Freshman season Smith entered his freshman season at Purdue as a starter at guard. In his college debut in the season opener against
Milwaukee, he scored seven points with four rebounds, four assists and set a freshman record with seven steals in an 84–57 win. Smith was named the
Big Ten Conference Freshman of the Week after scoring 20 points with three assists and two rebounds in a 75–70 win over
Marquette. He started all 35 of the Boilermakers' games and was named to the
Big Ten Conference All-Freshman team after averaging 9.7 points, 4.4 assists, 4.2 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per game. Purdue won the
2022–23 Big Ten Conference men's basketball regular season championship (the school's 25th) as well as the
2023 Big Ten men's basketball tournament. No. 1-seeded Purdue lost to 23.5 point
underdog No. 16-seeded
Fairleigh Dickinson in its
2023 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament first-round game in Columbus, the
biggest upset in tournament history. The freshman backcourt of Smith and
Fletcher Loyer had 10 turnovers. The backcourt pair of Smith and Loyer each started a school freshman record 35 games and finished the season as Purdue's 2nd highest scoring freshman duo (Loyer 384/Smith 340, 724 total) behind
Robbie Hummel and
E'Twaun Moore (813, 2008).
Sophomore season Smith returned as the starting Point Guard in his sophomore season. On March 5, in a win against Illinois, Smith broke the Purdue single season assist record with his 208th assist. The previous record, set by Bruce Parkinson, had stood since 1975. Purdue clinched a second consecutive
Big Ten regular season Championship with a March 2 victory over
Michigan State as Smith contributed 23 points and 9 rebounds. On March 12, Smith was named First Team All-Big Ten. By the end of the season Braden Smith led the nation in total assists and was named an Honorable Mention All-American. In the Sweet Sixteen vs Gonzaga, Braden Smith had 14 points and 15 assists in Purdue's victory. Smith's 15 assists were the most by one player in a tournament game in Purdue history as well as in Big Ten history (tied with
Mike Smith). In the
National Championship game, Smith broke the Big Ten single season assist record with his 292nd assist narrowly passing the previous record holder, Cassius Winston, by one assist.
Junior season Smith was a consensus
2025 NCAA Men's Basketball All-American.
Senior season On his March 7
senior day against
Wisconsin, Smith and
Fletcher Loyer tied the school record for games played by
Dakota Mathias (141). After losing 4 of its 6 final regular season games, Purdue won 4 in 4 days to capture the
2026 Big Ten men's basketball tournament with a victory over
Michigan on March 15. Smith contributed 14 points, 11 assists and 3 steals in the victory. At the
2026 Big Ten men's basketball tournament, Smith established the
Big Ten men's basketball tournament single-game (16), single tournament (46) and career (96) assists record. On March 20, Smith broke the
NCAA Division I men's basketball all-time career assist record, previously held for 33 years by
Bobby Hurley (1076), against the
Queens Royals in the first round of the
2026 NCAA Tournament. Smith finished his Purdue career with 1,103 assists (NCAA record), 5,067 minutes minutes played (NCAA four-year career record, surpassing
Lionel Simmons of
La Salle 5,045; 1987–90), 1,932 points (8th in Purdue history), 249 steals (3rd in Purdue history) and 673 rebounds (17th in Purdue history). His 345 senior season assists the fifth in NCAA history. His senior class with Loyer and
Trey Kaufman-Renn finished with a school record four-season win total of 117 (Only surpassed in Big Ten history by 2013 Ohio State - 123; 2014 Ohio State - 119). ==Career statistics==