything. I appreciate your time. Yep.
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Trey Kaufman-Wren
Thank you.
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Gary Parrish
Gary Parrish here with Purdue All American Braden Smith, who is now the favorite in many corners of the world to be the Wooden Award winner, the Naismith Award winner, to be the national player of the year. Which means in a span of a few years, you've gone from a mostly unheralded, borderline top 200 recruit to this. How did this happen?
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Braden Smith
Yeah, I mean, I think I've been put in a great spot choosing Purdue, the people around me at Purdue, and just everybody that. That has wanted it for me, along with myself. I think I, like I said, just been really lucky to be around such a great group of dudes and a great coach and staff to help me get to the point. So where I'm at, when did you.
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Gary Parrish
Realize that this type of stuff was. Was possible? Because I've talked to Matt about you before. He said, you know, I didn't get caught up in the recruiting rankings. I knew what I was watching. I knew what was there. But typically, somebody ranked where you're ranked coming out of high school is not supposed to go on and do things like this. When did it start to become a reality for you?
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Braden Smith
Yeah, I mean, like, I was always a hard worker and always, like, just. Just wanted it to be like me in every way possible because I worked so hard and, like, I was willing to compete at the highest level. And that's just how I was, like, when people doubted me, when people said something. And, like, I used that as fuel to be able to go out and Compete and to put myself out there in any way I can just to win. So I think that's just been the biggest thing, is just willing to compete and use that as fuel to get to where I'm at.
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Gary Parrish
You have had an incredible career to date. One that has put you in a position to maybe go down in the record books to become the NCAA's Division 1 men's basketball all time assist leader. That is a record that's been held by former Duke star Bobby Hurley for a long time. How much does that matter to you? Is that something that you have definitely set your sights on?
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Braden Smith
Yeah, I mean, I think it really hasn't kicked in yet. I mean, obviously, like to me, I see it as I'm just doing my job like that. That's what I'm supposed to do. Like it's the expectation to be able to do something like that because as a point guard, like my job supposed to get everybody the ball on the floor in a place to be perfect and be successful in. So to me, I just see it as that, as it's just me doing my job and obviously I hope to get to that point, but if I don't, I mean, I still know I did my job to the best of my ability.
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Gary Parrish
Have you ever had a chance to meet Bobby Hurley or have a conversation. Conversation with them?
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Braden Smith
I have not now. I'm not.
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Gary Parrish
Well, you stay on track. I bet you somebody's going to connect you to at some point. I've talked to your head coach, I talked to your teammate, Trey Kaufman, Wren. Obviously expectations are really, really high for this season. Not just for you, but for your team. You're going to be in many people's preseason. Number one, you've been right there. You've played in a national championship game. How important is it to you to try to take this thing and get Purdue a national championship?
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Braden Smith
Yeah, I mean that's. I think that's the reason why I came back is because I wanted to be on that team, to do so and we got a great group to be able to accomplish something like that. And obviously we fell short and obviously we've had plenty of attempts to get to that point. Like last year was heartbreak and all that stuff. But I mean, I think at the end of the day, like that's the main reason I came back, because the coach and staff and the players that.
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Gary Parrish
We have here, I don't think anybody ever really seriously considered that you would enter the transfer portal because you've set your feet so solidly at Purdue. But I also understand that there were opportunities for you to, to. To leave if you wanted to. How seriously did you consider anything or was it always just a non starter? You're going to finish your career as a boilermaker?
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Braden Smith
Yeah, I'm going to finish my career as a boilermaker. It's always been it. And I know there's a lot of things that are thrown at me and, and stuff like that, but at the end of the day, I chose Purdue and they're the team that gave me the chance to become who I am now. So that's how I see it.
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Gary Parrish
What does it say about the program that that Coach Painter is running that, you know, even he will tell you, yeah, we've lost transfers, but we don't lose our starters too much. He really seems to create a culture where player retention is prioritized and people aren't necessarily looking to get out of there. What specifically does he do to, to create that place?
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Braden Smith
Yeah, I think just how he is as a person. Like he cares about you off the floor. Like he's always asking how you're doing, how's everything thing going, Talking about baseball, talking about other stuff, just, just a normal conversation, not just being your coach. And then on the floor, like he's willing to listen to you like as if you were an assistant coach trying to tell him what to do. Like if we see something on the floor that's not working or not going on, he draws up that play like, well, hey, like they're sitting whatever low here. It's not going to work. He'll switch it. Like he listens to us. So like, and he gives trust and he's honest. I mean, I think those are the biggest things that you want. And a lot of people, you know, say stuff and they don't always follow through. But Paint has said, and you hear it from everybody that go to Purdue, like he follows through with what he says.
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Gary Parrish
You know, I was telling Trey, your teammate earlier, we do this candid coaches series@cbssports.com and coaches told us that if they had a son and they were going to send their son off to play college basketball, they would want him to play for Matt Painter. You are somebody who's experienced in that right now. Does that surprise you that coaches think that highly of him or. No, that that makes sense to you?
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Braden Smith
Not at all. I mean, I think that truly shows that what we say is the players about him, what other people say about him is true. And I think that's, that's a big reason of why he Is the way he is and why the program the way or why the program is the way it is.
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Gary Parrish
So obviously player retention important, but you do still need to get into the transfer portal or into the high school ranks to fill out a roster each year. And you guys have brought in some interesting new pieces. One of them is a guard from Israel named Omer Meyer. I know you've been in the gym with him some. How comfortable are you guys playing together? Because the expectations are. We're going to see a lot of that.
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Braden Smith
Yeah, no, I mean, we're definitely figuring it out. It's a little different playing with another guard that's able to create and. And score similar to I how I am. But I mean, at the end of the day, we both came here for a certain reason. Like I've been here for because I want to win and the system. And that's why he's here as well. Well, because he understands that and he understands what's already here and how he can fit on this team. So I'm just excited and just ready to play some games.
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Gary Parrish
Last thing before I get you out of here, I asked your teammate TRA Kaufman Ren about you. I want to ask you about him. This is an interesting roster in the sense that you've got maybe the best returning guard in the country on it and maybe the best returning front court player in the country on it. What makes playing with him easy?
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Braden Smith
Yeah, no, I mean, I think he's just so. Just he's passionate about the game. I mean, he cares, he wants to win, he works hard. And I think there's a lot of things that you want for a teammate, you know, like being able to have somebody that you can trust at all times. Like, I feel like I can throw it to him anywhere and he'll go make a play. And I believe he thinks the same for me. And I think that's kind of why we play so well together, because one, we understand that and two, we both want to win at a very high level. So it makes our jobs really easy.
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Gary Parrish
Hey, congrats on everything, man. I appreciate your time. It's been fun watching you develop and achieve all this success.
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Braden Smith
Thank you. In this.
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Braden Smith
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