Purdue's experienced trio of seniors has the Boilermakers 1 win away from a home-state Final Four

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Braden Smith, Trey Kaufman-Renn and Fletcher Loyer began their time at Purdue with a lopsided win at Mackey Arena against Milwaukee.

With a win against top-seeded Arizona in the NCAA Tournament's West Region final on Saturday night, the trio of stars can end their decorated careers a short drive from campus on college basketball's biggest stage: the Final Four in Indianapolis.

The four-year journey for Smith, Kaufman-Renn and Loyer has been a bit of a roller coaster, with some heartbreaking lows like losing as a No. 1 seed in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to Fairleigh Dickinson as freshmen and exhilarating highs like reaching the title game the following season. This year, the second-seeded Boilermakers beat Texas in the Sweet 16 on Thursday night on a last-second tip-in by Kaufman-Renn.

“I think having that experience what it takes to be there before, I think it helps,” Smith said Friday. “Having a core group of guys that have done it.”

It has also been extremely unusual in the modern era of college basketball, when players can freely transfer and are often searching for better opportunities. The game on Saturday will be the 147th the three have played together, with Kaufman-Renn missing two others to start this season when he was injured.

That's more than 50 games more than the next-highest active trio have played together — Connecticut's Alex Karaban, Solo Ball and Jaylin Stewart — and the most for any three teammates since Richmond's Jacob Gilyard, Nathan Cayo and Grant Golden played 150 games together from 2017-18 to 2021-22, according to Sportradar.

“We’ve played together for four years,” Smith said. “We know our strengths and our weaknesses, and we understand what gets each other going. Honestly, I respect these two guys so much. They got on me for my performance, and I want that, because they would want me to do the same for them. They hold me accountable.”

The three Boilermakers have combined for 5,385 points — with each topping 1,600 — 1,732 rebounds and 1,629 assists, including an NCAA record-breaking 1,096 by Smith. Only eight other players who were active in Division I this season have scored at least 1,600 points at one school over the past four seasons Purdue is the only one with multiple such players.

The three have played more than 12,000 minutes and helped Purdue win 117 games over the past four years. But their tournament careers started with an excruciating loss when the Boilermakers became the second No. 1 seed ever to lose to a No. 16 seed in the first round.

That is mostly a distant memory now, thanks to a run to the finals the following year, a trip to the Sweet 16 last season and winning a Big Ten tournament title and reaching the Elite Eight as seniors after Kaufman-Renn's game-winner.

“When you have so much experience, I think you stay composed and then you execute,” Kaufman-Renn said. “When you have either younger teams or teams where there are so many different guys from different schools, you just don’t have that connectivity, synergy, whatever you want to call it.”

That connectivity has allowed Purdue to bounce back from a 6-7 finish to the regular season with seven straight wins in the postseason, including a Big Ten title.

“It makes your job easier when you are talking to someone who has been there for four years or five years,” coach Matt Painter said. “It makes it a lot easier, because what you want to have more than anything is that you want a players-led team. That’s always the best team. That’s what we have. These guys are very selfless, but they have a big voice in what we do and how we go about things, and they have a lot of pride in that.”

The situation is different for Arizona, which has no one on the roster who has spent four seasons with the Wildcats, relying instead on transfers and a talented freshman class led by Brayden Burries, Koa Peat and Ivan Kharchenkov.

Those three combined for 59 points in a 109-88 victory over Arkansas in the Sweet 16. The Wildcats have gotten a higher share of scoring from freshmen than any team other than Duke that made the tournament.

“We have a talented group of freshmen,” senior Jaden Bradley said. “They’re very poised. They control the tempo. ... We’re talented. Purdue’s a great team, very poised, like you said, an older team. It’s going to be a battle.”

AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

Purdue forward Trey Kaufman-Renn (4) tips the ball over Texas forward Dailyn Swain (3) for the game-winning basket during the second half in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Thursday, March 26, 2026, in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

By The Associated Press (AP) — August 1996: Woods wins third straight U.S. Amateur and turns professional the following week.

