Matt Painter Hits New Career Milestone as No. 2 Purdue Tops Akron
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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Matt Painter has officially joined exclusive company in the coaching world. With Purdue's 97-79 win over Akron on Sunday night, the longtime leader of the Boilermakers has notched 500 career victories.
Painter joins the 500-win club in his 22nd season as a head coach and his 21st year at Purdue. The Boilermakers are off to a 4-0 start to the 2025-26 campaign, which includes an 87-80 road win over No. 8 Alabama on Thursday.
Former Purdue coach Gene Keady ended his career with 550 career victories, with 512 coming in West Lafayette. Painter has now won 475 career games as the head coach of the Boilermakers.
Painter began his run in West Lafayette immediately following Keady's retirement and took over for the 2005-06 season. The Boilers struggled in that first year, finishing with a 9-19 record, but have become one of college basketball's top programs since.
Purdue has won five Big Ten regular-season championships under Painter, as well as a pair of Big Ten Tournament titles. The Boilermakers have reached the NCAA Tournament 16 times and made it to the Final Four in 2024. It was the program's first appearance since 1980.
With one of his best teams in program history, there's still a chance that Painter could reach his 500th win at Purdue during this season, as well. He will not be able to surpass the 512-win total held by Keady this year, which is the program record.
Purdue now heads to the Bahamas to participate in the Baha Mar Championship. The Boilermakers will play Memphis on Thursday and either Texas Tech or Wake Forest on Friday.
Painter's first season was at Southern Illinois
Before being named the associate head coach at Purdue for the 2004-05 season, Keady's last as the leader, Painter spent five years as an assistant coach at Southern Illinois under Bruce Weber.
When Weber left to take the head coaching job at Illinois, Painter was named head coach at SIU. He was the leader of the program for just one year, posting a 25-5 record and finishing first the Missouri Valley Conference.
The Salukis reached the NCAA Tournament that year, but lost in the first round.
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PURDUE VS AKRON GAME BLOG: No. 2 Purdue (3-0) hosts Akron (3-0) on Sunday night in Mackey Arena. Follow along with the live game blog as the Boilermakers look to remain undefeated. CLICK HERE
Dustin Schutte is the publisher of Purdue Boilermakers on SI and has spent more than a decade working in sports journalism. His career began in 2013, when he covered Big Ten football. He remained in that role for eight years before working at On SI to cover the Boilermakers. Dustin graduated from Manchester University in Indiana in 2010, where he played for the men's tennis team.
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