What Matt Painter Said After Purdue's 81-70 Loss to Penn State
Mistakes were a theme for Purdue in Thursday night's Big Ten opener against Penn State, resulting in an 81-70 loss for the Boilermakers. It was an ugly night across the board for anyone wearing a black-and-gold uniform.
Following Thursday's game, coach Matt Painter spoke with reporters regarding the performance. Here's everything he had to say.
On his overall thoughts of the performance ...
Painter: "When it's that many turnovers, when your top-three players have 15, you're always going to look at it from your perspective. I think I'd be remise if I didn't start it off by giving them the credit, because I thought they were pretty good. I thought Ace Baldwin did a really good job of trying to disrupt Braden (Smith) and pushing him into doing things.
"We talked about ... we've played N.C. State, we've played Ole Miss, we've played Alabama, we've played some real people. So it's not like it's been beating people at home we should beat, but I thought they did a fantastic job. Give them all the credit in the world. I thought we did a poor job of handling it. As the head coach, I didn't get them ready to play. Even though we have played against this style multiple times in the conference.
"You've got to show up and play. You've got to take care of the basketball. You look at the numbers and it gets a little pushed out, because when the game gets ugly. If you look at the shooting numbers, we just didn't have enough opportunities, when you have 24 turnovers. In the first half I didn't think they were great. I think if they would have been great and really had it going, the game would have been over then. It wasn't over then, but closely after that.
"We had driving with their weak hand when they shouldn't be doing it, we had guys catching the ball in the post and just being loose with it and losing it, making cross-court passes. We just have to have a better concentration and better toughness about us."
On the blame not falling on Purdue's top-three players ...
Painter: "It starts with them. They play the most minutes, they've been the most productive, they've had really good careers. But you've got to be good in your next game, no matter what's happened. We had a great win against Alabama, then we weren't very good against Marquette. We win that tournament with N.C. State and Ole Miss — which, they're real — and we don't respond very well after that.
"Success will mess with you. Failure is something that a competitive person always responds to, but can you compete, concentrate after you've had some success and not let that weaken you. We had to do a better job as a staff, I had to do a better job getting them ready. I don't know what I would have done, I would have said the same things. But, we obviously weren't ready. I think you have to give Penn State a lot of credit."
On how things snowballed out of control ...
Painter: "Just like good plays can lead to other good plays, bad plays are the same way — contagious. More than anything, I talked to our team about just now, it's that you've got to work through your first seven, eight, nine, 10 games. But it just has to be about winning. The sooner you can get over yourself, you're going to win more. We have a lot of good dudes, really good dudes. They care about Purdue, they work hard, but, if we're in the front line of a war like we were just now, we'd all be dead. Our fight wasn't even close to Penn State's fight. It wasn't even close. Not remotely close.
"They played good. They played great defensively. But they were just OK offensively. They've had way better games than this right here. Look at their shooting percentage, it was good but it wasn't great. Sometimes, you go out there and it's not your day, but man, 'You're not getting an offensive rebound on me.' 'If that ball's loose, I'm going to get it.' 'I'm going to fight somebody here. I'm going to get after it.' I don't mean physically doing it or knuckling up or anything like that.
"We just didn't have that tonight, we didn't have that fight. And that's what you have to have to win. This should have been a grind-it-out game for us, if we take care of the basketball. Obviously, we couldn't, so there's the game."
On his technical foul ...
Painter: "It's interesting how you get technicals when your team plays like shit. That's the gist. The story of the game is Penn State took it to us. When you get in that thing and you don't think you have enough fight, I'm going to fight for some calls and try to get our guys going."
On finding a balance between playing aggressive and playing smart ...
Painter: "Play to your strengths. (Trey Kaufman-Renn) is getting the ball in the post, that's his strength. (Fletcher Loyer) is a good right-hand driver and he can get to his pull-up, he can get to the basket, but he's got to get to two feet when you get stuck.
"When you get in that beehive, you've put yourself in that beehive. Be strong strong enough and smart enough to get that ball out of there. If you just keep going in there and you're going to lose it, it doesn't make sense. That's insanity. You have to pick and choose you battles, have better ball movement, just better decision-making overall."
On his conversation with Penn State's Freddie Dilione V during the game ...
Painter: "Yeah, I cut him from USA Basketball. Lovely, right? You'd be amazed, like, I've been with USA Basketball 17 years. We handle the 18 and 19 unders. Every time you go there, you're cutting great players. If I gave you a list of guys through the years — I'll see them sometimes in Vegas or different places and I just want to run and hide, because you've got 23 great players there and you've got to get it to 12.
"He was one of the guys that we cut. So, I asked him if that was the reason they took it out on me. I'm going to get a lot of losses if that actually holds true. It was all in fun. Happy for him. It's hard in basketball, it's hard to find your place and looks like he's got a niche here. And good for him, good for him because sometimes through recruiting you don't get that. He's found a home here and he's been successful. I'm happy for him."
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PURDUE MISTAKES COSTLY VS PENN STATE: Purdue had 24 turnovers, struggled from behind the 3-point line and couldn't convert at the free throw line, resulting in an 81-70 loss to Penn State. CLICK HERE
