Purdue’s Braden Smith is AP’s Big Ten player of the year, Izzo is top coach, Tonje newcomer of year

By Canadian Press on March 11, 2025.

Braden Smith of Purdue was named the Associated Press Big Ten player of year on Tuesday, Michigan State’s Tom Izzo the coach of the year and Wisconsin’s John Tonje the newcomer of the year.

Smith continued the Boilermakers’ hold on the top individual honor after Zach Edey won it the past two seasons. Smith backed up his selection as conference preseason player of the year by averaging 16.3 points, 8.8 assists and 2.3 steals per game. He’s the fourth player in Division I history to have at least 500 points, 270 assists, 140 rebounds and 70 steals in a season.

Izzo won his record-tying 11th regular-season title while leading the Spartans to 26 wins, their most since 2017-18. Their 17 Big Ten wins were their most since the conference season was expanded to 20 games in 2021-22. The Spartans had a 13-game win streak in the middle of the season, and they have won seven straight entering this week’s Big Ten Tournament.

Tonje joined the Badgers as a sixth-year graduate transfer after playing his first four seasons at Colorado State and his fifth at Missouri. Tonje averaged 18.9 points per game. He had four 30-point games, including a career-high 41 against Arizona.

Smith is a repeat All-Big Ten first-team selection and the only unanimous pick by the voting panel of 14 journalists who cover the league. Joining Smith and Tonje on the first team are Nebraska’s Brice Williams, Purdue’s Trey Kaufman-Renn and Michigan’s Danny Wolf.

Williams was the Big Ten’s second-leading scorer overall with 20 points per game. His 20.7-point average in conference play led the Big Ten.

Kaufman-Renn led Purdue with 19.7 points per game, 20.5 in conference play, and 6.1 rebounds.

Wolf and second-team pick Vladislav Goldin formed the Big Ten’s best big-man tandem. Wolf averaged a Big Ten-leading 9.7 rebounds to go with his 12.9 points per game, and the 7-footer shot 34.4% on 3-pointers and was second on the team in assists.

First team

u-Guard — Braden Smith, Purdue, Jr., 6-0, 170, Westfield, Indiana.

G — John Tonje, Wisconsin, Gr., 6-5, 218, Omaha, Nebraska.

G — Brice Williams, Nebraska, Sr., 6-7, 214, Huntersville, North Carolina.

F — Trey Kaufman-Renn, Purdue, Jr., 6-9, 230, Sellersburg, Indiana.

F/C — Danny Wolf, Michigan, Jr., 7-0, 250, Glencoe, Illinois.

—“u” denotes unanimous selection.

Second team

G — Bruce Thornton, Ohio State, Jr., 6-2, 215, Fairburn, Georgia.

G — Kasparas Jakucionis, Illinois, Fr., 6-6, 205, Vilnius, Lithuania.

F — Nick Martinelli, Northwestern, Jr., 6-7, 220, Glenview, Illinois.

C — Derik Queen, Maryland, Fr., 6-10, 246, Baltimore.

C — Vladislav Goldin, Michigan, Gr., 7-1, 250, Voronezh, Russia.

Individual honors

Coach of the year — Tom Izzo, Michigan State.

Player of the year — Braden Smith, Purdue.

Newcomer of the year — John Tonje, Wisconsin.

Voting panel

Nick Bahe, Fox Sports; Mike DeCourcy, Sporting News, Fox Sports; Dave Eanet, WGN Radio (Chicago); Brian Fonseca, New Jersey Advance Media; Marcus Fuller, Minneapolis Star Tribune; Adam Jardy, Columbus Dispatch; Stephen Jones, Penn State Sports Network; Andrew Kahn, MLive.com (Ann Arbor, Michigan); Michael McCleary, Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wisconsin); Wilson Moore, Omaha (Nebraska) World-Herald; Zach Osterman, Indianapolis Star; Dave Preston, WTOP Radio (Washington, D.C.); Scott Richey, Champaign (Illinois) News-Gazette; Dylan Sinn, Fort Wayne (Indiana) Journal Gazette.

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Eric Olson, The Associated Press