October 1996: Woods wins the Las Vegas Invitational for his first PGA Tour victory in his fifth professional start.

April 1997: Woods wins the Masters at age 21 with a record score (270) and a record margin of victory (12 shots) to become its youngest champion.

June 2000: Woods wins the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach by 15 shots, the largest margin in major championship history.

April 2001: Woods wins the Masters to become the only player to hold all four professional majors at the same time.

October 2004: Woods marries Elin Nordegren.

June 2007: His wife gives birth to their first child, a daughter Samantha, a day after Woods finishes runner-up in the U.S. Open.

June 2008: Woods wins the U.S. Open in a playoff at Torrey Pines for his 14th major, four short of the record held by Jack Nicklaus. A week later, he has reconstructive surgery on his left knee to repair the ACL and is out for eight months.

February 2009: His wife gives birth to their son, Charlie.

November 2009: Woods crashes his SUV into a tree and a fire hydrant outside his Windermere, Florida, home. The next few weeks his personal life unravels with reports of multiple extramarital affairs. He loses major sponsorship endorsements. He spends 45 days in a clinic and does not return to golf until the 2010 Masters.

August 2010: His divorce from Elin Nordegren is finalized.

March 31, 2014: Woods has back surgery a week before the Masters and misses Augusta National for the first time.

Sept. 16, 2015: Has a second back surgery.

Oct. 28, 2015: Has a third procedure on his back.

April 19, 2017: Has a fourth surgery, this one to fuse his lower back.

May 30, 2017: Woods is arrested and briefly jailed in Jupiter, Florida, on suspicion of DUI. Police found him asleep behind the wheel of his car in the early morning with the engine running. He attributes it to a bad combination of pain medication.

Oct. 27, 2017: Woods pleads guilty to reckless driving and agrees to enter a diversion program. Prosecutors drop the DUI charge under the plea agreement.

Sept. 23, 2018: Wins the Tour Championship for his 80th career victory on the PGA Tour.

April 14, 2019: Wins the Masters for his 15th major, and first major title in 11 years.

Oct. 28, 2019: Wins the Zozo Championship for his 82nd career PGA Tour title, tied with Sam Snead for the record

Jan. 19, 2021: Woods announces he has undergone a fifth surgery on his back

Feb. 23, 2021: Woods is involved in a single-vehicle rollover crash outside of Los Angeles. Authorities say he was going between 84 mph and 87 mph on a 45 mph coast road. Doctors say he suffered comminuted open fractures to the upper and lower sections of his right leg, as well as significant trauma to his right ankle. Doctors needed to insert a rod, screws and pins to stabilize Woods’ leg.

April 19, 2023: Woods has a subtalar fusion procedure in his right ankle to “address his post-traumatic arthritis from his previous talus fracture.”

Sept. 13, 2024: Woods announces he had surgery on his lower back, which he described as a microdecompression surgery of the lumbar spine for nerve impingement in the lower back.

March 11, 2025: Woods has surgery after rupturing his left Achilles tendon while increasing his workouts to get ready for the Masters.

Oct. 11, 2025: Woods has a seventh back surgery to replace a disk in his lower back.

March 27, 2026: Woods is arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence near his home in Florida after his Land Rover clipped the back of a truck and rolled on its side. He was not injured. Authorities say he was impaired by medication, not alcohol, and was arrested after refusing to take a urine test.

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Tiger Woods of the Jupiter Links Golf Club plays a shot from a bunker on the eighth hole, during final day of TGL golf tournament, Tuesday, March 24, 2026, in Palm Beach Gardens Fla. (AP Photo/Reinhold Matay)

Golfer Tiger Woods stands by his overturned vehicle in Jupiter Island, Fla., on Friday, March 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Jason Oteri)