In last night’s blowout win against our in state rival, the Indiana Hoosiers, Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer broke yet another record for Purdue basketball.
They started their 137th game for Matt Painter, breaking the previous record of games started, held by E’twaun Moore, at obviously, 136.
From there, Vince Edwards started 126 and Brian Cardinal 125.
In those 137 starts, they have given Purdue fans 109 wins. Yes, they are 109-28 as starters at Purdue. Insane, right?
Four year starters, in this day
and age of college hoops is pretty uncommon. You have the one and done culture to battle, or players go pro after two seasons, then you have the wild west of the transfer portal and being able to leave whenever a player wants and on top of it all, you have the poaching with NIL.
And to be honest, fans are too harsh on these two. They have given us 109 wins in 4 seasons and that number will still climb. Part of that is Purdue fans want it all, which is hard to blame anyone for, but the reality is, they face criticism often because these two, paired with Zach Edey among others, rose the floor of Purdue Basketball.
The expectation has changed because of these guys.
Michael Jordan once said “The Ceiling is the Roof” and at the time I am not sure people understood what he meant by that, but he was mocked for it on social media for a while, until of course profiting off if it with his Jordan brand.
He simply was talking about potential and expectation. For Fletcher and Braden, they have turned Purdue basketball into just that. Potential and expectation.
They helped Purdue transform to a second weekend mainstay and obviously much more than that as well.
For Purdue fans, we may never see a duo like these two again. They were approached to leave Purdue. Offered more money to go other places. But instead, they stayed true, they stayed Boilermakers.
And now, they can say they have the most starts of any Purdue Player… ever, and in this era, I believe that is something that should be celebrated.
Congratulations to these two, but the story isn’t finished.
