Here's What Purdue Coach Matt Painter Said Ahead of NCAA Tournament Game Against Yale

MILWAUKEE — Ahead of Purdue's first-round NCAA Tournament matchup against Yale, coach Matt Painter met with the media to discuss March Madness, the Bulldogs and more.

Here's the full transcript of Thursday's press conference:

Q. Matt, what do you have to do to make sure the dynamics of you guys playing really big and some of these teams you're going to play being smaller goes in your direction the best it can?

COACH MATT PAINTER: Yeah. Don't turn the ball over, more than anything, just be efficient on the offensive end, make good decisions, take what they give us. If they're going to overplay things and sag and double and triple team, just make easy fundamental passes and move the basketball and get them into rotation. I think when we come in with predetermined thoughts and don't play off our instincts, that's where we struggle no matter who we're playing. I think we've proven that throughout the year. When we just take what people give us, we've had a lot of success.

Q. Just wondering: What's the biggest thing that sticks out when you look at Yale? What is it that catches your attention and impresses you?

COACH MATT PAINTER: Probably the No. 1 thing is how hard they play. I think anytime you can go through a season and you get to the end and you've got to win your tournament, I've always had respect for the coaches that have to win their tournament and just the resolve of their players. It's so much on you as a player and a coach to know, Hey, we've got to win the quarterfinals, the semi-finals, or the championship game to get into the tournament.

And it happens to a lot of people across the country. It's very hard, and one game can knock you out to where you might not even make the NIT or another one of the tournaments. So it's very hard to do that. But once those type of teams get in there, that's the concern. Like, these guys here have been up against it, and they've played so well, and they've played so hard, but Coach Jones does a great job with his group. I think they defend really well. They have positional size. A lot of people will kind of go overboard about our centers and size, but there's still four other positions out there, and they have great positional size in those positions, and kind of those combo forwards that are athletic and strong, they can cause a lot of problems for you by taking away things and getting into passing lanes.

Q. You've been to the tournament a ton, I know that. I believe this is the first year Purdue's ever been No. 1, so I'm guessing this tournament, entering it, I'm wondering how different does it feel pressurewise because this year's not like a lot of years you've had?

COACH MATT PAINTER: Right. Well, we've been a higher seed before. We've been a 2 seed once before. We've been a 3 seed before. So this is our second time being a 3 seed. I think we've been a top --

Q. (No microphone.)

COACH MATT PAINTER: We've never been a 2 seed?

Q. I don't know, but this is the best team you've ever had.

COACH MATT PAINTER: You enunciate better in the hallway than you do with that --

Q. Let's just go backwards.

COACH MATT PAINTER: You know, this is the first team we've had that started the season in the Top 10 and finished in the Top 10. We have really good size. You really don't worry about it. You get to your next game. You respect your opponent. You understand what March Madness is all about. You're on a neutral court, and you have to play the right way. You have -- your functionality as a team, you can't get away from your strengths, and you want to do your best to, you know, stay away from your weaknesses. I know that's kind of coaches' talk, but it's so true. I think that's the focus for us, and I think sometimes when you struggle at something -- we turned the ball over 10 times in the first half against Indiana, and we then won six straight games. Then we turned the ball over in the next game. So we went a couple games in our tournament, but then we get into that last game where we turn the ball over again. So that's reared its ugly head with us, but yet we've proven that we can get that fixed and go on runs and not turn the basketball over. I think that's the focus for our team is to be efficient offensively, take care of the basketball. And then we'll really going to help ourself defensively if we do that.

Q. Of course, we brought up North Texas to the guys. Trevion actually told us that I think it was one of the first summer workouts and you actually brought in the North Texas film and started showing it to them.

COACH MATT PAINTER: Correct.

Q. So I wanted to know what went into your thought process there of starting to show it 10 months ago and what kind of switch that flipped for your team almost a year ago.

