{"id":168825,"date":"2026-03-20T01:13:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T01:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/168825\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T01:13:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T01:13:38","slug":"purdue-basketball-notebook-trey-kaufman-renn-queens-and-more-from-thursday-in-st-louis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/168825\/","title":{"rendered":"Purdue Basketball Notebook: Trey Kaufman-Renn, Queens and more from Thursday in St. Louis"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. LOUIS \u2014\u00a0It\u2019s a given at this point that Braden Smith<\/a> will claim the NCAA\u2019s all-time career assists record, needing just two more.<\/p>\n

But as Purdue prepares to meet Queens University Friday at the Midwest Regional, it was worth pondering how the record might fall.<\/p>\n

It would be fitting if it was Fletcher Loyer, who\u2019s started every game of his Purdue career alongside Smith. It\u2019s not exaggeration to suggest that a backcourt starting together every game over a four-year career may never happen again in college basketball, at least not at a high level.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019d be pretty cool to be the guy to do it, just for a bit,\u201d Loyer said of his classmate\u2019s inevitable making of history. \u201cBut after that, it\u2019ll just be behind us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trey Kaufman-Renn<\/a> would be the odds-on favorite to be the record-breaker. He\u2019s finished off more of Smith\u2019s assists than anyone and is clicking with his point guard better than ever this season.<\/p>\n

In Purdue\u2019s four wins at the Big Ten Tournament, Kaufman averaged 15.3 points, up two from his season total, and shot 69 percent, accounting for a slew of Smith\u2019s 46 assists at the United Center, the push that cinched the record.<\/p>\n

In Chicago, Smith\u2019s and Kaufman\u2019s connection in pick-and-roll was sharp as ever, toward the end of a season in which it came and went as Kaufman-Renn played a different position and opponents switched more, especially without a center involved.<\/p>\n

Offense has never been Purdue\u2019s problem this season, but in Chicago, it peaked, with Smith and Kaufman-Renn\u2019s long-time connection looming especially large.<\/p>\n

If there were odds on who gets the record-breaker, the smart money would be on Kaufman-Renn.<\/p>\n

\u201cI might finish the play, but he creates it,\u201d Kaufman-Renn said. \u201cOver our careers, we\u2019ve done a great job complementing each other.<\/p>\n

As for that assist, the record will have been the product of winning. Those four games in Chicago made this a formality.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love for him to get it early so it\u2019s off his mind and he can just play freely,\u201d assistant coach P.J. Thompson said. \u201cNo matter how mature you are, something like that is going to be on your mind \u2014 and it should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

PlayerAssists FinishedPointsTrey Kaufman-Renn224469Fletcher Loyer205554Zach Edey156322CJ Cox59155Mason Gillis56160Lance Jones55149Oscar Cluff51103<\/p>\n

BACK TO 3<\/p>\n

After wearing one of the three \u201cblood\u201d jerseys Purdue travels with for the majority of the Michigan game in Chicago after tearing his No. 3 jersey in frustration, Smith says he\u2019ll be back in his normal number for the Queens game. No more 41, even though \u201c41\u201d was making shots.<\/p>\n

PURDUE\u2019S TURNAROUND<\/p>\n

When Purdue struggled this season in ways that belied its ability and experience, no one seemed able \u2014\u00a0or willing \u2014\u00a0to articulate why. Now that the the Boilermakers seem to have actualized into their Preseason No. 1 billing, there again seems to be no explaining the sudden turn.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe played a little better,\u201d Loyer said. \u201cWe know we have the talent in the room and the staff behind us to back us up. Just going out doing our job and executing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, how we played last week is something because we didn\u2019t finish the season strong,\u201d Coach Matt Painter said. \u201cOffensively we have put up really good numbers this year. We have been very efficient on the offensive end. We\u2019ve got a great assist-to-turnover ratio, a lot of different weapons. We didn\u2019t put ourselves even in a position to win the Big Ten during the year. From a defensive standpoint we had to be better.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith that being said, the talent in our league was probably the best it has been in a long, long time. We have really good teams in our league. It was good for our guys to build some confidence by being able to knock off some of those teams in the Big Ten Tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was defense, though.<\/p>\n

Attention to detail defensively. We still made mistakes, but we were more locked in and gave more resistance. We just played better defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe struggled defensively at times during the season, and in conference play, teams are too good to be one-sided. When we\u2019re better defensively, we\u2019re naturally better offensively,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cThat stretch in Chicago was also our best four-game stretch offensively in terms of efficiency.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a coincidence. When we defend, we\u2019re not forced to execute in the half court every possession. We can do that at a high level, but doing it constantly makes things tougher for any offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Purdue\u2019s energy and effort defensively in Chicago was different. <\/p>\n

Paul Lusk, Purdue\u2019s defensive coordinator, said the coaching staff \u201cturned up the heat some\u201d as it had done before, but credited players for the response.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s our guys,\u201d Lusk said. \u201cThe message hasn\u2019t changed. I\u2019ve said it before; we\u2019re not going to be the best defensive team in the country, but we have to be the best version of Purdue we can be. That starts with effort and taking pride on that end. I think it came down to experienced players deciding what we were doing wasn\u2019t acceptable. Our concentration was better, our effort was better \u2014 it was really about pride, both individually and collectively.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. LOUIS \u2014\u00a0It\u2019s a given at this point that Braden Smith will claim the NCAA\u2019s all-time career assists…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-168825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}