As Matt Painter lightly tossed a frisbee in the press conference, after Purdue’s 76-62 win over McNeese, there was a sense that he was proud of the accomplishment, but knew there were larger goals on the horizon. Matt Painter and Purdue are back in the Sweet Sixteen for the seventh time in his tenure and look to go to their third Elite Eight in the Painter era (since the 2005-2006 season).
Painter has gone to the tournament 16 times in 19 seasons there was a tournament (2019-2020 tournament was cancelled due to the COVID-19 Virus). Since the 2016-2017 season, Purdue has not been worse than a number 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The team has now won 24 or more games in each of the last four seasons and is appearing in their third Sweet Sixteen in the last four years. As a Purdue fan, I know how fortunate I am to have a team with that kind of consistent success. Not many programs have it.
Painter had some fantastic teams in the late 2000s and early 2010s, but in the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 seasons, Painter hit a rough patch. Purdue finished with a 16-18 record and a 15-17 record in those seasons, finishing towards the bottom of the Big Ten. Purdue stuck with Painter, though, which was a wise decision. He knew he needed to make big changes in order to turn the program into a consistently elite team. He started to have different set assignments for his assistants, designating coaches for personnel, offensive and defensive coordinators, and a coach to cover out-of-bounds plays. Coaches can definitely have their input on other aspects, but having that organization is something Painter wanted.
A big thing Painter changed is his roster construction and his recruiting. Painter started going after Big Centers whom he knew would benefit the team’s inside game. Since then, Purdue has had Centers that have done fantastic at the school, including Zach Edey, who was the most dominant player college basketball has seen in a long time.
This Purdue team has seen Trey Kaufman-Renn catapult into being one of the best Centers/Power Forwards in college basketball. And this team, and the team for the past three seasons, has had an elite point guard in Braden Smith. Smith was severely underrecruited, and Matt Painter jumped on him, and landed a player who’s a first-team All-American and a National Player of the Year Candidate.
Now, the Sweet Sixteen against Houston. I am not going to lie, as a Purdue fan, I’ve wanted to see this game for the last three years. I know that’s easy to say now, but honestly, Purdue and Houston have had this parallel path recently. Last year, it was widely regarded that Purdue, UConn, and Houston were the three best teams. Purdue played UConn in the championship game, but they never met Houston despite both teams being a one-seed in the tournament. The Cougars were eliminated in the Sweet Sixteen by Duke after Jamal Shead suffered an injury during the game, which hindered the Cougar’s chances. The year before, both teams were also one-seeds.
This year, the two teams will finally meet. The game being in Indianapolis is gigantic for Purdue, as that crowd is going to feel like Mackey Arena transported into Lucas Oil Stadium. Regardless of what takes place Friday, I am so glad to see what Matt Painter has done at Purdue, and what he will continue to do. He’s an elite coach, and I am so glad he’s the coach of Purdue University.