What Matt Painter Said Following No. 13 Purdue's 73-58 Loss to Indiana
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Despite owning a 12-point lead at halftime, No. 13 Purdue allowed Indiana to go on a 28-3 run to start the second half and fell 73-58 to the Hoosiers. It was the fourth straight loss for the Boilermakers.
After the game, coach Matt Painter met with reporters to talk about the outcome. Here's everything he had to say following the loss.
On Purdue's struggles in the second half vs. Indiana ...
Painter: "Just a total lack of concentration, more than anything, on our end. The first play, we get them to miss defensively and they get an offensive rebound and end up getting a three. Then, we just start turning the basketball over. We had just played a half of basketball where their pressure didn't bother us at all. It was like Purdue beating Purdue.
"You have to be able to execute and get good shots, even if you miss them, you have to be able to get quality shots to be able to set your defense. You can't play in transition. They didn't get that many offensive rebounds, but to be able to get 44 points in the paint and score 23 points off of turnovers just killed us.
"We put ourselves in a great position just to let it squander away."
On Purdue's lack of composure in the last four games ...
Painter: "That's what's frustrating. We've been able to show poise, we've been able to show composure, especially on the road. Not always, I think it affects everybody at some point. To say we lost our composure is an understatement.
"We started dribbling into things that we shouldn't, our ball movement wasn't good. We have to do a better job. We have to do a better job of just concentrating and executing. Whatever we call, whatever we run, there's a purpose to it. It's not a free-for-all.
"What they were doing to Trey Kaufman(-Renn) and how they were doing it, it was a pretty simple read. It's not a hard read. If they're not going to let you get in there, you pass the basketball and someone else is going to shoot it. What we were doing to go against it to get open looks, he just had to make simple, fundamental plays. We didn't make that.
"Then we didn't get good point guard play. We started to turn the basketball over there. We just have to have better leadership in those areas. Just make simple plays, move the basketball — if they want to take something away, whatever they give you just take it. It's not a hard game.
"When you're the most talented team in the country, it doesn't matter sometimes what other people do. But when you're like the rest of us, there's execution involved. You've got to be able to pass and catch. If they want to double the post or they want to guard a ball screen a certain way, there's ways to go at it.
"I could write a dissertation on how to attack a post-double. We've had some pretty good big guys, so we have a pretty good feel of how to do that. Now, every coach in America could write a dissertation on how to attack ball screen action. No matter what they do, just make the right reads, be fundamentally sound, move the basketball, trust your teammates and play the game. Obviously, we didn't do that in the second half."
On what it might show with Purdue losing a 12-point lead ...
Painter: "It just looked like a lack of concentration to me. I'll have to watch the tape, but there's no recipe for turning the ball over a lot and being successful. There just isn't. It doesn't work that way. You have to be able to play the game without turning it over. Just a lack of concentration. If things don't go your way, you call a timeout, you regroup, you recalibrate as an individual and you understand.
"More than anything, no matter how you feel — you can be angry, you can be depressed, you can be mad, when you're competing, you can still do your job. That's great you feel that way, that's great (their fans) are loud, but you have guys who have played 100 college games that have been in these venues, have been in the final game, have been in a Final Four, have won Big Ten championships. It doesn't mean you're going to have your best game all the time, but you put your best foot forward all the time, if that makes sense.
"We didn't put our best foot forward. We just let it snowball, we just kept making it worse. We have a pretty passionate group, but when that tilts into emotion, we've shown our weaknesses. Any good team, any good individual player — it's always coach driven — you're trying to get them to play to their strengths.
"When you hear coaches talk about role definition, what to do, all they're doing is trying to ge their players to play to their strengths within the individuals on their team. So, as you establish your two, three, four best guys, especially from a scoring standpoint, now you have to be able to fit in there and piece that together.
"But in no situation do you say, 'You know what, he turns it over a lot, that's my guy, I want him.' That's crazy. We've got guys turning the basketball over or not making good decisions that have carried the water for us. That's hard to take because you've seen them do special things. Braden Smith, Trey Kaufman-Renn have done special things for us. They've been fabulous for us. I've been fortunate enough to coach them, but with that being said, you've got to be accountable. And, tonight, we weren't — we did not play to our strengths."
On his emotions after the loss to Indiana (angry, frustrated, want to move on, etc.) ...
Painter: "All of those. You got them. Throw a couple more in there. You go to the drawing board, but at some points — your best is always good enough. When you try your best and you're trying to do what you're supposed to be doing and you fail, it's still good enough. You've got to learn from it, but it's still good enough. When you don't put your best foot forward and you don't concentrate, it's not good enough. You have to be able to go back and say like, 'Hey, I can't put myself in this position.'
"No different than reading a book the second time or watching a movie that you saw 12 years ago. You get to certain points and are like, man, I forgot about that. That's the way the mind works, it doesn't remember everything, it doesn't recall everything. It's like when someone goes up on a stand and they're in a courtroom and it was 20 years ago, and they ask, 'What happened here?' How they recall something 20 years ago.
