Absolutely love his game - didn’t have his best game for sure with the 4 turnovers and shooting only 33 percent but still scored 14 with 6 rebounds and 6 assists - I predict more than one triple double by the time he graduates. Also love us pushing the pace more and looking for easy scoring opportunities. He still gets stuck in the air a bit too much but imo he’s the real key to this team going far in March!
Braden Smith
- Thread starter SaratogaBoiler1
- Start date
He was huge the first five mins for us to getting out in the lead. Thought he was going to go for 30 at that pace. But then cooled off and had some bad TOs. But still love his game and think he’s in the top, if not the top PG in the B1G.
We lean on him so hard I can't really get mad at him.
He had a solid first half but think he was getting tired and made some bonehead plays late in the game. The time he threw it as Furst turned away and the time he drove the baseline and tossed it to Fletcher then immediately fouled the guy.
Still young and learning
Still young and learning
Yep. And only halfway through his soph season, he's got a lot of time to improve.
+1 - He still makes some silly mistakes, but overall he's so dang solid it would be picking nits to beat on him about it. He MIGHT be the #1 guy we would miss the most as I think a Zach-less team with Braden might beat a Zach led but Braden-less Boiler team. We'll never know but he makes everyone elses scoring a lot easier.
Plus I think people that never played organized basketball seriously underestimate how difficult and energy sucking it is to be the primary ball handler for 30 plus minutes a game on the #1 team. Cardio monster.
Yeah that’s my biggest concern for this team. 38 minutes.
Hope he isn’t worn down by the end of the season.
Primary ball handler getting picked up full court (if not trapped) every trip up. And then picking up the opposing pg full court....... hard to imagine the condition he's in.
For sure. But he's a lot stronger this year. Look at facial pics of last year vs now. Kinda baby faced last year, he's a man now. Fletcher has another year of training to get there, Braden's there now. Some guys mature faster. JMO
I thought he looked fatigued in the 2nd half as well.
Definitely the proverbial "straw that stirs the drink" and was the catalyst for Purdue's racing start. His shot was a little off in the middle of the game, but had a solid game even with that and some of the tired turnovers, as Beef mentioned.
A lot of glass full/glass empty moments last night - plus, Purdue seems to struggle in that dreaded first conference home game after the New Year.....so Boilers take the win when ZE has a rare game with foul trouble and Smith/Loyer are off with the shooting. A game perhaps that slips away in previous years - playing not to lose is kryptonite.
Big road games coming up the next two Tuesday evenings (Lincoln and Bloomington)......we shall see.
A lot of glass full/glass empty moments last night - plus, Purdue seems to struggle in that dreaded first conference home game after the New Year.....so Boilers take the win when ZE has a rare game with foul trouble and Smith/Loyer are off with the shooting. A game perhaps that slips away in previous years - playing not to lose is kryptonite.
Big road games coming up the next two Tuesday evenings (Lincoln and Bloomington)......we shall see.
You may be right. Hope you’re right.
I know we want to win as many games as possible. But do we need to max Braden out in the regular season ?
Definitely not. Would have liked seeing him get more rest when we had a 15+ point lead last night.
I wouldn’t be opposed to him getting a night off in February, maybe when he’s under the weather or nursing some minor injury.
Haven’t seen load management yet in CBB, but it will happen at some point.
This right here. That’s why Lance helps out immensely. One time last night, Illinois pressed Braden passed it over to Lance while they both were in the backcourt and Lance shook his man dribbled it up. Last year, it was all Braden. This year, it’s still a lot of B, but he has some help and doesn’t have to be all 100% him.
Yeh, bad games for Zach AND Braden and we still beat a top 10 team. And it wasn't close till the final minutes. Just hit our free throws and we win by 10
We've already had a Big 10 loss, and it's a top 10 and prime rival to boot. There should be plenty of games to get additional rest. Pick your spots. (imo)
Heard Matt say in the post game, that he would not trade Braden for any other guard in CBB. Rarely have heard Matt compliment his players like that.
I’m a Painter guy, but if we fail in March, it will be because of overworking our best players in the regular season. IMO of course.
I understand what you’re saying but there will be games where we can rest our starters and then games such as Illinois where we play them 30+ minutes.
I think we will see more rest for Braden and more run of Morton in half of our games this B1G season.
He played 38 minutes against Illinois and 36 against Maryland. Considering all of the responsibility that he has running the team, I feel like staying around 34 minutes would be ideal. The problem is that there is only one Braden.
Painter likes to have Jones and Morton in the game when Braden is out, so this is where I would really like to see a little more out of Ethan. He doesn’t need to be great, but if he could play like he did as a sophomore or in the first half of his junior year, it would be very helpful for this team. I know that he can shoot better than what we have seen thus far this season. I also know that if he could make him self break out of his slump he would. So I think he just needs to see the ball go in a little more. I was glad that he was taking some shots against Illinois because if he can have some success, I think it could go a long ways.
Agree on Morton - he has to be a threat to score. I wish he would do some booty ball and back down a smaller defender and get a layup or draw a foul. He needs to make sure the defense plays is 5v5 instead of 4v5.
agreed, the worst of the passes were gassed Braden.
Agreed but he has to be mentally stronger in those situations to not let his emotions and fatigue take over being smart.
Can't answer that but I don't think it matters for rest. You can still use the media timeouts to rest guys at certain times to optimize it.
Bradon and Lance are much more effective at breaking the press this year. Credit to them both and what appears to be a different scheme.
Win baby Win!
Win baby Win!
So true. Next year he will have Harris and Cox to help Smith and these two additions are pretty good defenders too.
We’ll see.
I don’t doubt that CMP has that in mind, but my guess is that in the heat of the moment, his competitive instincts take over.
I’d like 30/32 range, but he probably wants to play as much as his body allows. He covers a lot of ground at a quick speed
Already looking worn down. Hard to trust Jones or Morton to handle the ball for any meaningful length of time though.
Yep. It’s a problem that needs to be addressed.
A radical idea: rest him for the Friday B1G Tourney game. If we lose, NBD and that gives him a 10 day break.
Remember Harris and Cox will be freshman next year , Painter will not play them a lot . Only did with Smith and Loyer is because he had no choice.
