What Matt Painter Said After Purdue's 68-50 Win Over Rutgers
Jersey Mike's Arena has been a difficult venue for Purdue over the past few years, but the Boilermakers were able to secure an impressive 68-50 win over Rutgers on Thursday night.
Despite a four-of-24 night from 3-point range, the Boilers got a big win, thanks in large part to a great defensive effort. Purdue also got another double-double from Braden Smith, who scored 16 points and dished out 14 assists.
After the game, coach Matt Painter spoke with reporters about the performance. Here's everything he said.
On winning impressively when shots aren't falling ...
Painter: "I thought our guys played hard. It's frustrating to execute and get open looks and continuing to miss them, especially from guys who can make them. We just tried to keep that positive vibe and try to keep them on edge and keep playing hard and just keep taking good shots. We didn't want the passer to make different decisions because guys were missing, we didn't want those guys to pass up wide open looks. We just wanted to keep executing, keep taking them.
"I thought our guys made good decisions and really fought hard tonight. We're very fortunate to play (Rutgers) at this time. Obviously, they're going through Dylan Harper being sick, which he's not the same player coming off the floor. Whenever you have somebody like that, your role definition, you're searching that out. You could see late in the game, they got some layups and they got some things, the ball just didn't go down for them. It was just one of those games.
"We're very fortunate to play them at this time, because we all know how talented he is, and how talented Ace Bailey is, and how good of a program these guys have, and how tough they are to play here.
"Gene Keady used to always say, 'It's not who you play, it's when you play them.'
On what he sees from this Rutgers team moving forward ...
Painter: "You just need to get a win more than anything. You've got to build on something, right? I always say this after practices, I always feel like we can beat anybody in the country, or we can't beat anybody. I never feel in-between. Right now, I feel like a million bucks, I think we can beat a lot of people. (Steve Pikiell) probably doesn't feel that. My feeling is not real and his feeling is not real. You just have to get a win. You've got to win a game. And then when you do that, you've got to build on that and try to get the next one and you've got to build confidence from there.
"That's all it is, because they have the pieces. When (Harper's) not healthy and he's such a big piece of it — like, how does this game unfold if Braden Smith has the same flu? He runs everything for us. How does this game unfold, what does this look like if they're healthy and he has the flu? It reverses, yet we both have the same teams. It's just where we are today.
"It's never as bad as it seems, and it's never as good as it seems. If I was in that position, I know (Pikiell) is going to do the same thing. You've got to do whatever you've got to do to get that one victory. It has to start somewhere, right? You have to get that one victory and then build off of that.
On Purdue's recent improvement on the defensive end ...
Painter: "The last two games, obviously we put a lot of attention to (Northwestern's Brooks) Barnhizer and (Nick) Martinelli, but we also know how dangerous (Jalen) Leach and (Ty) Berry are. The same thing holds true here. We give a lot of attention to Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, really try to load up against them. So, they're seeing 10 eyes when they have the basketball, and sometimes that's tough when people space and they have good spacing.
"Even though, two different schematic approaches, we're still trying to do the same thing and get them to score over us. When we have struggled and we have lost is when people get offensive rebounds against us and people score in transition against us. Now, we put them to the free throw line because we're behind plays a lot.
"Tonight, we did a better job of that. We only turned the ball over eight times. So, when you're not turning the ball over — the first half we had no live ball turnovers. Not one turnover led directly to a basket. We're just not beating ourselves. That's more than anything. Purdue can't beat Purdue.
"We did a better job taking care of the basketball, I love our shot selection. We were 4-of-24 from three, 8-of-16 from free throws, nobody is trying to miss shots. I'm not going to be upset with somebody taking a good shot and missing. You just have to stay positive. When guys breakdown, don't do their job, take bad shots, turn the ball over, now we have a problem. Our guys are really buying in, and that's hard, that's hard for guys who come off the bench and don't play as much. Just proud of our guys for the strides we've made since that Auburn game."
On what Gicarri Harris has provided in the last few games ...
Painter: "Similar to Caleb (Furst) more than anything. We were better once again with Caleb. He had seven rebounds, seven points. It's not an earth-shattering line, but we're better with him in the game. We were better tonight with Gicarri in the game. That's what you want to see.
"You look at his line, his line's not earth-shattering either, even though he got four rebounds in 17 minutes. But, he was defending, he was doing little things, he was active, he was engaged out there, and that's what you want to see. Just keep doing it.
"People don't understand that about playing time. Just keep doing your job, keep helping us win and it's a funny thing how your minutes increase."
