My Two Cents: Bond Between P.J. Thompson, Braden Smith Invaluable For Purdue
GLENDALE, Ariz. — P.J. Thompson's eyes were affixed on his protoge, and they never left. They never do, but they especially never left Purdue sophomore point guard Braden Smith during Saturday night's game against N.C. State on the huge stage at the Final Four.
It's a family thing at Purdue, and that's why Thompson is there. The former three-year starter in West Lafayette, he was a point guard from 2014 to 2018 and his name is still all over the Purdue record books. He came home two years ago to be Director of Player Development, and his primary function on the Purdue staff right now is bringing out the best in Smith.
Smith was not at his best Saturday night. He was just 1-for-9 shooting, and the only shot he made all night came 37 minutes into the game. He had five turnovers too, and was beating himself up. No one is harder on Braden Smith than Braden Smith, but Thompson was right there to get him to the finish line,.
Despite the poor performance, the Boilers won anyway, dispatching N.C. State 63-50 to advance to Monday night's national championship game against defending champion Connecticut.
Good or bad, Thompson is always there for Smith. Not some of the time, not most of the time.
But all of the time.
"He’s a point guard here and I was a point guard here and we have a special bond. But (Saturday night) I didn’t want to over-do it,'' Thompson said in the jubilant locker room after the win. “Sometimes he beats himself up too much and I step in and correct him. Braden knows, man. He’s a special player. He never has two bad games in a row, so I’ll look forward to Monday.
"Great players get themselves out of slumps. I mean, we’re not here (at the Final Four) without him. Everyone knows that. He knows what to do and what not to do. He’s a special player.''
Purdue won its fifth straight NCAA Tournament game despite having 16 turnovers. Smith had five, and so did Zach Edey, Purdue's 7-foot-4 center who's the two-time national Player of the Year. It was not a good night for the duo, and it showed on the scoreboard at the stat sheet. Purdue's 63 points were a season low. But it was still enough.
“I thought their pressure sped us up and that led to some poor decisions by our guys,'' Thompson said. "But, when you get the win, and win by double figures in the Final Four, that’s OK. I didn’t think Zach played great and I didn’t think Braden played great, but we still won and we’re going to the finals.
“There are going to be some nights where your offense carries you, and there are some nights where your defense carries you. I thought our defense was great tonight.’’
Even a decade later, Thompson still ranks second in career assist/turnover ratio (2.94), is 10th in career 3-point percentage (.404) and 15th in career 3-pointers made (161) at Purdue. He appeared in 137 games, the eighth most in school history and helped Purdue to a 104-37 record and the 2017 Big Ten Championship during his time with the Boilermakers.
Having been there and done that, he knows what Purdue coach Matt Painter wants out of Smith. He knows, because he's been through it. And that why he and Smith are attached at the hip. Smith has become one of the best point guards in the country despite being lightly recruited out of Westfield High School.
And even on a bad night, Thompson was right there for him. In his own sometimes sarcastic way, at the half, after Smith went 0-for-6, Thompson told him, “we’re up six ... and you’re playing the worst game of your life.”
Smith couldn't help but smile, because he knew Thompson was right, and everything was still OK.
“I like to hold myself to the standard of being perfect,” Smith said. “Coach Painter always gets onto me for that, saying that I’m impacting the game in so many ways other than scoring. He trusts me. They didn’t take me out. That just shows me, and everybody else, the confidence they have in me. I played terrible and we were still up 20 (in the closing minutes.)”
When Sunday rolls around, Thompson and Smith will be right back to normal. They'll watch film, like they always do, and clean up Saturday's mistakes. They'll be ready for Monday.
“He continued to play through it. We kept talking, but we always do in every game, good or bad, and the good ones far outweigh the bad ones,'' Thompson said. "We have a special relationship. We watch film together every day, just him and I.
"It’s something we’ve done all year, watching film together, and we’re not going to change that. We’re process-based here, and we always have been. We win, we watch film, me and him. We lose, we watch film too. We’ll see the mistakes, and we’ll fix them.’’
Purdue has never won a national championship, and they've only been to three Final Fours ever. The first was in 1969, when they lost to UCLA in the title game. In 1980, they lost in the semifinals to UCLA. Now they're just 40 minutes away from dreams — generations of dreams — coming true. There are thousands of Purdue fans here — the largest contingent here, by far — and 87-year-old Gene Keady, Painter's former coach, is right in the front row, too.
“It would mean the world to win it,'' Thompson said. "First and foremost, I want to win it Monday night for coach Painter and our current players, and right behind that, I want to win it for coach (Gene) Keady and all the players who came before us, including myself that put on the jersey. People who put on that jersey set the foundation and made Purdue a better place. We want to pay our gratitude.
“I mean, you saw that crowd out there. It was amazing. There are thousands of Purdue fans here, and they were rocking. We could feel it. I definitely made a difference. I want to do it for coach Painter, because he’s been taking care of me since I was 15-16 years old.’’
Tom Brew is an award-winning journalist who's worked at some America's finest newspapers, including the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Indianapolis Star. He also owns the book publishing company, Hilltop30 Publishing Group, and he has written four books and published 16 others.