Here's What Matt Painter Said After Purdue's Win Over Michigan State in the Big Ten Tournament Semifinals
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Head coach Matt Painter and the Purdue Boilermakers advanced to the Big Ten Tournament finals after defeating Michigan State 75-70 on Saturday inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Here's the full transcript of everything he had to say when he met with the media after the game:
Opening Statement
COACH MATT PAINTER: Kind of a unique game. Obviously it was more of a defensive game in the first half. I thought we did a really good job of getting them out of rhythm and contesting their shots, making them shoot tough shots. And obviously in the second half it was more of an offensive gave. We did a good job of just getting them out of rhythm. They made those three or four threes at the end of the game, kind of inflates the stats a little bit and had our prevent defense going, letting them kind of get some looks when we just should have stayed home with the 3-pointer shooters and lived with it.
But I thought our guys, when they cut it to one, they really showed some grit, some character there to be able to make plays. Trevion made some really nice passes. Eric Hunter stepped up and made a couple huge threes in that stretch. I thought that was kind of the decisive run for us to help us push the lead back out and kind of keep it there and never let them get back to two possessions.
But you know, it's going to be a tough game against Michigan State. We out-rebounded them again, which is a great sign. We weren't -- we were able to get to the free-throw line a lot, which we wanted to do and that's hard to do against them. They make things very, very difficult. Then our guys kept our turnovers -- even though they turned the ball over five times less than we did, that number -- having turnovers at 9 for us is really good. So when they beat us on a buzzer shot -- we turn the ball over 17 times during the year, so cutting it by eight gave us eight more cracks at it. so I thought that was good. Any time we had more rebounds and fewer turnovers, we've had a lot of success through the years. Kind of a unique game. Obviously it was more of a defensive game in the first half. I thought we did a really good job of getting them out of rhythm and contesting their shots, making them shoot tough shots. And obviously in the second half it was more of an offensive gave. We did a good job of just getting them out of rhythm. They made those three or four threes at the end of the game, kind of inflates the stats a little bit and had our prevent defense going, letting them kind of get some looks when we just should have stayed home with the 3-pointer shooters and lived with it.
But I thought our guys, when they cut it to one, they really showed some grit, some character there to be able to make plays. Trevion made some really nice passes. Eric Hunter stepped up and made a couple huge threes in that stretch. I thought that was kind of the decisive run for us to help us push the lead back out and kind of keep it there and never let them get back to two possessions.
But you know, it's going to be a tough game against Michigan State. We out-rebounded them again, which is a great sign. We weren't -- we were able to get to the free-throw line a lot, which we wanted to do and that's hard to do against them. They make things very, very difficult. Then our guys kept our turnovers -- even though they turned the ball over five times less than we did, that number -- having turnovers at 9 for us is really good. So when they beat us on a buzzer shot -- we turn the ball over 17 times during the year, so cutting it by eight gave us eight more cracks at it. so I thought that was good. Any time we had more rebounds and fewer turnovers, we've had a lot of success through the years.
Q. Last year when you guys got eliminated early from the Big Ten Tournament, you didn't seem totally crestfallen because you got a chance to go back and rest. Does this team need a run like this? Is it a different circumstance in your mind?
COACH MATT PAINTER: Yeah, I think it is a different circumstance. We lost a couple heartbreakers on the road to Michigan State and to Wisconsin and we didn't play great against Indiana. We were very fortunate to win. I think they had a lot to do with that. So like trying to get into more of a rhythm, whether that's building confidence through playing defense like we did in the first half or making shots or making more shots like we did in the second half, that was -- our Penn State game was a tough win for us. I mean, he did a lot of things to really put us in a bind and they got off to such a good start. So we had to battle back to get that halftime lead.
Then tonight, obviously I thought we should have been in a better position at halftime. We didn't play very well the last three minutes of the first half and the lead was seven. I thought that lead should have been in double figures obviously. I know that's obviously from my perspective. But we hung in there. In both games it got close and it got to a possession under five minutes and our guys responded. I think you build confidence by responding and getting in tough situations. So I do think this was good for us.
When you first start, any time you lose in the Big Ten tournament like it can get you on edge and really help you, and then when you win you always think it kind of softens you a little bit, but who wants to lose. You're trying to win every game you play. It can go any which way. It just can. The winning can really help you in the NCAA Tournament. Getting a loss can get you some rest or get on edge. There's just a couple ways to look at it. You wish as a coach you knew exactly because you really have to forecast your team and have a pulse on your team and yet you have people on your team that haven't been through those experiences.
So it's a real dicey situation as a coach because everybody always wants to know like what concerns you. Everything concerns you, you know. You're just waiting for that collapse. You want to keep building, you want to keep playing well, you want to keep being the aggressor, but then things happen when you go cold or you miss free throws or just kind of those demoralizing things. I thought in the first half we got open shots, so you're in all those huddles saying keep taking your shots, but yet we're missing them. Our defense kind of held in there for us and played well.
It is -- it's a good question, it's a very interesting thing that coaches will always go back and forth. I don't know if there's just one answer. I think you can have one answer for a particular team, but through the years you won't have just one answer.
Q. Michigan State's got a young point guard in A.J. Hoggard who played pretty well against you guys both times and I'm sure you scouted him in other games and saw sort of the ups and downs. I'm wondering what you see from him and what he gives them potentially moving forward.
COACH MATT PAINTER: He's a big point. He bullied us a couple times and got to the rim. He had that one hand one I thought kind of got him going right in front of the bench early in the second half. You can't let him get deep and we just went through a plethora of that with Pickett from Penn State, the way he plays backdown basketball and takes guards and puts them in. So you've got to use your arm bar when you can with him, you've got to able to use your chest and get there, and if you don't, he's just from a physical standpoint going to back up.
