Everything Matt Painter Said After Purdue's 62-60 Loss to Houston in the Sweet 16

INDIANAPOLIS — Purdue came up just short in a hard-fought game in the Sweet 16 on Friday night at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Despite a valiant effort, the fourth-seeded Boilermakers dropped a 62-60 decision to top-seeded Houston, ending their March Madness run.

The Boilers conclude the year with a 24-12 record an have reached the Sweet 16 six times in the last eight seasons. After the game, coach Matt Painter spoke with reporters about the outcome. Here's everything he had to say.

Matt Painter's opening statement ...

Painter: Really proud of our guys. I thought we had a great fight tonight and laid it all on the line. That's the only thing you can ask, for your team to give everything they had. Houston was one play better than us, and I thought it was one of those games that both teams deserve to win. Both teams competed hard and played just a good college basketball game. It's unfortunate, obviously, we didn't win the basketball game, but congratulations to Houston. They're a great team.

Everybody knows how this tournament goes, but I think they have enough pieces to win it all. Obviously, they're a No. 1 seed, well-coached, tough, competes, great on the glass. Proud of our guys. Proud of our guys for their commitment, their toughness, unselfishness and just staying with it. I just told them in that looker room when we played Auburn before Christmas, there was a big separation between us and Auburn, and that's why you play Auburn. That's why you play the teams that are that good. We've been that team before and, we're trying to climb back to get to that point and we're really close to making that move again.

Our guys didn't hang their head and they fought. Last two, three months, we got a lot better. Had some rough patches, but we stayed with it. I thought our execution was good tonight. I thought our effort was good. Probably had to get a couple more rebounds, but we got down 10 right there and our guys hung tough, made some played, made some shots, got some stops. That's all you can ask.

On the defense Houston threw at Braden Smith ...

Painter: Yeah, they're a very good defensive team, and we wanted to get in some different actions and get Braden some more space and play with the pace, but we also knew that he had to get the basketball out of his hands when they got aggressive.

So we were trying to get them behind, but we knew that very rarely was he going to come off anything and be able to shoot because of how they defend. I thought he did a good job of passing behind, finding Trey in the short role. He got a couple skips in the second half. When he can get Trey in the short roll, he can get something behind him and get skips. That's what you want because you're not just getting one pass.

On if he's ever seen a player have 11 assists on a team's 11 made field goals in a half (Braden Smith) ...

Painter: I don't think so, but that's kind of how we play in terms of putting the ball in his hands or putting the ball in Trey's hands in those short rolls, and then making decisions. And a lot's determined by how they defend. How they defend on film is how they defended tonight. Braden's a great decision maker.

On if he received an explanation for no offensive foul call on Milos Uzan ...

Painter: Yeah, I didn't see it that way. I just got asked that question. I didn't answer that because I didn't see it.

On the multiple missed out-of-bounds calls late in the game ...

Painter: Yeah, it's frustrating, frustrating for our guys. As long as they get it right, a couple of them, the one thing I didn't understand is why they didn't collaborate and get together. That's the only thing I was asking, like, obviously, they missed the one.

And then the other one, they missed that one too, but like at the time, I didn't realize it. Sometimes when it's 50 feet away from me, it's really hard. I didn't understand why they didn't get together. They can't go and review that, but they can get together and kind of talk it through and help each other. There's three people out there. So that was my only complaint.

On what unfolded on Houston's final inbounds play ...

Painter: Yeah, kind of going through what they could run. So we were going to help out to the outer third, and we talked about the flair going out the other side. when they went that way, Trey's man was able to step to the basketball there, but when you saw Myles make that play earlier and he gets that steal. So we just help out on that outer third, and then the other guy who was guarding the guy coming out on the outer third, takes the ball. So when Braden jumped out to the other side, it opened up that seam and we had to get back there. We just didn't cover it back up.

On the way Purdue finished the season ...

Painter: Yeah, I thought they were great. I thought their effort was great. I think sometimes when you don't shoot as well, you can't control that, right? You can only control trying to get quality shots, and we have a lot of guys that can really shoot the basketball, but I thought our effort was great. We were like plus 38, I think, in our first two games on the glass and our guys competed.

That's what you want. We had two really good wins and then, obviously, it was a hard-fought game today, but they responded all year. You're going to go through a tough stretch. If you don't, then, like, you're winning 34, 35, 36 games. Everybody goes through tough stretches, but our guys stayed with it, and they kept competing and kept playing, but I thought we played really well and competed. They emptied their tanks in these games, and that's what you want to grow into.

You would like to see that as a coach the whole season and playing at that level. That's just not the way seasons unfold. You gotta keep getting better and keep improving. Like I said, I thought a good turning point for us was, you know, Texas A&M and Auburn, like, at that point right there. A lot of people thought we overscheduled, but it's like, you got to have a taste of it if you're not quite there, and we weren't quite there at that time, and you see the improvements through the year, and just feel for our guys. Like I said, they played well enough to win today.