Braden Smith gives Purdue back-to-back Mr. Basketballs for the first time since 1964-66 (Dennis Brady, Billy Keller and Rick Mount). Shane Sumpter remembers Braden Smith’s first shot as a high school basketball player. Not because it was especially memorable, but because it was so unlike what was soon to come from the dynamic freshman guard.
“An airball,” said Sumpter, the Westfield basketball coach. “It wasn’t 30 seconds later when he hit a little runner in the lane and got his first basket. But that first shot, it went like three or four feet over the rim.”
From the start — or almost from the start — Smith was off and running. He might have looked like a sixth-grader as a freshman, but he did not play like one. Near the end of his fifth game as a freshman, a win over Noblesville, he dribbled near half-court on a fastbreak, then whipped a pass behind his back as a defender approached, hitting senior Caleb Welch in stride for a layup.
Plays like those quickly became part of Smith’s repertoire. He would finish as Westfield’s all-time leader in scoring (1,629 points) and assists (453). But even those impressive statistics were dwarfed by the team success — the first sectional championship for Westfield in 105 years of basketball — Smith and his teammates experienced at the end of his senior season.
“I knew Braden Smith was going to be good,” Sumpter said. “I’ve known him since he was 4 years old. But when I saw him in sixth and seventh grade I said, ‘This kid is going to be the first Indiana All-Star at Westfield.’ If you would have told me, ‘He’ll be Mr. Basketball,’ I might have hesitated. But I knew he was an Indiana All-Star-type of player.”
As it turned out, maybe even his coach underestimated Smith — at least slightly. The 6-foot senior guard was voted IndyStar Mr. Basketball by a vote of the state’s coaches and media, edging future Purdue teammate and Homestead senior Fletcher Loyer. Smith was voted Mr. Basketball by 128 voters to the second place Loyer’s 109. Lawrence North’s CJ Gunn was third with 57 votes, Central Noble’s Connor Essegian fourth with 41 votes and Chesterton’s Travis Grayson fifth with 16 votes. Six other players received at least one vote, but none of those had 10 or more.
“It’s just an unbelievable thing that happens to very few people,” Smith said after learning he had been voted Mr. Basketball. “Even being in the discussion with those four other finalists who are all great players and going to do big things with their schools is an honor. When you look at the history of the award and how successful all of them were, it shows that the hard work can pay off. It’s worth putting in the extra work.”
Braden Smith Named Indiana Mr. Basketball
It turns out making history is a good thing. This past season Purdue recruit Braden Smith pulled off the previously impossible. He led the Westfield Shamrocks to a 22-7 record. which is pretty good. The Shamrocks were 0 for 104, however, in attempting to win a sectional coming into the season. They were the largest school in the state to never win a sectional title in boys basketball.
Were.
Smith led them to a 62-44 win over No. 2 Fishers, 77-50 win over Hamilton Southeastern, and 59-54 win over two-time defending state champion Carmel to deliver the first sectional crown in school history. The wins over Fishers and HSE avenged regular season losses, as did a 64-53 win in the regional over Fletcher Loyer and Homestead in the regional. Unfortunately, the run ended there as it was Kokomo’s turn to avenge a regular season loss with a 64-60 win in the regional championship, but the longest run in school history was enough for Smith to be named Mr. Basketball:
He would finish as Westfield’s all-time leader in scoring (1,629 points) and assists (453). But even those impressive statistics were dwarfed by the team success — the first sectional championship for Westfield in 105 years of basketball — Smith and his teammates experienced at the end of his senior season.
Smith was voted Mr. Basketball by 128 voters to the second place Loyer’s 109. Lawrence North’s CJ Gunn was third with 57 votes, Central Noble’s Connor Essegian fourth with 41 votes and Chesterton’s Travis Grayson fifth with 16 votes. Six other players received at least one vote, but none of those had 10 or more.
The victory gives Purdue Mr. Basketball AND the runner-up for the second straight season (Caleb Furst and Trey Kaufman-Renn) and third time since Caleb Swanigan and Ryan Cline went back-to-back in 2015. He is the 13th Mr. Basketball to come to Purdue:
1952 - Joe Sexson - Indianapolis Tech
1955 - Wilson Eison - Gary Roosevelt
1964 - Dennis Brady - Lafayette Jeff
1965 - Billy Keller - Indianapolis Washington
1966 - Rick Mount - Lebanon
1975 - Kyle Macy - Peru (later transferred to Kentucky)
1981 - Dave Palombizio - Michigan City Rogers (later transferred to Ball State)
1984 - Troy Lewis - Anderson (tied with Delray Brooks of Michigan City Rogers)
1988 - Woody Austin - Richmond
1991 - Glenn Robinson - Gary Roosevelt (No. 1 overall NBA Draft pick)
2015 - Caleb Swanigan - Homestead
2021 - Caleb Furst - Ft. Wayne Blackhawk Christian
2022 - Braden Smith - Westfield
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