Purdue women's basketball signs former Arkansas guard, JUCO national champion
Former Arkansas guard Kiki Smith will join Purdue in 2025-26, Smith confirmed to the Journal & Courier.
Advertisement
Smith averaged 10.2 points and shot 40.6% from 3-point range. She started in 22 of 27 games during her sophomore year with the Razorbacks in 2024-25.
Before attending Arkansas, Smith was named the 2024 NJCAA DI Women's Basketball Player of the Year and First Team All-American after leading Hutchinson Community College to the program's first NJCAA National Championship in 2024.
More: Purdue women's basketball guard Madison Layden fueled by family and closure
Arkansas guard Kiki Smith (2) looks for a path past Vanderbilt guard Mikayla Blakes (1) during the first quarter at Memorial Gym in Nashville, Tenn., Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025.
The addition of Smith comes as a huge splash for the Boilermakers that was sorely in need of a perimeter threat.
Purdue ranked 142nd last season in 3-point field goal percentage as a team at a 32.1% clip while Smith was the 28th best 3-point shooter in the country ahead of former Notre Dame turned Texas Christian guard Olivia Miles.
Advertisement
More: Purdue women's basketball guard Madison Layden fueled by family and closure
Smith originally signed a scholarship to the University of Evansville before choosing the junior college route at Hutchinson and led the Blue Dragons to an undefeated 37-0 record.
The 5-foot-7 Smith proved she could play at a high level against the country's top teams.
Smith scored 18 points and went 7 of 13 from the field including 4 of 8 from 3-point range against South Carolina on Feb. 20.
The season high 23 points for Smith came against Alabama on 8 of 15 shooting including 4 of 9 from 3-point range on Jan. 19. Smith sank four 3-pointers on nine different occasions last season.
Arkansas guard Kiki Smith (2) pushes past Texas Longhorns guard Shay Holle (10) during the game at the Moody Center on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025.
Smith enters her junior year after Purdue added former Northern Arizona guard Taylor Feldman while seeing the return of Madison Layden-Zay who starred in 2020-21 to 2023-24 before taking a year off last season.
Advertisement
Purdue returns incoming sophomore forwards Lana McCarthy and Kendall Puryear. Puryear averaged 7.2 points and 3.7 rebounds last season primarily off the bench with one start and McCarthy averaged 6.4 points and 4.8 rebounds with 26 starts.
More: Northern Arizona guard Taylor Feldman joins Purdue women's basketball
Junior guard McKenna Layden is the lone returning guard for Purdue from 2024-25 after making nine starts and averaged 4.6 points and 4.2 rebounds.
Purdue hopes to get consistent results from incoming freshmen 4-star guard Keona Douwstra of Netherlands and 6-foot-7 center Avery Gordon.
Gordon, from Brownsburg, Ind., is the 63rd ranked recruit of the 2025 class by ESPN shot 59% with 20.3 points, 10.3 rebounds and 3.3 blocks during her senior year.
Advertisement
Ethan Hanson is the sports reporter for the Journal & Courier in Lafayette. He can be reached at ehanson@jconline.com, on Twitter at EthanAHanson and Instagram at ethan_a_hanson .
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Purdue women's basketball signs Kiki Smith from Arkansas
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
24 minutes ago
- USA Today
LSU football cornerback leads all returning SEC defensive backs in key stat
LSU football cornerback Ashton Stamps didn't earn Preseason All-SEC honors at SEC Media Days, but LSU fans should be optimistic about the junior corner entering 2025. According to PFF, Stamps and Texas cornerback Malik Muhammad each broke up nine passes in 2024, which is the best mark among returning SEC corners in 2025. Playing opposite of Zy Alexander, Stamps was thrown at a lot in 2024. Stamps was targeted 60 times, but with nine pass breakups and a forced incompletion rate of 18%, Stamps made consistent plays on the ball. Stamps wasn't able to convert any of the pass breakups into picks, though. Stamps' 2024 play was up and down, but his ability to disrupt and force incompletions is a strong sign we may see a step forward in 2025. Stamps was thrown into the fire as a true freshman in 2023 and struggled with the rest of the LSU defense. But when Stamps got a chance as a full-time starter in 2024, progress was evident. LSU expects a big year from the secondary with Stamps taking another step.
