CBS Sports, Wooden Award Recognize Big Ten Trio

ROSEMONT, Ill. – Big Ten men’s basketball student-athletes continue to be recognized for their performances this season, as Purdue’s Braden Smith and Trey Kaufman-Renn joined Wisconsin’s John Tonje with All-American accolades this week.

All three were named to the CBS Sports All-America Team on Wednesday, while Smith and Tonje were named to the John R. Wooden Award Men’s All-America Team on Tuesday night.

CBS Sports included Smith on its First Team, while Tonje and Kaufman-Renn earned Second and Third Team honors, respectively.

Additionally, Smith was named to the John R. Wooden Award Top 5 finalist for the Wooden Award® for the Most Outstanding Player in the United States. It marks the third straight season that a Boilermaker has been a Wooden Award All-American and award finalist after Zach Edey won the award following both the 2023 and 2024 seasons.

A consensus First Team All-American, Smith averaged 15.8 points per game and ranked second in the country with 8.7 assists. This season, the junior guard Set the Big Ten record for assists in conference play only with 175, smashing the previous record set by Michigan State's Cassius Winston (157) by 18 assists – almost a full assist per game.

Smith has 13 games of 10 or more assists this season, and 22 games of 10 or more assists for his career. His 22 career games of 10 or more assists are the most in Big Ten history. The 22, 10-assist games are the fourth most by a player in his junior season or younger in the last 20 years, behind only Oakland’s Kay Felder (32), North Carolina’s Kendall Marshall (23), and Murray State’s Ja Morant (23).

Tonje led the Badgers and ranked fourth in the Big Ten with 19.6 points per game, while securing 5.3 rebounds per contest, good for second on the team. Tonje finished his season with 724 points, the second-most points in a single-season by a Badger, surpassing Alando Tucker's 716 points in the 2006-07 season.

Tonje is one of just five major conference players over the last 30 years to accumulate at least 600 points, 150 rebounds, 200 FTs and 80 3FGs, joining Texas' Kevin Durant (2007), Missouri's Jabari Brown (2014), UConn's Shabazz Napier (2014), Duke's Grayson Allen (2015).

Kaufman-Renn was named a unanimous first-team All-Big Ten honoree after averaging 20.1 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game while shooting 59.5 percent from the field. The junior forward scored in double-figures in 35 of 36 games and surpassed 20 points 19 times, including a pair of 30-point games.

Kaufman-Renn became the 29th player in NCAA history to average at least 20 points, six rebounds, two assists, and shoot 59 percent from the field. He was just the third Big Ten player in league history to reach those marks, joining Northwestern’s Evan Eschmeyer (1998) and Purdue’s Zach Edey (2024).

The Wooden Award winner and top five All America Team members will be honored at the Los Angeles Athletic Club “John R. Wooden Awards Show presented by Principal” streaming on ESPN+ on Friday, April 11th at 8pm EDT / 5pm PDT.

Click here to view the complete list of CBS Sports All-America honors.

Click here to view the complete list of John R. Wooden Award All-America honors.