No. 2 seed Purdue was as good offensively as it has been all season in a 104-71 rout of 15th-seeded Queens College on Friday at the Enterprise Center in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Boilermakers (28-8) improved to 8-2 in the tournament over the last three seasons and will play in the round of 32 on Sunday for a chance to advance to the Sweet 16 for the seventh time in the last nine tournaments.

Here’s a look at what stood out from the victory.

Smith stands alone

A new player holds the title of the most prolific passer in the history of NCAA basketball. Purdue’s Braden Smith dished eight assists against the Royals, giving him 1,083 in his career and pushing him past Duke’s Bobby Hurley for the career record, which Hurley had held since 1993.

You know where that game ball goes. pic.twitter.com/L8aaLIRcOr

— Purdue Men’s Basketball (@BoilerBall) March 21, 2026

As he has all season as Smith has chased the record, Purdue coach Matt Painter emphasized the team nature of the title his All-American guard now holds.

“You look at Braden, you look at Bobby Hurley at Duke – now go talk about all the people who made baskets for them,” Painter said. “It’s a lot of really good players. You have to be an unbelievable floor general, an unbelievable passer, the quintessential point guard, but you gotta have people to pass it to. It’s his, but it’s also one of those team awards.”

No one has done it better. Congrats Braden on an incredible achievement. pic.twitter.com/p8rutE3SvD

— Purdue Men’s Basketball (@BoilerBall) March 21, 2026

The record-breaking assist came to Trey Kaufman-Renn little more than seven minutes into the game. Kaufman-Renn has scored the basket on more of Smith’s assists than any other player, a remarkable distinction considering Smith played with Zach Edey during both of Edey’s national player of the year campaigns.

Kaufman-Renn after the game reflected on how he has evolved as a player to better complement Smith’s game.

“It’s just been really cool over the years, us kind of growing together,” the fifth-year senior forward said. “Me modeling my game around how I’m going to have the best ball-handler in college basketball history on my team. So how am I going to develop my game around that?

“You know he’s going to play. He’s such a great player. So you have to be able to fit with those guys. So when you have such special players, just being able to model your game around them.”

For Smith, breaking the record is likely something of a relief, as it has hung over his head all season at times seemed to be a burden as Purdue struggled down the stretch of the regular season. Often somewhat hesitant to expand on his feelings about the record in response to questions – he has always preferred to emphasize that he would trade the record for a national championship in a heartbeat – Smith again downplayed the mark somewhat Friday and instead focused on a different aspect of his game.

“For me my big emphasis is last week I didn’t shoot it well all week,” Smith said of his performance in the Big Ten Tournament. “Like, I made a total of 10 shots in four basketball games. And I think I’m my hardest critic. So I was very frustrated about that.

“So just being able to come out and make shots, obviously whatever the game brings you, you gotta play. It’s my job to get the ball out of my hands and pass to Trey and make the right read, or if I need to score. Obviously tonight it was a mixture of both.”

In a mark of his all-around brilliance and decision-making ability, Smith had 26 points on 10-for-15 shooting in the game he broke the assists record. Perhaps now that the record has been broken, he will play just a fraction freer and elevate Purdue’s offense even beyond the stratospheric level it reached Friday.

De-fense, de-fense!

Purdue was not perfect on the defensive end against Queens. The Royals shot 46% from the field, committed just eight turnovers and had more than a few open looks from 3-point range.

But against one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the country, a group that wants to race up and down the court at every opportunity, the Boilermakers were able to match the underdog’s energy and keep the aspiring Cinderella from getting hot from beyond the arc, one of the few outcomes that could have made this game at all close.

Queens shot just 7 for 25 from 3-point distance, an outstanding result for a Purdue team that has given up the second-most 3s in the Big Ten this season. After struggling to stay out of rotations and keep opponents from lighting up the scoreboard from beyond the arc for most of the season, Purdue has taken more pride in its defensive performance in the postseason and has seen the results to match, holding opponents to 32.2% shooting from long range during its five-game winning streak.

“I thought our guys were ready to play,” Painter said. “Our starters were locked in.”

That defensive performance was made all the more effective by Purdue’s effort on the glass, which was suffocating. The Boilermakers held a 41-19 edge in rebounding and permitted the Royals to rebound just 22.8% of their missed shots, a mark that would rank in the bottom 25 nationally this season. Despite all of the long rebounds created by Queens’ parade of missed 3s, Purdue limited the Royals to one shot almost every time down the floor, with Oscar Cluff and Trey Kaufman-Renn combining for more rebounds (20) than the entire Queens team.

Purdue’s ability to get stops on defense and rebound misses created plentiful opportunities in secondary transition, which Smith took advantage of all night. The Boilers pushed the ball up the floor off of defensive rebounds and were able to create good shots nearly any time they wanted, even when Queens kept them from getting a true fastbreak basket.

When Purdue is at its best, its defense and rebounding are creating offensive opportunities, helping the Boilermakers get the most out of their plethora of scoring options. Such games were rare in the back half of the regular season, but have been the norm since tournament play began. If Purdue can keep guarding at this level, it is as dangerous as anyone in the field.

The big picture

Don’t look now, but the narrative about Purdue’s struggles against lower seeds in the NCAA Tournament might be getting reversed in real time. Since losing to Fairleigh Dickinson in one of the great upsets in tournament history in 2023, the Boilers are 5-0 against double-digit seeds in March Madness and have notched three blowout victories in a row in the round of 64.

Next up is the round of 32, in which Purdue will face either No. 7 seed Miami (Florida) or 10-seed Missouri. The Boilermakers have won six games in a row in the second round, last losing to No. 2 seed Kansas as a 10-seed in 2012.

It will be difficult to match the incredible offensive performance the Boilers put on in the first round, but they are playing with a sky-high level of confidence at the moment and certainly won’t play tight, which is usually what has gotten Purdue teams in trouble in tournaments past. 

“You want to keep your energy through your effort, your defense, your rebounding and not whether you shoot great,” Painter said. “So it’s just staying with our system and what we do, keeping the focus.”

Added Fletcher Loyer: “It just gets tougher from here on out.”

More broadly, Purdue’s three-man senior core of Smith, Kaufman-Renn and Loyer continued to shine, making the most of their final postseason as Boilermakers. The trio combined for 65 points on 64% shooting with 12 assists and three turnovers and each of the three is playing some of the best basketball of their career at exactly the right moment.

Now, the three are within one victory of tying Caleb Furst’s program record, sitting on 115 over the last four seasons. After winning two Big Ten titles, two Big Ten Tournament titles and going to a Final Four and a Sweet 16, this group’s impact on the program will be felt long after they have moved on. In a real way, however, they are writing their ultimate legacy game by game in this tournament and they played Friday as though they are well aware of those stakes.