Everything Matt Painter Said After Purdue's 100-71 Win Over Rutgers on Senior Night

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue left Mackey Arena on a positive note on Tuesday night. The Boilermakers posted an impressive 100-71 victory over Rutgers in the final game at Mackey Arena for the 2024-25 season. Not a bad way to send out lone senior Caleb Furst.

The Boilers were red-hot from the floor, connecting on 18-of-36 three-point attempts for the night. Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer both finished the game with 23 points, Trey Kaufman-Renn scored 16 and Gicarri Harris added 11. Myles Colvin also came off the bench and gave Purdue some strong minutes, scoring nine points.

In his final home game, Furst had nine rebounds and scored two points, a thunderous alley-oop from Braden Smith that he hammered home in the first half.

Following the dominant win, coach Matt Painter spoke with reporters about the outcome. Here's everything he had to say.

On the impact Caleb Furst has had on the program ...

Painter: "I think anytime somebody is a part of success, a lot of times when you have to play a role, you get defined with the personnel, with great players and how you mix with guys. Sometimes it gets difficult, right? You can look Trevion Williams, Jaden Ivey, Zach Edey, Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer — for him, I think it gets looked at as a standard of excellence on and off the court.

"For him, being defined through his adversity. He had a lot of success, but there's some personal adversity there where you don't play as much as you did earlier. So, for him to end his career by being part of that spark when we went to Minnesota and getting going and playing better really defines him. But it also defines him in how he handled himself when things didn't go his way.

"I think that's the big picture — it's taking an opportunity and a scholarship and not just getting a degree, it's trying to have a better life, understanding right from wrong. He was raised the right way, education is important, family is huge to him.

"Honor to coach him. Good dude. Good dude across the board."

On the rebounding effort from Furst in the second half ...

Painter: "It was huge. We can't get to that point of getting in transition and getting them on their heels if we can't get turnovers and we can't get rebounds. Now, we're getting ready to have the greatest challenge in that area because Illinois is one of if not the best rebounding team in the country. They just put on an exhibition the other day in crashing the glass and just being quick to the basketball, being physical.

"I thought our guys were great. I thought they did a great job and were able to get them switching defenses and getting things in transition. We were able to score in transition, we got them switching defenses, trying to slow us down, and our guys were just fundamentally sound. They made the right play, moved the basketball and took the shots that came their way."

On the benefit of seeing the shots going in at the end of the season ...

Painter: "As long as you understand how you got to that point — you make good decisions, you execute, because you want to keep getting good shots. The more of a quality shot you get, the better chance it is to go in. So, don't think, 'I'm going to shoot more in this next game.' (Think) 'I'm going to get in rhythm when I get my shot.' That answer is different for each guy. Everyone has a different skill set. Sometimes there's more similarities than differences, but that's what you have to be able to do. Don't have pre-determined thoughts, play the game, be efficient. I thought tonight we were really efficient.

"Braden and Fletch, they took 25 threes between them. Outside of one by Braden, 24 out of 25 were good shots. That's what you want to do. You're going to have to be able right your defense and rebounding at some point, you just are. Can we get into those games and grind it? But if you're making shots and you're setting your defense, now you're really giving yourself that advantage. Now, they're not stealing points on you in transition."

On how Purdue can start better in second halves like it did vs. Rutgers ...

Painter: "Obviously we got good shots and the ball went in. We were able to make it and we were fortunate. Sometimes you get good shots and you don't shoot that high of a clip. But I thought we were able to steal their spirit right there and get the game up to 17, 18, 19, 20 points real quick.

"Anytime you're able to do that with that surge right there — sometimes when the game is tied and there's an 8-0 run, well, you're down eight points. It's not that big of a deal. You'd prefer not to be there, but it's not that big of a deal in the great scheme of a game and how it goes up and down.

"But when you're up nine and you do that, now you're up 17 and you just start adding to that. They tried to adjust, and with that our guys made good decisions. Everything always looks better when the ball goes in."

On Purdue being good offensively in half court and in transition ...

Painter: "You want that balance, and sometimes that balance doesn't present itself if you're not forcing turnovers. I think the Wisconsin game is probably the greatest example — we were really good in the half court offensively, it just didn't appear that way because they were great. But, from a defensive standpoint, we couldn't get stops. So, just think of that game and now we get seven or eight more stops. You win the game.

"You have to give yourself opportunities to be able to get out in transition, you've got to get them on their heels in some way. You can't just go at people in the half court the whole way. If you do, it gets really hard against quality people."

On getting contributions from others outside the Big 3 ...

Painter: "I thought our bench was really good, not just making shots, I thought they did some really good things. Obviously, we were better in the second half defensively than we were in the first half.