COACH MATT PAINTER: It just goes to -- the last question is some of the possessions that we had in the North Texas game and not taking care of the basketball, especially in the first half. We would like to have those possessions back just like we would like to have some offensive possessions back in the Iowa game and the game at Indiana that I mentioned and a couple others. That's what's going to send you home. Like be intelligent as a player and as a team and understand, Okay. It's no different than playing time. Understand what gets you on the court, and understand what gets you off the court. Everyone wants to talk in theory. There's no theory to it. Take care of the basketball. Make simple plays. If they want to double-team you, get the ball out of your hands. If they want to cover you one-on-one, be aggressive, things of that nature.

But that's your start. If you don't learn from your losses, then you're a fool. And that's all I was trying to do is, like, Hey, let's learn from our loss with North Texas. Use it as a springboard for next year and put ourselves in a great position, which I think we have. We've put ourself in a great position. But Yale has also put themselves in a great position. You've just got to get into this tournament and then go out and have fun and play to your strengths.

Q. Follow-up with that: Is that something you did that was unique to this team knowing you had everybody back, or is this something that you had done in previous years with teams to start some film stuff like that in the summer?

COACH MATT PAINTER: I don't do it a lot. I've done it a couple times just to kind of plant that seed, especially if you have a tough loss like we did. But credit to North Texas and Coach McCasland. I thought they played better than we did. Even if we won that game, I thought those guys really played well. Just trying to use that loss. You always got to take your losses and use them and learn from them, and that's what we were trying to do. I think that's important for us to really hold on to is just the efficiency of the game and playing the game the right way because there's a handful of those possessions we'd really like to have back.

Q. Coach, I was listening to Coach Jones talk earlier, and he referenced your relationship, his relationship with Zach Edey and Jaden Ivey. I know the basketball world is small, community is small, but how unique is it to step on the court with him and how great of a job he's doing at Yale?

COACH MATT PAINTER: Oh, he's been fabulous. Obviously, he's been there a long time, I think 23 years. But he was an assistant for our U-19 USA team last year and did a great job and got a gold medal, coached Caleb Furst and Jaden Ivey and competed against Zach Edey. So he's very familiar with our guys.

And he's a basketball guy through and through. Him and his brother, you know, have been in the game a long time. So, like, those guys get it. They understand it.

And he's been great for Yale. I've always said that about -- if more coaches would get that opportunity to have that longevity, I think you'd see more positive returns. And they've obviously seen that at Yale, especially here in the last five years with going to the tournament three times.

Q. Coach, I was going to go back to when you were talking about turnovers, like thinking about the IU game, Michigan State, most recent Iowa game --

COACH MATT PAINTER: There you go.

Q. You said that we can usually kind of put a stop to that and go on our own run. What's kind of the first thing when you call that timeout after six straight turnovers? What are you putting into players' heads?

COACH MATT PAINTER: Yeah. I normally get to that timeout before six, though. I'm normally right at three. The three in a row normally triggers me, but I understand your point.

Just keep it simple. I think everybody in our -- the guys that cover us all the time probably get sick of me saying it, but turnovers. It's not just one thing. It can be your traveling, your bad passes, your pick sixes, your offensive fouls in the post. There's a lot of different ways to turn the basketball over, and there's a lot of teams in the country that prove that. I just don't want to be one of them.

Just trying to get them to settle down. Sometimes we leave our feet when we pass too much, things of that nature. So whatever has happened, just settle them down, getting them to focus on what we're trying to get accomplished and how they're defending things. Are they doing something different than what we prepared for? A lot of times, no. Like, a lot of times, people that mix things up a lot normally aren't very good at one thing. They're just trying to surprise you. But the people that do one thing normally get pretty good at that one thing. They might change it a little bit.

