Here's What Coach Matt Painter Said After Purdue's NCAA Tournament Win Over Texas
MILWAUKEE — No. 3 seed Purdue basketball took down Texas 81-71 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday inside the Fiserv Forum arena. The team advances to the Sweet 16 to play Saint Peter's.
Following the victory coach, Matt Painter met with the media to discuss the game and what comes next for the Boilermakers.
Here's the full transcript from Sunday's postgame press conference:
Opening Statement
PAINTER: Just the preparation on a one-day prep to face somebody like Texas is really difficult. They don't let you run a lot of your stuff, a lot of your offensive sets. They really put you in a bind. We felt like we had an advantage on the interior and we really wanted to go inside, but we also wanted to open some things up and try to get Jaden in the open court, try to get him in ball screen action and just make the right reads. I thought our guys were quick to the ball today. Obviously we got outrebounded by 13. We lived at the free-throw line and you can't ask for more.
Our issue all year's been turnovers. So as long as we stay around 8 to 12 we've had a lot of success this year and we kept it at 12. Just happy for our guys, happy for our seniors stepping up and playing and making free throws and making plays. It got a little dicey there, but just an overall team effort. Everybody really helped us and chipped in for this win.
Q. What does it say about Ethan that, A, he's able to make those big shots, but also he's able to do so much for you from a defensive perspective in a game like this?
PAINTER: He really helped us defensively coming in on Marcus Carr and we really wanted to try to keep him off his right hand as much as possible, get him to the left. He hit that three there at the end and he got back to his right hand. And, you know, Ethan has good size and he's really worked at it to be a good defensive player. But Marcus Carr, we have the utmost respect for him. He did us in a couple times when he was at Minnesota, so all of our guys have a lot of respect for him and we know how dangerous he is. So we were just trying to crowd him the best we could and try to get him off his right hand because when he gets to his right, he's a lot better as a passer and he's a lot better as a scorer going right, in my opinion. Ethan was great. You know, he made those two free throws there at the end, he made those two threes, he was just steady. You look at his plus-minus, he just does a lot of winning things when he's out on the court.
Q. You knew the swarms were coming to your big guys, the double teams. How do you think they handled that, the poise they showed and how much pressure did that take off of your guys on the perimeter?
PAINTER: Yeah, they really gave a lot of attention. Courtney Ramey's a very good defender. Jaden was talking about how he was talking or whatever, but he can back it up. He's a really good defensive player.
But with that being said, if you're going to take somebody out like that and give them that much attention and then you're going to throw the ball into the post, you're going to have some space to play and you're not going to be great in rotations at that time. So if you want to stay one on one and you can defend us, then that really helps you, but if you can't defend us and you're going to draw fouls, we're obviously going to really get into your bench like we did today. I don't care who we play and how they handle it, we try to throw the ball inside, but we also don't -- we try to have some balance and run some things for some other guys for shots or we try to get the ball in Jaden's hand as much as we can when it doesn't go into the post.
But Texas makes it so hard for you to run things. They deny passes, they disrupt, but if we can get the ball where we want and they're out-denying everybody, then we're going to be one on one at the block. So that's what really emphasized it. We had a lot of dribble-in passes to the post and then just tried to play from there.
Both of those guys, you just look at Zach's number, he does it all year. He gets 11 and 10 in 15 minutes, he gets fouled seven different times. Obviously, Trevion was 22 and 7, and so together those guys were pretty good. But I also think we have a good system for them and our guys do a good job of delivering the basketball.
Q. Matt, I think five of the top 12 seeds have been eliminated already and Arizona, looks like they're going down to the wire.
Just the way this tournament's unfolded this weekend, I don't know, does it seem from where you sit as topsy turvy and wide open at this point as any you can remember?
PAINTER: Yeah, I think you're going to have some regions that have been that way before and then you have some regions where it just goes status quo and the top seeds win. Percentages obviously say the top seeds are going to win more often than the other teams, but that's what makes this tournament, you know, so unpredictable.
The thing about when you're not in the tournament, we look at it like you guys, but when you're in.
The tournament, we don't look at it like you guys do. Like people want to talk to you about everything that's going on and you're not following everything that's going on, you're worried about your next game. So like that's -- you see highlights, you see things and people say what do you think of this, then when you don't have a good, you know, comment, people look at you like you're crazy. Well, I'm not following everything, I'm just worried about Texas.
Q. Coach, can you take us through Jaden -- the possession that led to Jaden's 3-pointer, what you saw on that and whether that was the shot that you wanted in that moment?
PAINTER: Well, just putting the ball in his hands. Obviously, we were going to Trevion a lot in that stretch and just trying to put the ball in his hands just to break people down. We were going to slip out of a ball screen because I didn't want to bring that five there because they were doubling and corralling his ball screens. We wanted him to turn the corner. But when he gets space and people back up and take his drive away, he'll just stop and bury it. He obviously has the freedom to do that. Just a great play. He's had moments like that in his career to where like it's kind of plan B is the best plan sometimes.
Q. Coach, I saw you kind of give Trevion a look when he talked about trying to do maybe something cool on the court. With his passing ability, maybe he tries to make the pass that's threading the needle a little bit too much, but has it been an emphasis of maybe exploiting his matchups? And you said he's being more patient, but for him to look to get his offense, instead of maybe being too much of a facilitator, has that been an emphasis?
PAINTER: It's been an emphasis his whole career. Like sometimes he's a pass-first player and you can't be a pass-first player when you're one-on-one. If they want to come and double on you, they want to give you a lot of attention, now move the basketball, but when they stay one-on-one, like be aggressive and go and score. That's always been our rule with him. And then sometimes it's -- you know, he's a great guy to play with because who wouldn't want to play with someone who's looking to pass the basketball all the time.
So it can get contagious and it can really help, but you can't have predetermined thoughts. He has such good instincts when he just plays off his instincts, and if you take something away, he delivers the basketball. That's when he's at his best.
Stories Related to Purdue Basketball
- PURDUE TRIUMPHS OVER TEXAS: Purdue made 33 of its 46 free throws during its NCAA Tournament win against Texas to advance to the Sweet 16. Trevion Williams recorded a team-high 22 points while Jaden Ivey scored 15 in the second half. CLICK HERE
- WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID AFTER WIN OVER TEXAS: Purdue basketball defeated Texas 81-71 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Here's everything players Jaden Ivey, Trevion Williams and Ethan Morton had to say during the postgame press conference following the victory. CLICK HERE
- PURDUE, TEXAS LIVE BLOG: Purdue basketball faced off against Texas in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday night inside Fiserv Forum. CLICK HERE
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