"Just staying with it, taking shots that came their way, I think that was (important). Myles made a couple right away."

On Myles Colvin subbing himself in early in the game ...

Painter: "Myles subbed himself in the game to start the game. If you can pull that off — I thought it was beautiful. Think about that, if you can just sub yourself in? That wouldn't be chaotic, would it?

"He's like, 'I heard you say my name.' I'm like, 'No.' It was a hell of a try. He got a shot up, too. I love it.

"I just sat there, I was stunned. I kind of took a poll of our assistants. Like, did CJ say he was hurt? He just subbed out. (We asked) CJ, 'Are you hurt?' He's like, 'No.' I was just trying to find an answer to make sense of what he did.

"I mean, good for him. He's grown a lot — if you can finagle it and get yourself in there. What can you do when you check in, right? 'Hey, I didn't have permission from the coach.' They don't care. You don't have to take a note to the scorer's table. I thought we grew in that area."

On what scoring 100 points does for Purdue's confidence moving forward ...

Painter: "Each game, different style, different venue, playing on the road. I think it gives us confidence in our decision-making more than anything. I thought we made good decisions. It's going to be a tough game on Friday. But just, for us, I think you really want to look at the last six games.

"We weren't very good in the second half in our four-game losing streak. We were better in the second half in the last two games. You have to play a 40-minute game. We weren't doing that before. We were putting ourselves in position to win all of those games. We were not out of it. Sometimes you go on the road and you just have a bad experience, you just weren't there, it wasn't your night. In our four-game losing streak, that wasn't the case.

"We had a couple second halves that were poor, but you're at the halfway point of the game, that's when you're going to make adjustments. Like, hey, this isn't working. But, when you're up 12, up 6, I forget what the Michigan score was, but we're up one against Wisconsin, down two or three against Michigan State. That consistency.

"We didn't take off and run away from UCLA, but we maintained and hung in the game, so I think that built confidence, and then we closed the game out really well. We made shots at the end of the UCLA game. We were good at the start of the second half (tonight), about as good as we could be. I think that's a positive for us to really build off of."

On if he's ever seen an 8-point possession ...

Painter: "I don't think so. I said it when it happened, I said they're going to hit a three right here and it'll be eight points, and presto. He hit it, he had the (Flagrant 1), then they hit another three. It was definitely an F1."

On Furst being more consistent on the boards ...

Painter: "Go get them. Go get it. Get angles, understand where the ball's coming from, flash to the ball and go get it. Embrace the physicality of the game, work people out from the baseline on short shots, on long shots be as active as you can be, because long shots go long and short shots go short.

"Just go after it. Coach Lusk was on him, like, 'We need to get eight to 10 boards from you here.' And the fact — Cam didn't have a big rebounding game, but he didn't play as much. Cam really, really helped us in the previous game. We've got to get it collectively. We outrebound them by 14, but that wasn't the case to start the game. We have to do a better job starting the game rebounding. But it was great to see him get nine and Trey Kaufman-Renn get eight."

On Braden Smith being more aggressive shooting the basketball ...

Painter: "Sometimes they're switching defenses and they're going to zone you and you're going to get some catch-and-shoots you may not get against man-to-man. We do a lot of ball-screen actions where he comes off, and we really want him to come off there pulling the trigger.

"When they're taking that away, that opens up alleys for him to pass. Especially short rolls and pocket passes to TK. I thought TK's decision-making was really good. He found guys at the rim, he shot his floater, when he gets comfortable there and just has a pause, that's when makes a decision.

"They've put two people on the ball with Braden, so automatically you're in a 4-on-3 situation. They can handle it differently. If they help up, you've got the dunk. They come from the opposite corner, you've got the spray-out three. They come ball side, now they Cover 2 over there and you've got to be able to figure it out. But if you dive when that happens, that's normally going to pull that guy over in Cover 2 and you can just skip it, or hit that guy if they're going to ignore it.

"There's some different angles where it comes to him at the nail or the elbow areas. A lot of those guys can't make that little shovel shot. That's what separates him, you've got to honor that. He shoots that at about a 60 to 70% clip. You've got to honor him shooting that.

"A lot of times, people will just stay home, make him dribble and then they don't have the ability to make those and they stay home with the threes. So, his decision-making and his maturity in that area really helps us. What it does for us is — Braden is such a great decision-maker, and now he's grown as a decision-maker. In a different sense, he kind of plays that point forward if they play ball-screen defense when we can get the short rolls.

"That's what people will kind of look at and say, 'Why didn't you short roll?' They're not letting us short roll, they're taking that away. That's why Braden has to be aggressive when they take it away."