So a lot of it's ball screen coverage, and a lot of it's post doubles for us. But when it's just carelessness, that has nothing to do with the opponent, and Purdue's beating Purdue. Then those are the ones that you've just got to settle down and settle into the game. We handle some things differently sometimes in terms of like when things don't go our way. Instead of being more simple, we'll try to do more like we're going to get it all back in one possession, and that's not the right way to go about it. When we do it the other way and we settle into the game, we normally have success.

Q. Can you tell us about Yale's offense and what makes Swain so good and what you need from Eric in that matchup?

COACH MATT PAINTER: Well, Swain is one of those guys that's a threat right as he steps on the court. He can shoot off the dribble, he can play in the mid post. He can obviously catch and shoot. He can dribble into 3s. He's just got a real mature pulse to his game.

A lot of times, guys who can shoot the ball, there's something where they can't do it. If you make them dribble, if you make them go one way or the other, now their percentages really drop. With him, he can do all of it in terms of scoring the basketball. So you really want to be able to take up his space and make it hard for him like you would any other scorer or shooter.

When you have a guy out there that can get 30, 35 points in a game, as a coach, that always scares you. But offensively, they have good balance. They have guards that can really drive the basketball. He's a guy that can really score the basketball.

But the other guys -- Gabbidon's had individual games where he's scored in the 20s, 30. They have guards that can drive the basketball. Knowling's a guy that's kind of a matchup nightmare with his athleticism and his quickness. There's guys -- Kelly and Jarvis can drive the ball there, they can score at the rim.

So they have good pieces. They do a good job with their spacing in kind of their ball screen motion. They do some different things out of it, they have some quick hitters that they can go to. They spread you out, and they really try to come and attack people they think they have a mismatch with, whether they think it's in the post or driving the basketball.

Q. Swain feels like a pretty physically mature physical sort of guard. Does it compare at all to Pickett and A.J. Hoggard from the Big Ten tournament?

COACH MATT PAINTER: I would say more Pickett, but he -- obviously, he shoots more 3s than Pickett. You know, Pickett's a guy that, East Coast guy, obviously played at Siena, scored a lot of points, scored over 2,000 points. He can really get you off balance, then step back and shoot that fadeaway. He's a more prolific shooter, though, than him. He's more of a scorer where Pickett's more of a play-making type guard where he can get other people involved. I would say a little bit, but I would say Swain from a scoring standpoint is probably a little bit better.

Stories Related to Purdue Basketball

WHAT THE PURDUE PLAYERS SAID: Zach Edey, Trevion Williams and Jaden Ivey met with the media Thursday ahead of Purdue basketball's NCAA Tournament game against Yale. CLICK HERE
PURDUE'S SIZE REMAINS CONSTANT IN NCAA TOURNAMENT: The interior duo of Zach Edey and Trevion Williams gives Purdue basketball an advantage in the paint as the team begins its journey through the NCAA Tournament. CLICK HERE
ERIC HUNTER JR. LEADING PURDUE DEFENSE: Eric Hunter Jr. is the heart of Purdue basketball's defense, and he's continuing to lead the charge as the Boilermakers get set to take on Yale in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. CLICK HERE
TURNOVERS REMAIN FOCUS FOR PURDUE: Purdue's first-round NCAA Tournament opponent Yale forces 13.2 turnovers per game. The team turned the ball over 17 times in a 75-66 loss to Iowa in the Big Ten Tournament finals. CLICK HERE
5 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT YALE: No. 14 seed Yale finished the season with a 19-11 record and punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament with a 66-64 win over Princeton in the Ivy League Tournament title game. CLICK HERE
TV, TIPOFF TIME FOR PURDUE VS. YALE: No. 3 Purdue will play No. 14 Yale beginning at 2 p.m. ET on Friday, March 18, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The matchup will be aired live on TBS. CLICK HERE

Become Part of the Boilermakers Country Community!

Follow D.J. Fezler on Twitter: @DJFezler
Follow Boilermakers Country on Twitter: @sports_purdue
Like and follow Boilermakers Country on Facebook