"We have good guys. We don't have selfishness. We don't have that. That isn't an issue with us. We have an accountability issue and a concentration issue where guys aren't concentrating to do their job on both ends. When they do, we're pretty damn good. We're a good basketball team. But we can't allow the ball to be in the paint, we don't have rim protection. When we go against how we're doing stuff and we allow the ball to get there, we're not going to have success.
"They're not a prolific three-point shooting team. So, now, they make a couple and then our guys act like Reggie Miller hit 10 threes. They overreact. Then all of a sudden, they play the out and now they get dive dunks or dive layups or dive offensive rebounds. It's like, no, we want them to throw it out. We don't want the ball in the paint, we're trying to stop that. We just overreacted to some things today.
"To me, it starts with our concentration and taking care of the basketball. I think that's where it starts and ends for me. Doesn't mean there aren't other issues, because there are."
On how Purdue gets back to the way it played in January ...
Painter: "You watch film and you be honest. Anytime in life when something doesn't go your way, if you'll just be honest about yourself — but I've got to be honest about myself. If you can fix yourself, you can fix them. Make sure you're going into it — with the personnel we have, we're doing the right things to help them.
"I know this, no matter what you decide as a coach, if you don't have 100% buy-in and they don't do their job, you are going to fail, especially on the road. Sometimes you can make more shots, you can be at home, you can be better than the opponent, combination of the three, and then you might think what you're doing defensively or in a certain area is OK. It's not OK. You still won, but it's not OK. It's going to get you at some point. In this scenario, it all snowballed in the wrong direction."
On Indiana's take on the coaching search and the job ...
Painter: "I don't really have a thought on the job. Obviously we compete against them and they're our rivals. (Mike Woodson) is a peer of mine. Even though you compete and want to beat somebody, you want to see other people be successful and keep their job. Just like any of you guys would think the same thing about the people sitting to your left and right.
"It's like anything, you've got to get a good person, you've got to get a good coach, you've got to get a guy to understand it. They've had a lot of turnover. I think you kind of look at some of the common denominators here, more than anything. I think that's an important piece right here. Don't beat yourself.
"Let's support somebody. Try that out for once every now and then. Like, when shit goes wrong — you think Purdue fans are happy about what just happened? See, a fanbase isn't the people that tweet. A fanbase is — when you're bleeding, they support you. They jump on and off things here way too much. Support you coach, man, support your players. Don't tweet negative things about them. Like, be supportive. See how that works for you.
"But they build them up, they overdo things. Quit overdoing shit. Just accurately talk about what's actually happened. Don't get recruits and be like, 'It's Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.' Then they come out here, well, they're not Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, they're good college players. They build it up and are like, 'What's wrong?' They're part of it.
"It's not their total fanbase. Everyone out there has a bad percentage of their fanbase now because of Twitter, and then we think that's their fanbase. It's not our real fanbase, it's not their real fanbase, either. I think that's an important piece.
"It's hard for young people to hear all that and then collectively go out and play. Like, hey man, we're playing for you, but you dog us when we lose and we're the best when we win. We're somewhere in between, right? I think they need to learn from some of those things and support (athletic director) Scott Dolson and support the new coach and support the staff. Kind of be grounded with everything.
"I think they'll be able to have success. It's just a different world now. We have 18 teams, we're going into name, image and likeness and some changes are coming in April. It'll be real interesting to see the landscape for everybody."
On the explanation Painter received regarding Anthony Leal's kick to Caleb Furst ...
Painter: "He just said he kicked him. They said he was going and he pushed back to run when he kicked him.
"So, my whole thing is ... it is what it is. It's basketball, it's competition, it's not that big of a deal. But they have the rules all skewed. Like, Trey Kaufman might have elbowed that guy in the head, he's shooting a jump-hook. I got it. But when I go to turn and shoot a jump-hook and you have your face right there — he didn't haul off and elbow somebody without the ball in his hands.
"They get free throws for that. I don't want free throws from this, if that's not the play. But that's not a basketball play and ours is a basketball play. He's shooting a jump-hook. He's not on the ground ... I don't know.
"It's probably the only committee I haven't been on, the rules committee. I'll probably end up going there. It's frustrating how things get called at times, it really is, when they can go to the monitor.
"I think if I reffed a game, I think I would mess up a lot of shit. I really believe that. I ref in practice and I mess up things all the time. But you let me go to that monitor with a TV, I'm not messing that one up. You let me rewind four or five times, I'm going to get those. But I think our rules our skewed. I don't think they understand basketball plays.
"We had a guy get two-hand pushed in our Michigan game — just two-hand pushed. They went there and were like, 'Nah, just a common foul.' I went back and watched it, it was just ridiculous. Like, if he got pushed and goes into somebody, he could be seriously hurt. It's not a basketball play.
"Or maybe I'm all wet and don't know the rules. I don't think it's 20 points difference, right?"
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PURDUE LOSES TO INDIANA: Purdue was outscored 48-21 in the second half of Sunday's game against Indiana, losing 73-58 to the Hoosiers. It was the fourth straight loss for the Boilers. CLICK HERE
