Here's What Matt Painter Said After No. 1 Purdue Basketball's 70-68 Loss to Rutgers
PISCATAWAY, N.J. — No. 1 Purdue basketball faced its first true road game of the season against Rutgers on Thursday night at Jersey Mike's Arena. After shooting just 41% from the field and making seven of their 26 shots from the 3-point line, the Boilermakers suffered a 70-68 loss.
Purdue coach Matt Painter met with the media following the defeat, and here's what he had to say:
Q: Just walk us through the last minute. Some of the turnovers. And what all you saw about the way you finished the game.
PAINTER: The offensive foul that was in front of us, it was hard for me to see. There was two guys wedge there, and he kind of took his head low. I didn't see the foul, if there was one. When Jaden Ivey gets trapped there in the corner, and they call the travel, it's so far away from me, I can't see that.
I thought we did a good job executing at the end on that play to get the ball to Trevion. It's hard because when you don't have a timeout, you want to call one right there and set your defense. They want to call one probably and set something up. We didn't have one, so we told our guys right away you got to get back right away, not let him advance it.
And it's a little sticky because you want everybody to crash right there because you're in a tough spot. So like everybody needs to crash because you get somebody back on defense, and then you miss it, you want as many bodies as you can to get the basketball. Now you got to really go and run and get turned around.
I thought we did a good job. I haven't watched it yet on video, but I thought we did a good job of being aware of him being there, making him turn. He went to his left hand. He kind of gets through, and now you're making a little bit harder as he gets that shot.
Coach Keady used to always talk about it, when you go on the road, you got to be 10 points better than somebody. Because if you allow it to be close, crazy things can happen. We allowed it to be close. You know, we had a couple free throw box outs we didn't get, we turned the ball over there late, we get an offensive foul. Crazy things happen. And obviously that shot was a once-in-a-lifetime type shot, but we allowed it to be close.
When you look at it, we out-rebound them, we have fewer turnovers, but they shot better. And that's what can offset the possessions. We had way more possessions than they did. They shot better from three, they're more efficient. They shot better overall, and they shot better from the free-throw line. So give Rutgers credit.
Q: A lot of cutting from their bigs, what were they doing to give you problems defensively?
PAINTER: In the first half he got away from us with those threes. And we talked about him not getting any triple threat jab threes, and we let we let him do that twice. Then he gets two pin downs, it makes a really tough shot, and we foul him on one of them. So right away, if you let a guy move and shoot and you contest it, you prefer him not to shoot it, but you're still making the move and shoot.
But when you just let him stand still and jab and shoot them, those were the ones we said just make him dribble the basketball in those situations. Don't let him get in that comfort zone.
In terms of those guys cutting and moving, you just got to protect the paint. More than anything, you gotta protect the paint, you got to keep the ball out of the paint late in the game.
They kind of had guards and they backed us down a little bit and made a couple of those plays. McConnell made a couple of tough pull ups.
They played well, they had a really tough game against Illinois. I told our guys, you won't see that team when you come in here. You'll see a totally different team. Whether Geo plays or not. Those guys will rebound from that. They will compete, they will play. I think this is the fourth game in a row that they beat us. They're very blue collar. They're tough, give them credit.
Q: What did Ethan Morton give for the team in the second half?
PAINTER: He gave us someone that can guard Ron Harper. That was the whole thing, like the guys that were guarding Ron Harper before, and we get into some switching things where everybody can guard him.
Ethan was very good in the first half and gave us a lot of really good minutes. Just someone who was active who can pass the basketball, he made a great hustle play on that rebound to give Sasha that three. So I thought he was really good.
Q: Is the team still finding its way defensively?
PAINTER: When you have a bigger team and they play a little smaller, you got to be able to adjust to that a little bit. I think that's more of us just kind of growing as a defensive team. More than anything for us, I just didn't think in the first half, even though it's obviously a close game and half, we didn't value possessions.
We have about a handful of plays, shots that we just absolutely shouldn't take and now it's not that big a deal, and then when you get beat at the buzzer, it sure looks like a big deal there. We would like to have about a handful of those back but I think there's a lot of coaches that kind of feel that way with every game that they coach.
Q: Just 27% from three, was it something they were doing to stop the team from shooting well?
PAINTER: We got those those big guys and they get a lot of attention. And with that, you're gonna get a lot of like open looks. So I think we had a couple threes that I would say were shots you probably shouldn't take but, 90% of what we took were pretty good shots. We didn't make it.
It's one of those things, it's being able to make shots at home, make shots on a neutral court, make shots when things are going your way. But now when things aren't quite going your way, and you're on the road, it's just harder. And some of our guys just haven't been through that
Q: Is this a wakeup call for a good team moving forward?
PAINTER: You can look at it two ways, you can look at it as a wake up call or a team like Rutgers played really well. You still have to give credit to the team that won. I don't know as much as a wake-up call. We need to value possessions better, we need to box out on free throws.
Each guy needs to be better defensively. We have some some guys that are really cerebral, good shooters, good passers, know how to play. But then, the other other parts of the game, rebounding the basketball, defending, just being able to be a little bit better be in possession better across the board.
Q: What had to be better offensively to start the game?
Make shots, don't take bad shots. We want to establish our big guys, that's no secret no matter who we play. Zach got a couple right away, he was little bit too far. Didn't take his time, then he gets a basket. Trevion comes in right away and gives us a boost and really does a good job. But more than anything, just getting some shots and rhythm.
And when you don't have them, unless you're in a low clock, now we just have to be able to have that efficiency. We have a very efficient team, but we didn't play like it today. We didn't we didn't play bad. But you got to be a little bit more efficient. You know, you got to probe the defense a little bit more, get a little bit better shot.
Stories Related to Purdue Basketball
- PURDUE FALLS TO RUTGERS ON THE ROAD: Ron Harper Jr. hit a buzzer beater 3-pointer to give Rutgers a 70-68 win over Purdue, the Boilermakers’ first loss of the season. Senior forward Trevion Williams led the team with 21 points and 11 rebounds. CLICK HERE
- PURDUE, RUTGERS LIVE BLOG: No. 1 Purdue was on the road against Rutgers at Jersey Mike's Arena in its first road matchup of the season. The Boilermakers fell to 8-1. CLICK HERE
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D.J. Fezler is a staff writer for BoilermakersCountry.com. Hailing from The Region, he is from Cedar Lake in Northwest Indiana and has spent the last two years covering Purdue football and basketball.