What Matt Painter Said Following Purdue's Big Road Win vs. Iowa

No. 13 Purdue played one of its most complete games of the season on Saturday, defeating a talented Iowa team 78-57 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. It was the fourth straight victory for the Boilermakers, and a win that keeps them in the Big Ten race.

Sophomore guards CJ Cox and Gicarri Harris led the team with 14 points each, while Trey Kaufman-Renn had a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds. Fletcher Loyer had 12 points and Braden Smith had five points, 12 assists and seven rebounds.

Here's everything Purdue head coach Matt Painter said following the 21-point win.

Purdue Boilermakers head coach Matt Painter points to the court. | Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images

On Purdue following through on its philosophy ...

Painter: "Obviously, I thought Trey Kaufman-Renn really set the tone in the first half of the game, having 11 rebounds. Big stat for us. You have to understand in our last game, Banks, Combs and Sage made nine threes, alright? It's Combs' career-high, it's Banks' career-high, and tonight they have zero. Just the change from one game to another.

"We just overdid Bennett Stirtz. What he's done in the Big Ten in the last eight to 10 games doesn't happen very often. To say he's an efficient player is an understatement. He's a very good player. He can pass the basketball, he can pick his spots. He's one of those guys where you're like, 'He's alright,' then he has 28 points, seven assists, six rebounds. He has a real mature pulse to what he does.

"In the last couple of games, they need those makes. There's just no way around it. They need those makes, they need scoring from some other guys in other areas to be able to get that balance.

"I thought from our standpoint, we didn't overdo him this time. We guarded him, we got into him, but we really wanted to hold on some of our ball-screen stuff and, at times, that exposes us because he gets the ball out of his hands and now we're vulnerable. We're 3-on-2, 4-on-3 type stuff on the defensive side.

"I thought that was the key. The turnovers are a wash. We had five and they had six. We outrebound them and then we shoot the ball better. I thought from a physical standpoint, I thought we had more of a physical team tonight.

"Braden does a great job of running the show and then when we're making shots ... I thought the other night against Nebraska, it was our best effort of the season, it was our best rebounding of the season, our execution was good, but we didn't make shots. We missed free throws at the end of the game, we missed wide-open threes in the second half, and if we can combine our execution with shot-making, that really helps us."

On if Purdue's defense helped its offense ...

Painter: "Whether it was Oscar getting that block, or steals, or, even if it's not turnovers, getting long rebounds. Sometimes when people take tough shots, those long rebounds are just like turnovers. And then we wanted to be able to push the basketball, but that's not just against Iowa, that's against anybody.

"You've gotta be able, when you play good teams, you've gotta be able to get in transition and score on the glass. If you just play in the half court and that's the only thing you're doing, it gets pretty hard."

On Purdue's bench production ...

Painter: "Gicarri was great. He got that dunk and the and-one, made a couple threes. Plays 20 minutes, gets 14 points, gets three steals and doesn't turn the ball over. I think he's got one turnover in conference play. CJ Cox has two turnovers in conference play and he has one. When you have guys that can make shots, that can guard and play that role, it really balances out our whole team."

On why Gicarri Harris' numbers are better on the road ...

Painter: "That's when you need it, too. I think a lot of it is just opportunistic. When you sit there and talk about Braden Smith going to get 1,000 assists pretty soon, Trey Kaufman-Renn was a third-team All-American, first-team all-conference guy, Fletcher Loyer is going to end up breaking Carsen Edwards' record for most threes in the history of our school. When you sit there and talk about that, Oscar Cluff and his physical play, that next spot, that ends up being who's open."

On how Purdue handles the mental toll of a season ...

Painter: "Yeah, we finished six out of eight on the road, so obviously we lost two of those on the road and one was a home game to Illinois. You just gotta be able to regroup. It's just different when they have to regroup from their loss at Maryland with short time. Sometimes it's good in short time to get back out there, sometimes it's not. Now you travel back, now you've gotta get ready, now it lingers.

"Sometimes that lingering can get you on edge and get you to fight a little better, but then also, in our league, it gets really hard. When we look at it, like man, we've gotta go to Nebraska, we've gotta go to Iowa, we got beat at UCLA, we got beat at Indiana. That just shows you how the game is. They beat Indiana by 17, we lose to Indiana there, and you watch this game. That doesn't make sense, right? Tying all that together doesn't make sense from our end, doesn't make sense from their end. But that's basketball.

"The guy I played for used to always say, 'It's when you play somebody.' I think today was the right day for us to play them. They're on short rest, we have one more day rest, we just won a game, we have an older team, we're more confident. So, all of those factors go in.

"It's really hard to quanitfy. You can talk about it all day long, but I've never been able to like, grasp moving forward. You have to have a pulse on your team and you've gotta try to get their attention. Like tonight, [Ben McCollum] was just trying to mix it up. He was just getting guys in there because he was trying to find a group that would have some success together and build off of it. That's tough. And it's also tough when you end up playing possession basketball. When you get down that way, sometimes it's hard to climb back into the game."

On Purdue's success offensively on inbounds plays ...

Painter: "I'm going to go watch the tape and answer it. Off the top of my head I don't know. Probably because the guy taking it out of bounds can really pass. I know he got CJ that one layup. Just trying to execute and get some shots for those guys coming around there. If not, getting a couple of isos.

"Sasha [Stefanovic] does a great job. He runs our out-of-bounds plays. He does a great job seeing different things, running differen things, but sometimes you've gotta keep it simple."

On how Purdue's big guys are handling physicality ...

Painter: "Yeah, it's part of it. The best teams in basketball right now, if you look at their front lines, they're all stacked. You don't walk away from any of those top six to eight teams and go, 'Eh, these guys are just OK physically.' They're all stacked. Every single one of them.

"The way we play, it is not the most efficient thing for Trey Kaufman-Renn to be the four. But like, if you're going to compete against those six to eight teams and you get up against them, you've gotta have Daniel, you've gotta have Cluff, you've gotta have TKR. You can't just have one dude. You've gotta have a lot of guys physically that can defend down there, rebound down there, that can put the ball in the basket.

"When it starts to get that way and get a little chippy or whatever, you have to keep your mouth shut and carry a big stick if those guys want to talk. There's no need to talk about it. Let those guys ref and stay with it.

"The goal is for us to really play well and do a good job in March, but our front line has to keep showing up like they did tonight, like they did against Nebraska. They were big-time against Nebraska. You've got one guy getting 10 offensive rebounds, you've got one guy getting 16 defensive rebounds. That pays the bills."

Get top Boilermakers stories, expert analysis, and can't-miss moments straight to your inbox for free by signing up for the Purdue Boilermakers on SI newsletter!