Le Journal

“Verdant Reverie: The Gem of the Alps at The Lake Como Edition” includes a luxurious stay and a limited-edition necklace by jewelry designer Sarah Ysabel Narici of DYNE.

New York bursts out, an hour or so away from Piscataway, brightly lit and crowded, filled up to the clouds with metal buildings and so many people below that just walking across the street can be daunting. There’s a forced metaphor there, a day away from another ho hum Purdue win in December. Basketball is often beautiful for the parallels we can draw between sport and life, or at least that’s what I tell myself, writing, writing, writing, searching for the next analogy to elicit something more than he dribble good or he shoot good.Or in this case, I suppose, passes good. That is the defining trait of Braden Smith’s basketball game. He passes good. There’s a chance when his career is over, he’ll have passed the best in all of college basketball history. Braden Smith sits at 862 assists in his career. He needs 62 more assists to break the all-time Big Ten record. It would not be surprising if he wears that crown by the time 2027 rolls around. Smith is just 248 assists from Bobby Hurley’s all-time mark of 1,076. But those are numbers in the way going from 9th Avenue up to W. 15th is how you get to Chelsea Market. I can Google Maps the directions and after a couple starts and stops end up in the market to put a pasteis de nata in my mouth. The directions do not do justice for the amount of world moved through and the delicious bite awaiting you. It’s easy to marvel at people from NYC, how they move, unbothered by all the hustle and bustle, the subways and crosswalks, in control of a city that seems too large, too fast, and it’s a little like that watching Braden Smith navigate a court full of players taller and bigger than him. Smith’s highlight passes aren’t spectacular because of how difficult they look. They’re spectacular because of how easy and in control he makes them. "Even the Rutgers fans were applauding that particular play." 😳@BoilerBall's Braden Smith records another unbelievable assist 🔥📺: FS1 pic.twitter.com/tEdmoddrUn— Big Ten Men's Basketball (@B1GMBBall) December 3, 2025 There are three Rutgers players keyed into Braden Smith on this play. Perhaps, likely even, they already know they’re doomed. In fact, what seems like an impossible pass was expected by those that have been paying attention the last four years as Braden Smith’s journey has gone from plucky day one freshman starter to best player in college basketball. The thing about watching greatness is you start to expect it, and you can sense the note before it hits. It’s New Jersey, not New York. That feels important because there was a time bad things happened when #1 Purdue came to Piscataway. They show the replay every time this game happens. But this team, with this point guard, can’t be touched by history that it isn’t making. Smith started the game off by scoring, at will, warning shots to Rutgers that he wasn’t going to watch another Rutgers team knock off his Boilers. Then, he went back to finding his teammates through chaos and poetry. Braden Smith’s ascension is rare for both its path and its longevity. Rutgers is rebuilding with youth, something Matt Painter and Purdue has seemed to perfect in the last half decade, but the trail is a precarious one. Smith was a freshman once, alongside Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn. All of them could have jumped paths in the last four years for more: money, minutes, opportunities, prestige, etc… “It works if you can keep em,” Matt Painter said bluntly when asked about Rutgers building through youth. “If you can’t keep them, who cares,” Painter punctuating it like a prophet of dark omens. For all the daunting impossibility of Smith’s career, his legacy, his penultimate achievement is this chase for greatness, a number higher than anyone else’s in college basketball history. What lies beyond is the ultimate goal. A return to the title game and this time coming out on top. The maestro of college basketball’s masterpiece won’t be a record, but a ring. If he gets it, it will be sweeter because he…

Enjoy this gallery of deep-sky photos for November 2025 from our EarthSky community. If you have a great photo to share, send it in, too. We love to see them! The post See the best deep-sky photos of November 2025 here first appeared on EarthSky.

Purdue used a strong middle twenty minutes of their game against a feisty but overwhelmed Rutgers squad to grab an important road B1G win. With the trio of TKR, Smith, and Loyer leading the way, Purdue shot 38.5% (10/26) from behind the arc although they went just 3/12 in the second half. Purdue continued their path as the number one team in the country by playing a controlled game at a place and against a team that has been a sort of rubix cube to solve over the last several seasons when highly ranked. Let’s get into some insight in the game by going ‘Behind the Numbers!’ 71 With his 8 assists against Rutgers, Braden Smith now has 71 assists on the season. That pushes his career total to 829 and into sole possession of 41st all time. For the season, Smith is now averaging 8.9 per game and is second in the country behind only Jeremy Fears, Jr.’s 9.9 per game at Michigan State. The B1G may have the best collection of passing point guards in the country when you include UCLA’s Donovan Dent (6.7), Northwestern’s Jayden Reid (6.1), and USC’s Rodney Rice (6.0) all ranking in the top 50 in the country for assists. "Even the Rutgers fans were applauding that particular play." 😳@BoilerBall's Braden Smith records another unbelievable assist 🔥📺: FS1 pic.twitter.com/tEdmoddrUn— Big Ten Men's Basketball (@B1GMBBall) December 3, 2025 41.8% With their 10/26 shooting, Purdue is currently shooting 41.8% from behind the arc. That is good for seventh in the country and would be the second best in program history behind only the 2017-2018 Boilers who shot 42%. This team has the shooters necessary to raise that even more as the season progresses and guys like Harris, Mayer, Cox, and Murphy adjust to their roles. As a note, Princeton set the single season record in 1988 for a team that took more than 250 attempts at 49.2%. ♨️ This connection was clicking. 3️⃣3️⃣3️⃣ & 11 points for Gicarri. pic.twitter.com/SXLH7QcrP2— Purdue Men's Basketball (@BoilerBall) December 3, 2025 129.5 It is no surprise that Purdue has one of the best offenses in the country this season but what we are seeing borders on one that could be an all time one. With PJ Thompson continuing to evolve as an offensively minded coach and Braden Smith seemingly having the ball on a string most nights, Purdue’s early season adjusted offensive efficiency is 129.5. To put that in perspective, the next closest team this season is Louisville at 125.9. Only 2025 Duke would rank higher with 2015 Wisconsin being the only other team to be 129.0 or higher (129.0). 25.8 Heading into this game, Rutgers has been averaging 25.8 free throws per game, good for 52nd in the country. They had also done a good job converting those into points by hitting 18.1 per game. Purdue’s efficient defense that looks to simply keep ball handlers in front of them and forcing teams into mid-range jumpers limited Rutgers to just 7-11 from the free throw line. That’s on par for the Boilers this season that are now allowing 12.75 attempts from the free throw line per game which ranks them top ten in the country in that regard. 28.13 Heading into the season there was a lot of talk about Purdue’s trio of Smith, TKR, and Loyer and rightfully so. Those three are what makes Purdue go this season but one of the big questions was what the bench could do in a supporting role. So far, so good. Mayer, Harris, DJ, and Murphy are combining to score 28.13 points per game this season on 85/170 from the floor for 50%. That type of quality bench support is what will win Purdue lots of games this season and be a main reason for a potential run to Indy in March. The Gicarri Harris game. What a contest at the rim to help his team get that defensive rebound before hitting his third triple. pic.twitter.com/qTr1IJFVld— Boiler Burner (@BoilerBurner1) December 3, 2025 30.7 This one may not seem like that big of a deal but trust that it will make a major difference once February hits. This is a long season and one that could…