My Two Cents: This Was Matt Painter's Best Coaching Job

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – There's no need to recite Matt Painter's resume at Purdue. He's done a lot of great things in 16 years at the helm of the Boilermakers' program, and he's well respected as one of the better coaches in the country.

And while winning three regular-season Big Ten titles, a conference tourney title, 15 NCAA games and making an Elite Eight appearance is all impressive, his best coaching job might have come this year.

His Boilermakers head into this week's Big Ten Tournament with an 18-8 record and a No. 4 seed with a double-bye. They have won five games in a row, and 11 of their past 14. They're in the NCAAs for sure, and are now a top-20 team. That's with the youngest team in the league – and the youngest ranked team in the country, too, for that matter.

Picked to finish in the bottom third of the Big Ten in the preseason, Painter and the Boilers have proven all the doubters wrong.

"They pick us to finish ninth or 10th in the league, well, that's their opinion and they're right to say that. But they're not doubting our ability, they're doubting our inexperience.'' Painter said. "Some years you might use that as motivation, but in the preseason, half the guys on this team didn't even know anything. They had no idea what's going on.

"When you're young, you don't know what to expect. And now you have a pandemic and there's no fans, it's all different. Every day is different, and all these freshmen, they had no clue what to expect every day. I think it's kind of kudos to our players for everything they've done.''

Painter and his often-underappreciated staff also deserves a lot of credit. It's one thing to win with freshmen – four different Purdue players have claimed seven Big Ten Freshmen of the Week awards this season – but it's another thing to do it in the best league in America.

But they've worked at it, they've stayed together and they've grown up quickly. Painter never worried about preseason picks. He just went to work every day. They all did.

''I don't sit around and guess where we're going to be. I look at it more about what are the things we need to work on, what we need to do better, what the staples are for doing well in the Big Ten,'' Painter said. "Our assistants do a fabulous job of working with them, and this group of kids, they want their team to win. What's their role? It's an important piece for a lot of those guys, just to figure out how they can help us win. We do a good job of evaluating, and we've got guys who are focused on team things and what it takes for the team to win. That's important.

"We've had guys keep a great attitude. This is about Purdue, and our guys have really done a good job. The advantage we've had is that we haven't had too many pauses. We had one guy (junior guard Sasha Stefanovic) miss three games, and we've had that adjustment and that's it. We've had a couple of sprained ankles, but we haven't had to go into quarantine and miss 17 days or 21 days like a lot of teams have.''

Brandon Newman and Mason Gillis redshirted a year ago, and that helped them grow up and get better. They've been key pieces this year. And Jaden Ivey and Zach Edey, the two true freshmen, have improved dramatically as the season went along. They are key pieces now.

"You get into a season when you're younger, and people want to set the narrative for you because it's hard to have a lot of young guys play and have a good team.'' Painter said. "It really is. You want to get old and stay old, but that wasn't the situation for us.

"We had a couple of guys leave in the spring (Matt Haarms and Nojel Eastern) and it's a great thing when you have different guys step up and play well. We don't have to rely on just two guys playing well or we lose. Sometimes you have teams where that's where it gets. Guys step up, and that's been cool. We have a deep team, and everyone has contributed in a big way at certain times during the season.''

Painter credits the buy-in from everyone. No one in this program settles for anything, and that attitude comes from the top and filters down.

"I come into the office and you've got guys watching extra film, guys working on their game, guys getting shots up, and we've had that consistency all year, with guys working to get better,'' Painter said. "With this pandemic, we've had the benefit of not having those pockets of time where we can't practice for two or three weeks that other people have, so we've been fortunate in that area.

"The freshmen, they've continued to improve. Each one of them have had different seasons, so when you look at the four freshman who are playing for us, they stay and work on things. They put in extra time. That's really the key, in my opinion.''

Painter also has an excellent coaching staff, and he gives his assistants a lot of responsibility. They deserve a lot of credit for this rapid rise, too.

"We have very good coaches. These guys are loyal and hard working,'' Painter said, "Brandon Brantley and Steve Lutz work with our big guys, and Micah Shrewsberry works with our guards and they all put in a lot of time. Elliot Bloom (basketball operations director) has been with me the whole time, and he's very knowledgable about the program and basketball. He's been fabulous. He's done a great job for us and Nick Terruso cuts our film and knows everything inside and out. He's been here longer than I have. (Analyst) Andrew McClatchy does a great job of crunching the numbers and he does a fabulous job.

"P.J. Thompson and Grady Eifert, our grad assistants, they spend a lot of time with our guys. They're very beneficial because they've been through a lot of the struggles here as players, and they're great guys to lean on. They've been through a lot and had success, and they're going to be really good coaches. We have a fabulous staff and our support group is really great, too. It's fun to come to work every day. If it wasn't, then I wouldn't do it.''

When Purdue beat Indiana 67-58 to close out the regular season at Mackey Arena on Saturday – their ninth-straight win over their arch-rivals in the past five years – Painter made a point of talking to his players about how successful their regular season had been.

And this is just a start. The future is very bright.

"I think it's great. I thought it was a championship effort, and I told them so,'' Painter said. "Last year, three teams won the league at 14-6. We have the same record as the league champions, and with the youngest team in the league, that's something to be proud of, and something to build off of.''

There's no doubt about that, especially with another excellent recruiting class coming in. Painter and his staff are getting it done, and pushing all the right buttons.

And they all deserve a lot of credit for that.

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