Purdue Coach Matt Painter Previews NCAA Tournament
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Before Purdue basketball hits the road for its first-round matchup of the NCAA Tournament, coach Matt painter met with the media on Tuesday to discuss the team's preparation.
The No. 1-seeded Boilermakers have struggled in late-game scenarios as of late and narrowly defeated both Rutgers and Penn State during their Big Ten Tournament run. They led by as many as 17 points against the Nittany Lions on Sunday in the championship game and held on for a 67-65 win.
Without knowing its next opponent before Wednesday's play-in matchup between Texas Southern and Fairleigh Dickinson, Purdue is utilizing practice time to improve upon its mistakes.
"You're still having some struggles with it, you're never going to be perfect in the game," Painter said. "So as a coach, that always keeps something there. That's something we'll work on here today.
"We won't go very long, but we'll work on just taking care of the basketball. We'll work on different press scenarios and handling that stuff. But also, what you have to emphasize is a lot of the good things that are putting you in that position."
After taking a 60-43 lead with 6:18 left to play against the Nittany Lions, the Boilermakers were outscored 22-7 from then on. Against a team that it defeated twice in the regular season by an average margin of 16.5 points, Purdue's near collapse was cause for concern with March Madness on the horizon.
"We keep getting ourselves in really good positions and playing well, then we don't finish those games," Painter said. "Some of it is not taking care of the ball when people come and run and jump at us, or press us, or do different things.
"The other one is just not being able to make a wide-open shot to push the lead out. So when you compound that where you turn it over a little bit more and you're missing shots, then the other team feels better about it."
The team is scheduled to tip off in the first round at 6:50 p.m. ET at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. Should the team move on to the second round, it would play the winner of a first-round game between Florida Atlantic and Memphis.
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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.