Mark Montieth: Two freshmen thrive for No. 1-ranked Purdue

A popular saying once circulated among college basketball coaches about the inherent danger of using first-year players: “You can tell a sophomore, but you can’t tell him much.”

That of course was before freshmen were eligible for NCAA competition. Yes, kids, there was a time when coaches preferred to break in sophomores gradually, regarding them as too immature and undependable to contribute much in real games.

After freshmen became eligible in the 1972-1973 season, the coaching cliché was updated to, “The best thing about freshmen is they become sophomores.” These days, when elite college players bolt for professional basketball after a season or two of grooming, it’s practically a necessity for some freshmen to play immediately to fill the vacancies. Still, what’s happening at Purdue, where two freshmen guards are not only starting but thriving—and for the No. 1-ranked team in the country—remains an extreme rarity.

Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer have stepped into the frenzy of major college basketball and, more often than not, played like seniors. The kind of seniors who make plays at the most crucial points in the game and act as calming influences for teammates.

Something like this has never happened before at such a high level for an Indiana college team. It’s rare for freshmen to have such an impact in the history of college basketball, in fact, with the notable exception of Michigan’s Fab Five team of the 1991-1992 season. It’s analogous to two kids fresh out of college being hired by a major corporation and immediately installed as department heads—then succeeding beyond anyone’s wildest expectations.

‘Skilled as hell’

Several factors and circumstances have to merge for something so rare to occur.

Smith and Loyer both grew up with the advantage of having mothers and fathers who had coached at some level. They learned to take instruction at a young age, which sped their development at Purdue.

“The thing that I wonder sometimes is, are you listening to me or not?” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “It’s a real turnoff to me when you’ve got a guy 19 years old who’s only half listening to you. I’m not right all the time, but I know more than a teenager, right? But both of those guys lock into you when you speak.”

Still, performance counts.

“They’re skilled as hell,” said former Purdue guard Everette Stephens, who was only good enough to start one game as a freshman but became good enough to be drafted and play a season in the NBA. “They can shoot, dribble, pass, and they’re smart. Just all the way across the board.”

No question, life is much easier for the two rookies because of the massive lane presence of Purdue’s 7-foot-4 center Zach Edey, a national player-of-the-year candidate who averages 22.1 points on 61% shooting. But the freshmen have anchored the perimeter well enough to balance the offense. An opponent’s defensive strategy—whether to double-team Edey or not—amounts to a pick-your-poison option.

Loyer was averaging 12.8 points following Sunday’s victory over Michigan State at Mackey Arena. He’s hit 36% of his 3-pointers, but his perhaps most impressive stat is his turnover rate: just one per game. He’s also been at his best in the most challenging moments.

He scored a season-high 20 points while hitting five-of-seven 3-pointers in his first Big Ten game against Minnesota on Dec. 4. Two games later, against Nebraska, he scored 22 points and hit seven of 11 threes.

He hit what turned out to be the game-winning 3-pointer at Ohio State with 10.5 seconds left after he was left open when his defender dropped to double-team Edey. (Loyer, by the way, had been benched for the first four minutes of the second half of that game after playing poorly in the first half. He said afterward he deserved it.)

He later bumped his career high to 27 points in the second meeting with Nebraska. He also calmly hit two free throws to give Purdue a 62-61 lead with 32.5 seconds left in the game at Michigan State. After Michigan State regained the lead, he fed Edey a perfect entry pass equal to the length of a 3-point shot. Edey wasn’t double-teamed this time, so he took the honor of hitting the game-winning basket with two seconds remaining. Loyer scored 17 points on just nine field goal attempts.

“He’s got a high level of confidence,” Painter said. “He really believes in himself. He’s played really well on the road and in second halves. That’s an oxymoron for a true freshman.”

Stephens agrees. The one game he started as a freshman was at Michigan State in February 1985. It took him by surprise, and he questioned the coaches’ motivation for it. Nervous, Stephens wound up playing just eight scoreless minutes and didn’t start again until his junior season.

No wonder, then, he’s been so impressed with Loyer’s executive demeanor in pressure-packed moments.

“He looks like he has a white-collar job, and he also happens to play basketball,” Stephens said.

Smith, a playmaking point guard, averages 9.5 points, 4.1 assists and 1.9 turnovers. His shooting percentages (including 42% from 3-point range) are better than those of Loyer, who is a shooting specialist. Smith scored 20 points in his third college game against Marquette, which is ranked 14th in this week’s Associated Press poll. He finished with 19 points, seven rebounds and seven assists at Minnesota; 16 points and six assists at Ohio State; and 15 points, six rebounds and seven assists at Penn State.

A couple of weeks ago, it was pointed out that he was just the third freshman point guard in recent NCAA history to average at least nine points, five rebounds and four assists with fewer than 2.5 turnovers per game. The others were UCLA’s Lonzo Ball and Murray State’s Ja Morant, both of whom are now established NBA players. Smith’s rebounding average has since dropped to 4.6, but the stat line still offers perspective.