NBC News
25 minutes ago
- NBC News
Summer McIntosh wins first gold medal at worlds in her quest for five
SINGAPORE — For Summer McIntosh of Canada, it's one gold medal won at the swimming world championships with four to go. McIntosh is aiming to win five gold medals in individual events at the worlds in Singapore, and the first one came Sunday in the 400-meter freestyle on the first of eight days in the pool. Only legendary American Michael Phelps has ever won five individual medals in the worlds. He also did it at the Olympics. McIntosh won but did not break her own world record, winning in 3 minutes, 56.26 seconds. Li Bingjie of China took silver (3:58.21) with a late charge to leave American Katie Ledecky (3:58.49) with bronze. A year ago in the Olympics, Ledecky also took bronze in the 400. McIntosh was the silver medalist with gold for Australian Ariarne Titmus of Australia. Titmus is taking a year off and did not swim and has since lost her world record in the event to McIntosh. For Ledecky, a nine-time Olympic gold medalist, it was her 27th medal in the world championships in an astonishing career. She won her first Olympic gold in 2012 in London, and then started adding world championship medals beginning in Barcelona in 2013. About 25 minutes after winning the 400, McIntosh came back and qualified first in the 200 individual medley, clocking 2:07.39. American Alex Walsh was second in 2:08.49. That final is Monday. "I've never done a double like that," McIntosh said. "I think the 400 free, at past world championships and Olympics, I haven't been at my best. And I haven't been where I wanted to be. So, to finally stand in the center of the podium is promising for the rest of the meet." The Canadian added: I think I'm at my best. I'm in the best shape of my life. So now I just have to act on that and put it into all my races." The shock of the first day might have been Chinese 12-year-old Yu Zidi, who was the seventh fastest in qualifying and will swim in the final. Asked her reaction, she replied: "Oh, I'm in," unaware she had advanced. "I will continue to work harder," she added. "I hope to find a breakthrough at these world championships and show my potential." Asked for her reaction to the competition, she added. "You can feel it's quite intense. I try not to think so much and just give it my all." The 200 IM might not even be her best event with the Chinese likely quicker in the 400 IM and the 200 butterfly. Meanwhile, the United States is swimming with what appears to be a weakened team after officials acknowledged Sunday that some members of the team had come down with "acute gastroenteritis" at a training camp in Thailand prior to arriving in Singapore. Nikki Warner, a spokeswoman for USA Swimming, would not say how many fell ill in Thailand. She cited health confidentiality rules. She said all American swimmers had traveled to Singapore. In the other early individual final Sunday, Lukas Martens of Germany won the men's 400 free in 3:42.35, edging Sam Short of Australia who was .02 behind. Bronze went to Kim Woomin of South Korea in 3:42.60. Martens is the defending Olympic champion and also holds the world record of 3:39.96. McIntosh, who won three gold medals a year ago at the Paris Olympics, holds the world record in the 400 free — 3:54.18. She will face off again with Ledecky in the 800 free later in the meet, probably the most anticipated race in Singapore. Though she holds the 400 free world record, McIntosh had failed to win gold in the event in the Olympics or previous world championships. McIntosh will also be after gold in the 200- and 400-individual medleys, and the 200 butterfly. The other two gold medals Sunday were in the relays. The United States was the favorite in both and failed to win either. The Australian women took gold just ahead of the United States in the 4x100 freestyle relay. The Aussies clocked 3:30.60 with 3:31.04 for the US. The Netherlands took bronze in 3:33.89. On the men's side in the 4x100, Australia also took gold in 3:08.97. Italy took silver in 3:09.58 with bronze for the United States in 3:09.64. There were three other semifinal results on Sunday. Qin Haiyang of China took the 200 breaststroke in 58.24 with Paris Olympic champion Nicolo Martinenghi second in 58.62. The Italian was initially disqualified for moving on the blocks, but was later reinstated on appeal. Gretchen Walsh of the United States and Roos Vanotterdijk of Belgium tied in the 100 butterfly in 56.07, and Maxime Grousset of France took the men's 50 fly in 22.61.
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
USC football countdown to kickoff—Cameron Smith in focus
The countdown to USC's 2025 football season is officially on! The Trojans kick off their new campaign 35 days from today. You need something to help you while away the days and hours in the spring and summer. This is one way to do so. In this new series, countdown to kickoff, we will be counting down the days by highlighting a notable Trojan who wore each number. Today, we look at former USC linebacker Cameron Smith. Position: Linebacker Years played at USC: 2015-2018 Career highlights: As a true freshman in 2015, Smith burst onto the scene with a three-interception game against Utah, one of which he returned for a pick six. Funnily enough, however, those would be the only three interceptions Smith would record in his entire USC career. Despite this, he still had an exceptional tenure in Cardinal and Gold, finishing his time with the Trojans with 353 total tackles, 11 passes defended, and 3.5 sacks. Smith earned first-team All-Pac-12 honors in 2017 and second-team honors in both 2016 and 2018. In both his junior and seniors seasons, he was named a team captain. After USC: The Minnesota Vikings selected Smith in the fifth round of the 2019 NFL Draft. As a rookie, he appeared in five regular season games, recording eight total tackles. During the summer of 2020, however, it was announced that Smith would need to undergo open heart surgery, causing him to miss the entire season. He medically retired from football the following year.
