What Matt Painter Said Ahead of Purdue's 2nd Round NCAA Tournament Game vs. McNeese
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Purdue is one win away from an eighth trip to the Sweet 16 under coach Matt Painter. The Boilermakers defeated High Point in the opening round on Thursday and will play McNeese on Saturday in second round action of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.
On Friday, Painter met with media to discuss Thursday's victory, discuss the challenges McNeese presents and plenty more. Here's what he had to say during his pregame press conference.
On the leadership roles of Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn ...
Painter: Your leadership and responsibility grows with who we lost more than anything, just being accountable, whether you're on both ends of the court or off the court, just holding other people accountable. The best way to lead is by example. I think all three of those guys lead in a different way, but they have done a good job growing in that area.
On making more offense-for-defense substitutions in recent games ...
Painter: Yeah, it's been Trey's foul trouble and it's also been a bigger center. Last night, that fit, right? They had a bigger center on High Point's team and Trey hits that one foul early which isn't foul trouble but to try to give him a little bit of a breather. And you just don't know when the whistle comes, right? So I have done that before in the second half, and we'll play two and a half, three straight minutes and you want him back in there quicker than that, but that's mainly the reasons.
On the defenses McNeese can throw at Purdue ...
Painter: Right. Well, they switch all the time. I think what was a little different in that game, they went to their 2-2-1 or their 1-2-2 zone press back to a 2-3, which matched up into a man at the end of the possession. I think that was what was a little bit different from that, but any time you think something is going to be your Achilles and it's hard because you're trying to project when you do your schedule, and sometimes your schedule gets out a little bit.
We have faced Alabama. We have faced Auburn. We faced Ole Miss. So we have faced some really good teams. I'm trying to think of the teams off the top of my head that switch and do some different things. So you got to be able to kind of schedule towards something that you think might give you trouble.
About 10, 12 years ago we struggled against a press and I thought it was more personnel based, but it bothered us for a couple years. So we always scheduled (Bob Huggins) at West Virginia, so going in there, we went four years in a row, just as open scrimmages and that really helped us. Hopefully our experience of going against -- and I think more people are switching. Maybe not five ways but different four ways in college basketball now. You obviously see it in the NBA a lot.
But still, it's not what they do, it's really how they do it and how hard they play and how they close down passing lanes and pursuing the basketball. A lot of times when you see somebody press and everybody thinks everybody's presses are the same when in reality it's how much effort you're giving. McNeese gives a lot of effort. They play very, very hard. They get a lot of deflections and a lot of steals. You just have to do a good job of taking care of the basketball. When you drive, you have to drive to space. If you're going to drive to where bodies are, they're going to take the body from you.
On how to counter McNeese's momentum as one of the hottest teams in the country ...
Painter: Yeah, it really doesn't matter what your seed is, they're a great team. Look at them like you're playing Auburn. Look at them like you're playing Michigan State. They have great players. They have a great coach. They gained some steam here and that's the narrative, but when the game starts, the game is still the game and they play hard. So look at them for what they do and make sure you're selling that to your players about how quick they are, athletic they are, how tough they are, how they get into gaps. It's just making a clip tape.
Here's what works against them. Here's what does not work against them. Do as much of this as you can and stay the hell away from this because they've proven that they prey on that, whether it's their extra effort getting extra possessions on the graph, whether it's their pressing ability, their switching into their ball swipes. They are very, very aggressive, but there's a method to their madness. They play very hard and they have rules to what they're doing. So have that discipline and stay with it and then try to build that throughout the course of the game. Because there's going to be mistakes made like there is in every game. Make sure we keep huddle and keep talking and stay on the same page.
On if the transfer portal has helped mid-major programs become better ...
Painter: If you look at all the stops their plays have been to, they have high-major players on their team. Sometimes guys on their team who have never been to a high-major are still high-major caliber players. If you're good, you're good. They have a lot of good players, but more than anything, they're connected.
I just think there's a lot of parity in college basketball, a lot of change in college basketball. Whoever can get enough guys to be good together -- because we see people get into the portal and they have a lot of talent and they underachieve. You see those coaches who do a better job than others just because they have that discipline and get them to buy into their system. That's what he's been able to do here.
