What Matt Painter, Zach Edey, Braden Smith Said After Purdue's 76-75 Loss to Wisconsin
Purdue came up short of making its third straight Big Ten Tournament championship appearance this season, dropping a 76-75 overtime loss to Wisconsin in the semifinals. The Boilermakers will head to the NCAA Tournament with a 29-4 record while the Badgers advance to the Big Ten Tournament championship on Sunday.
Although it was a disappointing outcome for Purdue, Zach Edey did achieve another milestone. He became the program's all-time leading scorer, passing Rick Mount for the No. 1 spot.
After the game, Edey, Braden Smith and coach Matt Painter all met with the media. Here's what they had to say.
Matt Painter's opening statement ...
Painter: "Congratulations to Wisconsin. Obviously it was a hard-fought game. I thought we did a great job in the second half and overtime rebounding the basketball. They outrebounded us by one in the first half. We dominated the glass in the second half.
"After that, I thought the big stat of the game was — kind of our magic number, if we get 14, 15, 16, 17 turnovers, I know it's only our fourth loss but all four losses we're right in there. Just gotta do a better job across the board of taking care of the basketball.
"You can look at individual plays all through the game, just needed one more stop somewhere, one more score, one more free throw to put this game out of reach and get to two possessions late.
"Give credit to them, I thought Chucky Hepburn played really well. Didn't turn the basketball over, had 22 points on 12 shots. I thought we did a good job on AJ Storr, even though he had 20 points it took him 23 shots to get there. (Tyler) Wahl had been someone who scored against us in the first two games, he didn't here. Kinda neutralized him. I thought Klesmit was real solid and made some plays for them.
"We have a good group. We have a good team and we'll respond from it and we're looking forward to playing in the NCAA Tournament."
On Edey becoming Purdue's all-time scoring leader ...
Smith: "It's unbelievable. We're all super proud of him. He's worked his butt off to get here in the first place. He's a great teammate and the thing is, at the end of the day, he won't take credit for himself. He'll always point to us and say he got here because of us and we're helping him and all that stuff. Awesome accomplishment for him."
On how Purdue bounces back from a loss ...
Edey: "Yeah, I think that's been a big area of growth for us compared from last year to this year. I think last year it kind of rattled us, shook our confidence. I think this year we all know who we are, we know what type of team we are and we know what we can do.
"I think when you take a loss — like this year it doesn't shake us at all. We stay true in what we believe and we believe in ourselves. That veteran presence of being through a full season as a team."
On the eagerness to find success in March Madness ...
Smith: "Yeah, I don't think we're really worried (with) what happened last year. I think we're focused on now and I think that's in the past. I've said it multiple times, they beat us that day and they played better than us. I don't think it'll happen again. We're all excited and ready for this upcoming week."
On Purdue's issue with turnovers coming in bunches ...
Painter: "The sequence in the second half that — that flurry — we just weren't concentrating. Just running some of our stuff and literally throwing the ball before we're looking for the receiver. You run a lot of stuff dry in practice with no defense, and so are you really concentrating?
"When someone's defending, you throw the ball to the offensive player as much as you throw the ball away from the defensive player. So, it's that combination. You don't just whip it because they're being guarded. We had three turnovers right there where we just threw it to Wisconsin.
"You gotta give Wisconsin credit. I liked their pressure. I thought Chucky was really good on the basketball. The other guys did a good job of just trying to push out some of our things. But I didn't think our details and starting plays was great there for a handful of possessions, we got pushed out too far.
"The thing is, if they want to push us out too far, is that when we do throw the ball inside, it's a long run. So, it helps us as much as it hurts us. ...
"Just concentration. We gotta do a better job concentrating and taking care of the basketball."
On Smith's injury and if it bothered him during the game ...
Painter: "No, it didn't. And that's what I was watching. I think a lot of times with competitive guys, they're always gonna tell you that they're OK and you gotta watch them through the game. But you really gotta have your trainers — we have a great trainer in Chad Young — I told him, 'Hey, you just gotta tell me if you see him favoring it or if you see something.'
"I'm watching the game. I'm not watching one person. Everything he did, and he warmed up for about 45 minutes, our (graduate assistants) watched him do stuff. I said, 'Hey, you gotta be honest. Just tell me if he's favoring it or if he's not 100%, he doesn't need to go.' They all said not at all and he was fine. Obviously he went out there and did some good things."
On players playing different positions ...
Painter: "I thought we played a lot of people. Myles played and did some good things. I thought Cam Heide did some good things. Cam really rebounded the ball. Trey (Kaufman-Renn) playing some (center) for us after he's played the (forward).
"We get to where we're gonna maximize Zach, we'll go smaller with Mason because of his ability to shoot and keep that guy out. A lot of times are gonna come with the second-biggest guy out there. That's really helped us with things.
"I think Lance playing the point some and Trey playing some five and Cam and Myles getting more experience and being able to play in these type of environments can definitely help us."
On if losing on Saturday is a 'blessing in disguise' ...
Painter: "Yeah, I think that's hard to quantify, right? But yeah, you hope that's the silver lining. You get more rest, you get home at a decent hour tonight and watch the show tomorrow and get ready for playing on Thursday or playing on Friday."
On what Edey has meant to the program ...
Painter: "It's fabulous, man. Being the all-time leading scorer and rebounder at a school like Purdue with great basketball tradition is really unbelievable. You look at both of those with Joe Barry Carroll (rebounding) and Rick Mount (scoring), who are just legends at Purdue, and for him to be able to do that and be humble.
"He's a good teammate, he's a competitor, he's a selfless teammate, you know, he's everything that you want in a player. I've never seen somebody so good get so much sh** for no reason. You know what I mean? It blows my mind. I played with Glenn Robinson, I've been around big-time players, big-time people. It blows my mind.
"All the things that go on and happen in a game, just because, people with his size are normally not very good at basketball. He's really good so he gets a lot of attention, but he's stayed grounded. He's stayed grounded, he keeps his composure and we're proud of him for everything he's accomplished."
On Edey defending the inbounder at the end of regulation ...
Painter: "I had to put him on somebody. They went small. So, I can keep him at the rim and then we don't matchup and they hit a three and they beat us, right? When they went small, the one guy that is still out there triggering that pass is Tyler Wahl. That was their center on that play. So we tried to angle it as best we could ... I mean, it's kinda where you want the basketball unless they throw the ball out to half court with three seconds to go.
"Like, he went to the corner. Now, you want to take that three away so it doesn't beat ya, but then you want to have some resistance when he puts it on the deck. We kinda played it like we're up three and who cares if he hits a two? Well a two sends it to overtime.
"We just had to give a little resistance right there, and then now we're gonna get him into a tough two, a tough pull-up, and that's what you want. He just got a clear path to the rim."
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