What a lot of people have gotten to is the drop coverage in ball screen defense. You see it with Hunter Dickinson, you see it with Kofi. We've moved more to it even though we don't do it all the time, but you're really just trying to stop those flipup lobs that guys get, Bingham gets, Trayce Jackson-Davis gets. You're just really trying to stop that and then stay at home with those 3-point shooters. I know Coach Izzo has talked about it a lot, especially in their prep against us, is that like don't get so worried about those twos. Well, when a guy like that as a point guard is getting those baskets and then he's getting 10 assists, no turnovers, that's a heck of a day. So we were trying to keep him out of the paint. I think it kind of hurt us a little bit when Eric Hunter got that third foul and now he wants to stay in the game, and rightfully so because you saw the way he played down the stretch.
But hats off to Hoggard and think about our loss. Tyson Walker makes a huge shot and beats us and now he gets hurt and gets out of the game. So I think you got to keep that in perspective for Michigan State. they didn't have one of their key guys.
Q. I think Tom Izzo's words were Trevion Williams is the best passer in the state, maybe including some pro players. I'm just curious your thoughts on that.
COACH MATT PAINTER: Yeah, no, he's a great passer. Those two passes that he made to Eric Hunter was -- the one was a definite breakdown because they're staying home with those shooters. If they're not coming and they stay one on one, they've been traditional with that, they're staying home with those shooters. We go 1-9 from three at their place and lose on a buzzer beater, so he really wanted to knock out our threes and make those guys score. But he also knows Zach Edey's so big and Trevion's big that they can get deep and cause you a lot of problems.
Trevion, we try to run a lot of stuff through him whether it's in the low post or high post. The thing that he gets into is that he loves it. He loves the pass, so he threads the needle a lot and sometimes he'll force some things in there. But when he's got it going and he's got you figured out, kind of like a quarterback, when they've got you figured out you're in trouble. You've got to mix some things up on him a little bit.
If you're going to come and double him, he actually likes that. He's the only big guy I've ever coached that actually likes being double teamed. Most big guys are mad because they want to shoot it every single time, but he doesn't, he wants to pass it. That's our rules, when you're one on one, score it; when you're doubled, pass.
Q. You mentioned that little lull in the first half. Have you ever been able to figure out in the course of this season when you have lulls as to what causes that or is it just different things at different times?
COACH MATT PAINTER: Yeah, when it's turnovers, now you're going to get those runouts and you're going to get behind plays and you're going to get layups, so those are the things you have to get corrected. That wasn't the case in this lull. This lull was missed shots. As long as you're taking good shots you're going to have a better chance to set your defense when you take a good shot and miss it versus taking a crazy shot, something that's unexpected, or obviously turn the basketball over. Doesn't mean you eliminate it, but the percentages will show. As long as you keep taking good shots, you should be able to set your defense and know what's going on. So the lulls for us are the turnovers or the bad shots. When we eliminate those or really diminish them, that's when we have success because I think we're second in the country in field goal percentage but yet we're still a good offensive rebounding team. So as long as we can keep having shots -- like tonight we had lulls, but we had 15 offensive rebounds so you only had nine turnovers. So you live with it and you push through it and you're still able to score 75.
Q. Coach, Iowa 40 threes in their first three games. They kind of burned Indiana late in that game. Your thought on the aspect of how important that is and how you feel how equipped you guys are in terms of guarding the three-point line.
COACH MATT PAINTER: Yeah, I think you have to keep in perspective for us, we beat Iowa twice. Keegan Murray didn't play in the first game and Keegan Murray got in fouling trouble in the second game. So keep that in perspective. They will go smaller and really put you in binds and that's going to happen in this game. I don't know how much it will happen, but it's definitely going to happen. They spread you out, they have quickness, they have good size, they can play bigger, they can play smaller, they can score 112 points -- was it 112 the first game? That's a lot of points. I don't know if you guys have ever coached, that's a lot of points.
But they're dangerous. Keegan Murray is a fantastic player. Chris Murray is really good. Patrick McCaffery had a good game today. I didn't watch a lot of it, I just was glancing at it while I was watching on the board. But they're good. Fran's done an excellent job. It really puts you in binds with their motion offense and the way they spread you out. Bohannon can get 10 threes like he did against Maryland, obviously made a big-time shot tonight.
Did he call bank? You guys interviewed him. Did he call that, because that would be great if he called bank.
When you look at guys, you look at that play and he banks it in and it's luck, like how many times have we seen Jordan Bohannon make plays like that? He makes plays like that. He's a terrific shooter, one of the best shooters ever in the Big Ten.
So there's a lot of guys, I could go up and down their lineup. I think some guys like Tony Perkins gets lost a little bit, but he brings a lot of value to the team. He's tough, he's hard nosed, he drives the ball. Toussaint's got an edge to him, he plays hard. Ahron Ulis has really good quickness. They can mix it up, they can put a lot of athleticism out there, they can put a lot of skill out there. They can be big, they can be small.
So I like the way he just kind of messes with things until he finds that right niche. When they come out and get hot right away, he'll roll with those guys more and that's when you see a complete team. You'll see Patrick staying there more, Kris Murray staying a little bit more, just depending on who's rolling. Sometimes Toussaint plays more. They've got a good team and they've got depth. They're going to give a lot of people trouble after they give us trouble tomorrow in the NCAA Tournament.
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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.