What Matt Painter Said After Purdue's Loss to Auburn
Purdue dropped a second straight game to an SEC opponent on Saturday, falling 87-69 to Auburn in Birmingham. It was a rough night for the Boilers, who struggled on both ends of the court.
Following the game, Purdue coach Matt Painter met with reporters. Here's everything he had to say after the loss.
On Purdue's defensive effort vs. Auburn ...
Painter: "They play through their center. At the start of the first and second half they backdoor and we just lose concentration. It seemed like every game that I watched on film, they have that start in one of the halves or both the halves, where they just make their first three, four, five shots.
"Really talented team, good team, they have all the pieces. They have a lot of experience, they have great size, skill, they have quickness, they have a lot of guys that can playmake. Really good team, hats off to them.
"You'd like to be in a little bit better position to start to give yourself a chance, right there in the beginning to get off to a better start than we did. It's easier said than done playing against a team of that caliber."
On what sparked Auburn's first half run ...
Painter: "We had the stretch where we missed free throws, missed two front ends on 1-and-1s. Trey missed a couple when he went inside. We missed three straight wide-open threes. So, in that stretch, that really hurt us. We should have, at the worst, split free throws, at the worst, split those threes. So we did a handful of positive things in about a two-minute stretch and got nothing out of it. That was demoralizing. Teams like that are going to steamroll you, because they're so good on the defensive end and, obviously, the most efficient offensive team in the country. That put it at a distance that we could never recover from."
On the play breakdown Auburn used to get lobs ...
Painter: "A lot of what they did, they get a lot of cuts. They get a lot of layups. If you watch, they go into their flex cuts — and (Bruce Pearl) has always run it — and he's mastered the wrinkles of it. They run a lot of stuff off of it.
"They get so many cuts for layups. Tonight, they didn't get any of those on us. We took that away and, with that, they slip up into a pindown and we wanted to stay with that and not switch any of it. We didn't switch any of that stuff, they didn't get any layups, we brought our bigs back, but then we talked about — if you don't get up right there, you're going to be in between and they're going to have that flip-up lob. They got that probably four or five times against us.
"But you're talking about the third, fourth, fifth option that they get to. He's good at his stuff. He doesn't get credit for how good they are. Now I think the country is kind of seeing, because their efficiency numbers are the best.
"Who after 11 or 12 games has an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2 to 1? That's unheard of. I was doing the (free throw percentages) last night when I was going through stuff, they have four guys at 90% or higher. You don't ever see that. You might have a guy or two. It's just amazing, some of the numbers, seeing them. They're a well-oiled machine.
"Back to your question, that was the reason. We were stopping two to three things. To their credit, they kept going on their counters and then getting to that (lob). That's where we were a little bit stuck. We wanted to switch it off at the end, but we're still trying to stop them on their slip-ups. We wanted to stop those threes. They still got a couple of those, too. That was our main thing. We didn't think we were going to be in a good spot if they're going inside and taking advantage, and they're taking threes. We wanted to force them to make those plays at the end.
"But we didn't allow straight-up layups. We did a good job with that. They did a great job moving to their next counter."
On what Purdue learns from playing a difficult nonconference schedule ...
Painter: "I don't doubt our effort today. I don't think it was bad. When teams get you on the run, you're going to break down and lose concentration. You've just got to have a tough mentality about continuing to do your job. We have individuals that we wear out a little bit. They really have a lot of responsibility.
"But, you know, there are thousands of kids across the country that would love that responsibility. With that being said, the guys on our team that have that, have earned that. They've got to keep pugging for us. They just have to keep playing, keep getting better. Learn from it. Understand that they had 23- and 24-year-olds out there. We have one senior and he's a fourth-year senior. We have nobody in there who's a fifth year. (Trey Kaufman-Renn) redshirted and he's in his fourth year, Fletch(er Loyer) and Braden (Smith) are in their third year. We have a couple of guys off the bench that redshirted and are in their third year, but second year playing.
"So, it's just different. They have a lot of experience. They have a guy averaging two points for them who has a career-high of 35. It's just a different world, right? When you can get those fourth- and fifth-year guys, sixth-year guys because of COVID, now you can collectively put it together. Team that with a great coach and a great fanbase, it's tough.
"They can do it. Obviously they can win their league, but they can win it all."
On how Purdue benefits from playing a difficult schedule ...
Painter: "You want to play a great schedule to figure your team out, figure out what you need to work on, but you also want to win. So, we've done it the three previous years and were undefeated in all three nonconferences and played a lot of difficult people. I don't want to go away from that standard. This is where we are. Deal with it. Get better as a coach, get better as a player, get better collectively as a team.
"Now you understand, when you say, 'Hey, you can't let (Johnni) Broome get the ball in this area.' And then when he does get it in that area and makes you pay, well, that's what great players do. But this is what great teams do. We're not a great team. We're a good team and we need to work so hopefully, come March, we can be a great team.
"You're going to have to get through somebody like that if you want to get to an Elite Eight or a Final Four. You're going to have to be able to muster your way through that and play better than them to put yourself in that position, and that's a big statement."
On if there's a silver lining to getting bench guys more court time ...
Painter: "It's hard to be consistent with inconsistent minutes. It's hard to feel good about yourself and have confidence and know you belong, but you don't feel that way because you might not play in a game, or you might play 5-to-10 minutes, or you don't get any shot attempts. It's really, really difficult. So, for those guys to be in there and get some confidence ... that's what we need. We need some guys to be able to step up. But we've also played a certain style for a 10-game gauntlet where they're similar in how they play. That's hard. It's hard with the switching and the athletes and the difficulty they cause. But you can't schedule who you play in the NCAA Tournament, you have to go through some of that to let you know who you are.
"But yeah, happy for our guys, for our young guys to get some experience there."
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