On the difficulty of building a culture with such high roster turnover (for Rutgers) ...
Painter: "It's the landscape, right? It's not something that any of us created, but here it is. The ones that can adjust on a year-to-year basis are the ones that are going to be more successful. You've just got people leaving, going in the draft, getting hurt, whatever it is. And then you've got new guys. So, you're trying to build with all new guys.
"It's really hard, because what you have to have is — what Rutgers has always had is a great defensive foundation. What he got from Coach (Jim) Calhoun was that toughness, that nastiness, that ability to rebound. They're one of the toughest teams for us to go against. We've had a little bit of a rivalry just going back and forth from a competitive standpoint. Now, you don't have the build up as much.
"So, I think what a lot of people are doing that are getting it figured out — besides just getting really talented guys — is finding those guys in the portal that have those winning qualities. You don't have the time to instill it. You get them in the summer, you get them in the fall, and then you might lose them in spring. It's like dating in eighth grade. Everything's changed, everything is going one thousand miles per hour. When you're used to building and having a guy as a freshman, then having him as a sophomore, then as a junior and keep going up, and now it's different. It's a little bit harder on all of us.
"We've only lost two guys — we've only taken two guys out of the portal in the last four years. We're a little bit different, but every time we lose a game they tell me I should have went into the portal. You know, the geniuses that follow us. Every time we win, we do a good job developing. It's a hell of a roller coaster."
On Purdue's defensive effort ...
Painter: "With all respect to Dylan Harper, we had him at USA Basketball and he's not the Dylan Harper you guys are used to seeing. Obviously, being sick has really, really affected him. You have to make sure you say that first and foremost. He's a special player.
"I thought our guys did a good job, I thought Braden did a good job. After the game was kind of unfolding, (Tyson) Acuff, we were like let's just give our attention here. He's the eighth-leading scorer in the country last year. Ace is trying to get touches, we're trying to fight him for those touches, let's make sure he doesn't get away from us here. We really talked about that in the huddles, give him more attention, because he can go get one. He can get his pull-up, he can shoot threes, he can drive, he's a good scorer. You don't just score 22 points per game in college, I don't care what level you're at.
"Just keeping them out of the paint and making them score over you and not losing our mind when Ace hits tough ones. I played with Glenn Robinson and he would do that. He would kind of steal your morale. Like, what the hell's the problem? Make them score over you, keep them on the free throw line and get them out of rhythm. If they make tough ones, they make tough ones. He's like that, he's a lot like Glenn Robinson in terms of length and being able to make that pull-up.
On the amount of fight and toughness Rutgers has ...
Painter: "Yes, they have it, it's there. When you're searching for roles, it's harder sometimes. When you have a lot of guys that are new, it's hard. It just doesn't come right away. When you look at his teams that are that way — when Caleb McConnell first started, he didn't put fear in you. All of a sudden, Year 2 you're like, 'Oh, he's going to be pretty good.' Then Year 3, 'Hey, be careful dribbling around him.'
"When that ball was loose, whether it was (Paul) Mulcahy, or it was McConnell, or whoever, those dudes were coming. Now, they're just growing with it again. That's how we do it. We signed five freshmen, too.
"They just weren't healthy. If they're healthy against Wisconsin, they're healthy against Purdue, you could have two different outcomes. You've got to keep that in perspective when somebody carries the water like he does. Like, he's that good. He's special. Like I said earlier, give our guys credit, they played hard. But we played them at the right time. You've got to keep it in perspective."
On his message during a timeout after Rutgers cut a 10-point lead to five points ...
Painter: "I thought the response was big time. Obviously, Gicarri Harris is a guy that can shoot the ball for us and he has struggled, but he steps up and knocks that three down. He makes a really nice play. He gets another shot in the same spot and he misses.
"But I thought our guys kept their poise, they were resilient and they made those plays. But you can't go on a run unless you get stops. That's what we were able to do."
On getting a few points in transition off of rebounds ...
Painter: "I thought Caleb was around it. That was a big basket, Cam (Heide's) tip in was a big basket. They had momentum, crowd got into it and that tip in really quieted the crowd.
"But yeah, we have to be able to rebound in traffic. I always talk about watching on film and stopping it and just saying, 'You've got one guy jumping and he's not on our team.' We have to have multiple people jumping for the basketball. You've got to go hit people and go get it. Sometimes, you can't. Sometimes you're in help, sometimes you're doing different things, now when you get behind plays, get in there and scrap and get that basketball.
"You look at it from a possession standpoint, we're plus-six in possessions. If you flip that, things can change real quick. I was pleased with out effort."
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