Purdue guard Braden Smith estimates that about 80-90 of his relatives and family friends were among the sell-out crowd of 19,200 that helped give Arkansas such an edge in a close-fought overtime win over the Boilermakers on Saturday afternoon.
That Smith would have a small army of support isn’t such surprise given he’s a Russellville, Ark. native and has parents who starred in basketball at Arkansas Tech University. Indeed, his mother Ginny had been Miss Basketball in Arkansas in 1997. Even though he left the state at age five, Braden Smith still has a lot of people who know people in these parts.