Naismith Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas, for example, didn’t accomplish that as an Indiana University freshman, when he averaged 14.6 points, four rebounds, 5.5 assists and 4.7 turnovers.

“The one thing that impresses me about Braden is his willingness to own a mistake,” Painter said. “That resonates with [teammates]. He always owns his mistakes.”

Sometimes too much. Painter said the only occasions he’s had to scold Smith this season have been when Smith got too down on himself after playing poorly.

“Braden hung his head a couple of times, and we jumped him,” Painter said. “We said, ‘Hey, you’re running the show. Let’s go!’”

A rarity

The closest team within Indiana comparable to what Purdue has going would be IU’s in the 1972-1973 season. Quinn Buckner started all but one game that season—he temporarily lost his spot following a loss at Purdue—and Jim Crews started every game after the first four.

That team—Bob Knight’s second—finished 22-6 overall and 11-3 in the Big Ten and reached the Final Four of the NCAA tournament, where it lost to eventual champion UCLA. Crews, however, became a backup the next three seasons, replaced by the taller and more athletic Bobby Wilkerson.

Steve Downing, an All-American center for IU that season, recalls Buckner as “hard-headed,” a freshman willing to ignore his older teammates to adhere to the coach’s instructions.

“I used to threaten him all the time,” Downing said. “He would never give me the ball if I wasn’t close to the basket. Coach Knight told him not to give me the ball if I got away from the basket. I remember yelling at him, but he would tell me to get back in [the lane].

“Jimmy Crews would give me the ball out there,” Downing added, laughing. “He just fit in and did what he had to do.”

Crews laughs at that one, too.

“Steve liked me,” Crews said. “He always gave me his appetizer before meals on the road.”

Crews, who went on to become the head coach at Evansville, Army and St. Louis, has a serious appreciation for how the Purdue guards have performed.

“They seem to be very emotionally mature and understand basketball well and know how winning works,” he said. “They seem more interested in how the team looks than how they look.”

Lyndon Jones and Jay Edwards started together as freshmen for IU in the 1987-1988 season and share some similarities with Smith and Loyer. Jones and Edwards were voted co-Mr. Basketballs after leading Marion to three consecutive state championships. Smith was voted Mr. Basketball last season after leading Westfield to a 4A state championship. Loyer was runner-up in the Mr. Basketball voting conducted by The Indianapolis Star but was voted the Gatorade Player of the Year.

Jones and Edwards, however, didn’t bear the same burden. They usually played as part of a three-guard lineup that included an upperclassman. They didn’t line up for an opening tip together until IU’s 16th game of the season, at Ohio State, and they both started just eight more games that season.

Defying the adages

As unlikely as it seems now, Purdue was unranked in the preseason, largely because of the uncertainty surrounding its guard play. All four guards who had started games last season were gone. Jaden Ivey, the leading scorer, was selected fifth in the NBA draft. Sasha Stefanovic graduated, and two others took advantage of the NCAA rule allowing players to transfer without sitting out a season: Eric Hunter moved on to Butler to take advantage of a fifth season allowed by the COVID interruption, and Isaiah Thompson left for Florida Gulf Coast in search of the certainty of more playing time.

That left a major void in the backcourt that nobody expected two freshmen to be able to fill adequately. Painter struck out with his first few offers to guards in the transfer portal before finally landing David Jenkins, who seemed like a consolation prize at the time.

Those “failures” turned out to be a blessing, however. Loyer impressed well enough in summer workouts to establish himself as a starter. Smith was recovering from a second fracture of the fifth metatarsal bone in his left foot and had to sit out until late August but quickly did so, as well.

They started the season opener and despite occasionally daring to look like a freshman, such as in Purdue’s loss to Rutgers, have kept a tight grip on their roles.

Jenkins personifies the respect Smith and Loyer have amassed among Purdue’s upperclassmen. He’s playing his fifth season of college basketball at his fourth school. He had started 83 games before arriving at Purdue, but if he ever had visions of starting again, he quickly learned to accept a backup role.

Following Sunday’s victory over Michigan State, Jenkins said he had recently texted a long message to Smith to tell him “just how proud I am of him.”

He added: “It’s hard for [freshmen] to come in from high school and adjust to this level, especially in the Big Ten.”

That’s stating the obvious, and perhaps underselling the challenge. But Smith and Loyer have defied the adages. Painter can tell them anything he likes. And the best thing about them? They’re just fine as freshmen.•

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Montieth, an Indianapolis native, is a longtime newspaper reporter and freelance writer. He is the author of three books: “Passion Play: Coach Gene Keady and the Purdue Boilermakers,” “Reborn: The Pacers and the Return of Pro Basketball to Indianapolis,” and “Extra Innings: My Life in Baseball,” with former Indianapolis Indians President Max Schumacher.