What Purdue basketball coach Matt Painter said at Big Ten media days

Posted by Admin October 3, 2024 Basketball

Purdue basketball coach Matt Painter spoke Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, at Big Ten media days. The Boilermakers (34-5 in 2023-24) are coming off a national championship game appearance.

Starters Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn are back, as well as Cam Heide, Myles Colvin and Caleb Furst. Purdue has a large freshman class including C.J. Cox, Daniel Jacobsen, Jack Benter, Gicarri Harris and Raleigh Burgess.

Here’s what Painter said at Big Ten media days:

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On Purdue’s offseason approach:

The biggest piece was just not being in the portal. After you know what people go through, especially like Danny (Sprinkle, the new Washington coach) and what that entails and the time, then you have to segue through the spring portal into recruiting in the summer. You never stop. He hasn’t come up for air. And that’s just different from where you are when you’re going into your 20th year. Now we’re able to know the guys on our team, we’re not trying to get adjusted, outside of our freshmen. We had a great summer. Just trying to stay on edge and be better (this) year.

On the health of former Purdue coach Gene Keady:

He’s great. He had a mini stroke. He popped right out of it and wanted to know who was winning the USC-Michigan football game. He’s going to try to get by to a practice next week.

What are the incentives following a Final Four season?

We’re trying to win three Big Ten championships in a row. Just keep that carrot in front of us. We have three starters back from a Final Four team. We have five freshmen. We have a lot of guys with experience outside those three starters. Just blending in those five freshmen more than anything. Just understanding what we do and how we do it will take a little bit of time. We’re excited, but we also know it’ll be very hard. That’s the one thing with a challenging schedule like we have in non-conference. You’ve got to get yourself prepared because it’s such a bear when you get to Big Ten play.

The challenges of playing in an 18-team conference:

More than anything, you have to have the pieces. You have to be a little lucky. You have to stay healthy. You have to get a break. Hopefully you can make your own breaks. Right now the way the schedule goes, you look at it and there’s a grind somewhere, to where you’re playing five or six games in 17 days, something crazy where you don’t have a day off. We have a 2 1/2-week stretch in Big Ten play where we don’t have a day off. How do we come out of that? When you look at that, do you split that? Do you win it all? Do you lose it all? You really don’t know. When you look at the media and how they rank people, I don’t know how you would go about it with so much change in the portal and a new job, to adding the four teams. It’s just a crapshoot. So it’s good if people pick you to win your league, but it really means nothing. If you’re there in the first week of March, then it does mean something.

Braden Smith’s new role, and those of veterans:

He’s always had the ball in his hands, even when Zach (Edey) was there, so when we play through the post and play through ball screens, he can really manipulate the defense with his ability to pass and see the court, to make plays and make shots. He’s also someone who defers to others, so we just need him to be more aggressive. Fletcher Loyer, same thing. Just a winner. Plays tough, hard nosed, makes shots. Those guys will have more of a responsibility. Trey Kaufman-Renn will step into where he’ll be one of the best big men in our league.

Early-season focus:

We have five freshmen, so it’s a little bit different, just blending those guys in. It’s the pillars of basketball, take care of the ball and rebound. You can go through and talk about a lot of different things, but if you’re great at those two things, you’re going to be pretty successful.