Communication Still an Issue for Purdue Even After 2-0 Start
The average fan probably can't see the biggest issue facing Purdue right now. It's hard to notice on television. Your eyes probably wouldn't even pick it up if you were sitting inside Mackey Arena. But it's something coach Matt Painter has been harping on for weeks.
Painter has been very vocal about his team being, well, non-vocal. Prior to Friday night's game against Northern Kentucky, he spoke about the team's struggles with communicating on the basketball court.
Even after Friday's 72-50 win over the Norse, Painter wasn't overly enthusiastic about the way his team talked on the floor during the game.
"They were just OK. We've got to get people out of their comfort level, we have to do more as a staff," Painter said. "We have too many people that compete like their personality off the court. You can be whatever you want off the court, that's who you are, that's how the Lord made you.
"We're past telling them to talk. We're telling them to yell, because they're probably talking then, right? We've just got to do a better job."
In the first two games against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Northern Kentucky, there have been stretches of sloppiness on both ends of the floor. To the untrained eye, it looks like a group of teammates still attempting to mesh together.
While that might be part of the early-season issues, Painter said that the communication has to get better moving forward, especially on the defensive end.
"We had three or four times tonight — I just remember off the top of my head — we mess up ball-screen stuff. I'm like, 'Why aren't you doing this?' You'll watch it on tape and you'll say to yourself, 'Why didn't we do what we were supposed to?'
"Then you'll go to the guy on the ball and say, 'Did he say something to you?' And he says, 'I don't hear it.' Then the other guy says, 'Well, I said it.' Now you have that debate."
Since the start of practice in the fall, Painter has talked about players being too "quiet" on the court. Even though this is a group that's worked together for months, they're still trying to find their voices on the floor.
It's not an uncommon problem, especially for a young team early in the season. Painter said he's had teams in the past that struggled to communicate, but not to the degree he's experiencing this year.
"Not quite like this, but yes," Painter said. "I think everybody has that challenge to start the season in terms of talking."
So far, Purdue has gotten away with the communication errors. The Boilermakers are 2-0 and have double-digit wins over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Northern Kentucky to start the year. But life is about to get a lot more difficult next week.
Purdue hosts Yale on Monday before a clash with No. 2 Alabama inside Mackey Arena on Friday. In a matchup of that magnitude, the Boilers can't afford to play 40 minutes of quiet basketball.
It's a work in progress right now, but Painter is committed to figuring it out this season.
"We'll get it fixed," he said. "We'll keep working on it."
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PAINTER UPDATES INJURY ON JACOBSEN: Daniel Jacobsen was injury just one minute into Friday night's game against Northern Kentucky. Coach Matt Painter provided an update on the Purdue freshman. CLICK HERE
