Matt Painter Discusses Issues with Player's Era, Why It Doesn't Fit Purdue

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Player's Era tournament in Las Vegas is starting to overtake college basketball's "Feast Week," becoming the largest in-season tournament in the sport. Although Purdue coach Matt Painter loves participating in these multi-team events, he's not convinced this new venture is the best path for the Boilermakers.

Purdue has found plenty of success in multi-team events in recent years, winning each of the last five it has participated in during that time, including this year's Baha Mar Championship. Painter never runs from a challenge, but some uncertainties with the schedule have him reluctant to take his team to Las Vegas.

"They called and talked to us about, if you get to that third game [in the tournament], you would play, and then you would not play in a couple of other games you had scheduled," Painter said, per Nathan Baird of The Indianapolis Star.

Painter said that's not an appealing quality for a multi-team event, especially for an opponent that was relying on playing Purdue as part of its non-conference schedule.

"That didn't make sense, because this team's going to schedule to play us and we're just going to buy them out and not play them. Well, they still need to play a game, right? And now they just don't? They just get money? That didn't add up to me. When I asked about that, I didn't get the answer I wanted."

Incentives for Player's Era

Purdue Boilermakers head coach Matt Painter | David Leong-Imagn Images

There are plenty of reasons to participate in the Player's Era tournament. Each participant is given $1 million, which is to be dispersed among student-athletes as part of an NIL opportunity. Then, the top-four finishers can earn additional money for success in the field.

Next year, the Player's Era is hoping to expand its field from 18 teams to 32 teams. As one of the nation's top squads, adding Purdue to the event would certainly appeal to the college basketball community. But money isn't the main focus for Painter when adding these events to the schedule.

"[We're] trying to play good competition in warm weather," Painter said. "I think our fans like traveling, I think they like the warm weather. And then when we don't go to warm weather, it's going to be elite competition. It doesn't mean the other one isn't elite competition ... but that's what we want to do."

Painter said he's also not a big fan of playing three games in many days, saying it's tough to have that kind of turnaround so early in the season. He's a big fan of participating in these four-team MTEs, with back-to-back games before heading back to West Lafayette.

"It doesn't mean we won't ever [participate in the Player's Era], but we like where we are right now," Painter said. "I wouldn't think we'd play in Vegas next year, but the thing we're trying to do has to go through. We'll see where we are.

"I like the two games ... three games, that's pretty tough to recover from and then come back, especially when you have to go three in a row like we did in Hawaii. That's tough."

Incentives for Player's Era

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