'We think the same': Purdue freshmen Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer delivering on expectations

For Fletcher Loyer, the adjustment period came during the summer. The freshman shooting guard arrived at Purdue after two seasons at Homestead High School. His first taste of college basketball included all the usual challenges: bigger players, a faster pace, the sharp reality your opponents are now adults after a lifetime of sharing the floor with kids.

He felt comfortable with all of it by the fall, confident the leap to the next level wouldn’t be too much for him.

Loyer’s teammate and roommate Braden Smith didn’t play over the summer because of a broken left foot he suffered as a high school senior, but was healthy enough to practice in the fall as preparations for the season ramped up. He entered his first year confident he would contribute immediately. It’s the mentality he’s carried since he was a 5-7, 130-pound high school freshman playing varsity basketball.

Purdue coach Matt Painter observed all of it. Loyer and Smith both had obvious skill sets. Loyer was a 6-4 pure shooter and top-100 recruit in the country. Smith was months removed from winning IndyStar Mr. Basketball at Westfield, where he set program records in points and assists.

Because of that, little of what they did was unexpected in a vacuum. But Painter noticed something else in practice as the 2022-23 iteration of the Boilermakers took shape: the lineups with the two freshmen in the backcourt always seemed to win.

“There’s a lot of things that get talked about, but that’s the only thing that’s really important, like what do you bring to your team?” Painter said. “What kind of value do you bring to your team? And both of those guys have obviously been very successful, but you’ll get guys that are successful in high school, then they’re not successful right away in college, but they’ve both been around it.”

Three months into their college careers, both have started every game for the No. 1 Boilermakers, helping propel a juggernaut of a Purdue team that lost major perimeter contributors over the offseason. The duo, Smith manning the point and Loyer at shooting guard, is averaging a combined 21.9 points and 6.8 assists per game, each playing around 30 minutes each night.

Their games are different. They score in different ways and contribute in different areas. They often have contrasting dispositions on the floor, but they share a passion and hunger, both driven by a deep-seeded competitive desire.

“I think it’s just how we’re both kind of wired,” Smith said. “We both kind of play with a chip on our shoulder. We play like we have to prove something. Even if we’ve already proved it, we’ll still try to prove it either way, so I think just having that mindset going into every game just is who we are and who we’ve always been.”

Early connections

Family ties to basketball can explain some of their advanced developments and feels for the game. They were each exposed to basketball at a young age; Loyer’s father, John, is a scout for the Los Angeles Clippers. Smith’s mother, Ginny, spent seven season as Westfield's girls basketball head coach.

The guards had crossed paths before college, playing against each other in high school and in AAU. The last day of both of their high school careers, March 12, 2022, they competed as opponents one last time.

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Homestead and Westfield had a week to prepare for each other in their regional semifinal. Loyer received a lengthy scouting report on the the Shamrocks; understandably, much of it revolved on how to contain Smith.

Loyer saw the game as an opportunity. To play against another one of the top players in the state and a future teammate was motivating, but he didn’t outwardly treat it any differently. He took his usual 300 extra shots after practice.

“He didn’t really say anything regarding that,” Homestead coach Chris Johnson said. “I think he has the confidence and he knows he can play. He knows he can play at that level. I don’t think that ever bothered him to shy away from going at it against another person.”

Smith embraced the challenge in his own way. He was still hobbled from breaking his foot in January; it was held together by a screw. In the week leading up to the game, he pleaded with coach Shane Sumpter to let him guard Loyer. Sumpter refused. Smith was too important to risk foul trouble by defending the opponent’s best scorer.

Down by 10 points with six minutes remaining, Sumpter relented and put Smith on Loyer. Westfield came back to win 64-53 before its season came to an end later that night against Kokomo. Smith finished with 13 points. Loyer had 27.

Smith returned to the hotel where the team was staying that night and took his shoe off, revealing a balloon-level swollen foot, one he had somehow dunked off of twice against Homestead.

“I’m sitting there thinking ‘How could you even walk, let alone play tonight?’” Sumpter said.

'We both have the same goals in mind, and that’s to win.'

Smith and Loyer consider themselves to have similar personalities. They’re competitive and have the work ethic expected of athletes of their caliber, but those qualities manifest themselves differently. In high school, Loyer led by example, staying after practice to get shots up. Sometimes a teammate stayed to rebound for him. Other times his dad came or he used the shooting gun. His presence was the lone constant.

“It’s always good when your best players are your hardest workers,” Johnson said.

Smith plays with the edge required of someone who’s frequently the smallest player on the floor. In high school he dove for loose balls in summer open gyms and wasn’t afraid to yell at teammates who didn’t match his effort.

Their differences show up on the court, too. Loyer plays smoothly, calmly. He’s a quality spot-up shooter who has thrived off of the attention opponents pay Zach Edey in the post, relocating around the perimeter and finding open looks. He occasionally punctuates big plays, like his go-ahead 3-pointer in the final seconds against Rutgers, with a fist pump and a shout.

Smith plays with more manic energy. He tumbles to the floor on defense and takes the ball toward bigger players under the basket. In the same Rutgers game, he goaded Scarlet Knights fifth-year guard Caleb McConnell into a technical with his pesky defense, then waved his arms, urging the Mackey Arena crowd to get louder as he walked to the bench.

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Within the controlled fury, there’s a headiness to his game. He has more than twice as many assists (105) as turnovers (43). As the point guard, he knows when to slow things down and run the offense while showing an ability and willingness to attack.

“You get to really know what drives him, and that’s really winning,” Loyer said. “I think that’s why we’ve become so close, because we both have the same goals in mind, and that’s to win. You notice how hard he plays and how much spunk he plays with. Really just feeding off each other and the energy he brings to the table every day.”

The two live together, along with Camden Heide and Will Berg, both freshmen redshirting. When Smith and Loyer arrived on campus, they bonded over typical roommate things: exploring a relatively new place together, going out for food, playing video games. They still have classes together.

All the time spent together has made communication easier on the court. They know how to talk to each other, how to get through to one another and when they can verbally ride each other harder than normal. At this point in the year, as Purdue rumbles toward another Big Ten title and eyes a deep tournament run, it’s hard to leave basketball at the gym. Sometimes they rewatch games in their living room and discuss different situations from nights before.

It’s natural that it all comes back to basketball eventually. Both were raised around the game and developed more quickly than most 19-year-olds to become starters for the best team in the country. They’re not phased by the fact most players are older or more experienced. This is where they always expected to be.

“I still have that same mindset, like ‘Hey, I’m gonna come in here and I’m gonna play because I feel like I’m good enough,’” Smith said. “That’s just the confidence I’ve had in myself, and same thing with Fletcher. He’s the same way. We think the same. We think that the work we’ve put in, we deserve to play.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Purdue basketball: Freshmen Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer guiding Boilers