The Boilermakers season came to an end on Friday night at the hands of The Fairleigh Dickinson Knights. Purdue became the second 1 seed to lose to a 16 seed. Coach Matt Painter, their program and style are all under fire. Since, everyone wants to bury them here is their Obituary.
In 2018, College Basketball witnessed the impossible. 16 seeded UMBC upset top overall seed UVA. The Retrievers went 12 of 24 from three and 54% from the field and held UVA to 4-22 from three and 41% from the field. Virginia – who was missing arguably their best player in DeAndre Hunter – was tied at half and then blown out by 20 points in the second half.
This was not the case in the Purdue and Fairleigh Dickinson game. Fairleigh Dickinson went 38% from the field, went 30% from three and only made 8 free throws. That was enough for David to slay Goliath 63-58 on Friday night in Columbus. Purdue went 35.8% from the field and shot 5-26 (19.2%) from three. The Boilermakers were fully healthy and out of excuses.
The Knights didn’t win because of an absurd three point percentage in the second half. They didn’t win because Purdue lost one of their best players to injury. They didn’t win because they got every foul call. They won by playing disciplined and following a gameplan. A gameplan that saw the shortest team in the tournament mitigate the Goliath and NPOY Zach Edey for Purdue.
Therein lies the problem for Purdue. Any well coached team can take away or limit Purdue’s Plan A, and when you get to March Madness almost every team is a well coached team.
Coach Painter and Purdue play one way, and there is no Plan B.
Purdue is well engineered machine.
Coach Painter is one of the smartest coaches in America. He draws up plays, schemes and sets better than anyone. His players have the system drilled into their brains. They know by heart the movement, the screens, the cuts, the reads etc. that come with each set.
All of those sets are centered around… well, the center. Whether it has been AJ Hammons, Isaac Haas, Trevion Williams or now Zach Edey, Purdue plays Inside-out. Players are chess pieces on Matt Painter’s board that move around to create the most efficient and biggest advantage Purdue has – the post up.
Inefficiency is eliminated in Purdue’s system. There are no isolations for inefficient guards. There are no quick threes jacked early in the shot clock. There are few if any midrange shots taken all game.
Purdue maximizes high percentage looks from their back to the basket big guy, free throws, and open three pointers from help defense on post ups.
This system has produced a regular season juggernaut and a stylistic nightmare for modern basketball.
Purdue has won 25 or more games 7 of the last 8 seasons and have won 12 or more conference games in 8 of the past 9 seasons. Coach Painter and Purdue have earned a 4 seed or higher in the past six tournaments. The Boilermakers have made the Sweet Sixteen in 4 of those 6 tournaments too.
Yet, Purdue still has not made the Final Four.
Coach Painter has now lost to 16 seed FDU, a 15 seed St. Peter’s, and a 13 seed North Texas in the past three tournament appearances. Of those four Sweet Sixteen appearances, two were blowouts to Texas Tech and Kansas, one was the St. Peter’s loss, and the lone win was against Tennessee, where Ryan Cline hit what felt like 17 three pointers to save them.
The time Purdue was most successful in March was when they had options.
The best run was one where Carsen Edwards was able to take over and improvise. The initial play would break down, the ball would find its way to Edwards, and Boogie would splash a ridiculous three in the face of the defender or straightline to the basket in under a second.
2017-2018 Purdue succeeded when the schemes failed, because they knew how to improvise.
In my obituary of last year’s Purdue team I wrote about how nobody on Purdue could dribble. I was infuriated with Isiah Thompson, Eric Hunter Jr., Sasha Stefanovic, etc. not being capable at all at bouncing the ball. Purdue improved tremendously at that. Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer can put the ball on the floor pretty well for their age. The press this year was devastating at times still, but Purdue was much closer to the average college team struggling with it as opposed to last season which would eviscerate the Boilers.
The point being Purdue under Painter has adapted and evolved over time.
Purdue’s best player is usually a center, but they’ve also had Carsen Edwards (SG), Jaden Ivey (PG/SG), and Caleb Swanigan (PF) be All-Americans at other positions. Painter has geared his offense to his best players in order to succeed.
The Post-up can be heavily featured, but there needs to be a Plan B. Someone else on the floor needs to be able to create something for Purdue.
Purdue went away from sets designed for Fletcher Loyer in the back half of the season as he slumped. Painter stopped running curls and zooms for Gillis, Newman or any other shooter. The only focus was Zach Edey posting up or rolling to the basket.
Purdue became predictable.
I am not going to be reactive and be overly negative about Ethan Morton’s offense, Brandon Newman and David Jenkins’ streakiness, or Caleb Furst stagnating or any small specific thing about this Purdue team. Instead, I want to focus on the bigger picture of Purdue as a team.
There are two trains of thoughts on this Purdue team and season.
One, Purdue was an awesome, world-beater team who collapsed in the Post Season once again.
Two, Purdue was an inexperienced team who outperformed most of the season in a weak Big Ten to sweep the conference regular season and tournament, and then exposed themselves as a one seed.
Both thoughts are absolutes, and neither of them are 100% correct. The answer is of course somewhere in the middle, but the loss to FDU shows that Purdue was probably somewhere closer to the second absolute rather than the first.
Both answers include a collapse to FDU because this was a failure. No matter how much Purdue overachieved, the Boilers should have buried the Knights.
I want to end with Matt Painter and a call to action.
Coach Painter has done nearly everything for West Lafayette. He is an Alum who gets what it means to be a Boilermaker. He runs one of the most respectable programs in the country. He recruits very well given the limits of the school. He keeps the best kids in state and going to Purdue. Once the recruits are in West Lafayette, Painter is honest, develops them, and the school has almost no one transfer out in an era full of that.
In no world does he deserve to be fired.
The call to action is not to fire Matt Painter. My call to action is for Matt Painter to recognize where things have gone wrong the past few seasons.
You can continue to optimize the offense and churn out regular season wins, or you can make a sacrifice.
Sacrifice games in November and January, so that way future Purdue teams learn lessons. Put your players into the fire, and let them figure it out. Let them improvise. Let them learn to think for themselves more than they are now. If Purdue is going to win in March, you will need your guards to know how to do more than entry passes and catch and shoot threes. Sometimes you have to take a midrange jumper.
Keep adapting, keep evolving.
Coach Painter is not the only coach who loses in March. 67 of the 68 coaches will lose in March. Tony Bennett has won a National Championship and people think he can’t win a tournament game. Jay Wright was a loser in March at Villanova until he won a National Championship. What happened in March the next season? Wright and the Wildcats lost before the Sweet 16.
Losing to FDU in the first round does not take away the rest of the season. Purdue fans still had that amazing weekend of beating Gonzaga and Duke in back to back games and catapulting into the top 5. This Purdue team still won the Big Ten Regular season championship and Tournament. Zach Edey still had a unanimous All-American and National Player of the Year season.
The joys that Painter and Purdue provide fans in November through February are immense. However, Purdue fans will ultimately not be fulfilled until their team makes a Final Four. In order for that to happen, Purdue needs to have a Plan B.