You see total buy-in and they have that confidence, that swagger about them where they believe in each other and believe they can go out there and when. Why shouldn't you? You win your league, win your tournament, 14 straight games, you should be confident. Well, these guys have the same resume. They've won 10 straight, but they're had the same amount of wins. They're going to feel that way, you just got to be able to play to your strengths and understand the difficulty that they cause people.
On if the attention on McNeese helps Purdue focus ...
Painter: Yeah, we stay process-based. Being in the tournament, we have had really good wins in the NCAA Tournament. We have had some really tough losses so we have been through a lot. A lot of times, the tough losses you have won't be the group that you have. It'll be five, six years before and they don't feel that sting and understand that. Well, this group has. Our core players, our three leading scorers have been through some tough losses and so once last year and the National Championship game in the year before and the 1(vs)16 game.
They learned hard lessons but it doesn't mean it can't happen again. It can rear its ugly head but it's still the game. They understand that. We didn't get beat by a 16 seed and we didn't respect them. The refs didn't do us in. We got beat straight up. That's a tough pill to swallow but we had to sit in that and we did something about it the next year even though we didn't end up winning the whole thing.
We still did something about it. Kind of shows the character of the guys that we have, but, like, we know how good they are. That's what we do. We just try to stay move to the next game. The narrative can be the narrative. It doesn't matter. Move to the next game, understand what we have to do to be successful.
On how to attack McNeese's defense ...
Painter: We normally start with whatever we call, we stay with. I think that's what they're wanting to get, right? You have to be able to finish it. If you can't get something, how do you attack at the end of a clock? We do a lot of stuff through Braden Smith and our ball screen stuff. No matter who is in the game they're switching everything and you have to attack it from there.
That's the whole part of pressing or picking the ball up, coming into a zone and going into a man. A lot of people in college basketball do it. Do they wait until the second wing pass? Do they wait until the third pass until they match? Does the ball go to the high post before they match? Everybody has their triggers when they match and go man to man. You just have to understand when that happens when it goes, if you don't have a shot by then. But putting a lot of time into it. If you just run your regular stuff all the time against something like that, you're going to get bogged down.
I think that's what you see with teams. It's easier said than done because they will pick up on your pattern and your tendencies so you have to change with them and mix up different things and give different looks, so like you're being unpredictable towards their change.
On the importance on having players fill their roles in the NCAA Tournament ...
Painter: Yeah, having depth is going to help you. There's times where you're not going to be able to get the same volume of shots every game. Those guys will be able to, Braden and Trey Kaufman especially where they're going to get a lot of usage. Sometimes the game, what it brings, Cam's going to get more opportunities or Myles is going to get more opportunities, but you always can defend. You always can rebound, you always can change the game.
Like Gicarri Harris didn't play a whole lot last night until the end, but he had eight rebounds. He was around the basketball. It made sense for him to stay in there and that gave us an extra ball handler in the game. Myles Colvin was very active. Cam might have been the difference from an individual standpoint. Getting a double-double, and they cross matched us to start with. They didn't put their center on Trey Kaufman-Renn. So when we went to Cam they couldn't cross match it. So we stayed with that but we also stayed with it because he played so well.
Our ability to rebound yesterday was the difference in the whole game in terms of we had so many more possessions than them by getting 19 offensive rebounds.
On how Will Berg helped Purdue in Thursday's win over High Point ...
Painter: Yeah, Will's been very professional and that's a hard thing to do. We went to Trey Kaufman as the five from an offensive standpoint the way him and Braden can work. It gives us an advantage and puts centers in tough spots, but it also takes away, we don't have rim protection and we're not as big. And so that's a little bit of the tradeoff and then somebody's normally going to be out there at that time and it was him, and whether that's fair or not, that's the decision that we made.
But he's been very professional, he's stayed with it, kept practicing hard, kept a good attitude. When you do that, you normally play well. You get mad, frustrated, sit there like... it's hard. That's natural, normal behavior, but give him credit. His number was called, and he really helped us.
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BERG'S PROFESSIONAL APPROACH: Will Berg hasn't played much throughout the season, but when his number was called against High Point on Thursday, the sophomore center delivered in a big way. CLICK HERE
HOW TO WATCH PURDUE-MCNEESE: No. 4 seed Purdue will play No. 12 seed McNeese with a trip to the Sweet 16 at stake. Television and radio information, top players, key stats and more. CLICK HERE
