Purdue star point guard Braden Smith might be the top passer in college basketball.
But sometimes he falls into periods where he is too unselfish.
No. 17 Purdue will be looking for all of Smith’s talents to be on display when it battles Washington in Big Ten play on Wednesday night in Seattle.
The Boilermakers will attempt to post their sixth consecutive victory. They have won the past five games by an average of 22.2 points.
Smith ranks second on Purdue (13-4, 5-1 Big Ten) with a 15.0 scoring average and ranks third nationally with 9.2 assists per game. He has 602 career assists, joining Bruce Parkinson (1972-77) as the only Boilermakers with 600 or more assists.
Smith has topped 20 points on five occasions, including a career-high 34 against Toledo on Dec. 29. He also has made a team-best 45 3-pointers. On the other hand, he has attempted single-digit shots six times this season.
“With Braden, sometimes we’ve got to get him to shoot the basketball because that’s what this team needs,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “But that’s contagious on a good front. … He’s going to pass the basketball and they’ve got to be ready.”
Smith made 3 of 8 shots for eight points Sunday in a 104-68 steamrolling of visiting Nebraska. But he dished out 14 assists for the second straight game. His career best of 16 helpers came last season against Northwestern.
Smith didn’t need to score in the easy win over the Cornhuskers, as Purdue made 63.1 percent of its shots. The Boilermakers knocked down 19 of 33 (57.6 percent) from 3-point range, one shy of the school-record 20 made against Iowa on Jan. 20, 2018.
Freshman C.J. Cox had the best game of his career, with 23 points on 9-of-11 shooting, including a 5-of-7 showing from 3-point range.
“I thought C.J. was great,” Painter said. “He had a couple timely threes in the first half, and then he really got going in the second half and making shots.”
Fletcher Loyer made a season-best five treys (out of six attempts) while scoring 19 points, and Trey Kaufman-Renn shot 7 of 9 while recording 15 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Kaufman-Renn leads Purdue in scoring (17.5) and rebounding (6.2).
Washington (10-7, 1-5) has dropped three straight games, all against ranked foes.
The stretch started with an 81-77 home loss against then-No. 22 Illinois but got ugly during a two-game trip to the state of Michigan.
The Huskies were pounded 88-54 by then-No. 16 Michigan State on Thursday and 91-75 by then-No. 24 Michigan on Sunday.
The excursion was eye-opening to first-year Washington coach Danny Sprinkle.
“It showed us where we have to get to as a program, from a physicality standpoint to what kind of bodies do the guards have, the bigs have, style of play, how (the game) is called,” Sprinkle said.
Washington’s best player, forward Great Osobor, totaled just 15 points on 2-of-16 shooting over the first two games of the stretch before tying his season high of 23 points against Michigan. He also collected 11 rebounds while raising his team-high averages to 14.3 points and 8.6 rebounds.
“I thought his effort and energy was phenomenal. I thought he was aggressive the entire game,” Sprinkle said of Osobor. “He put pressure on (Michigan) to guard him for 40 minutes.”
Mekhi Mason and Zoom Diallo each added 13 points against the Wolverines.
Following the Purdue game, the Huskies visit No. 13 Oregon on Jan. 21 to make it five straight games against ranked teams.
The Boilermakers have won four of the five previous meetings with the Huskies. The most recent clash came when Purdue notched a 76-74 win over Washington in the second round of the 2009 NCAA Tournament.
–Field Level Media
