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PURDUE UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

January 25, 2018

Matt Painter

West Lafayette, Indiana

Purdue - 92, Michigan - 88

Q. Matt, Vince said the second half was a dream to play in. What was it like to coach?
COACH PAINTER: Obviously both teams played well offensively and both teams really didn't have an answer in terms of stopping the other team.

We had that stretch there to start the second half to where we know it's kind of a seesaw, just kept going back. They'd make a shot; we'd make a shot.

The one thing we normally do is when we have some breakdowns defensively, in the past -- and not just talking this year but in the past -- it affects your offensive game. I don't think it affected our offensive game tonight, which is a great sign.

I think it's a sign of maturity as a team that even though things aren't going our way, Abdur-Rahkman was fabulous. The whole team was fabulous offensively. We kept our poise about us and still executed on the offense end. And obviously the same could be said for them, too.

Q. Coach, at least offensively would you say this was maybe the best complete game of the year for you guys; you had 22 assists, 10 turnovers? You had it going on inside and outside with Haas and Edwards. Very efficient on top of that.
COACH PAINTER: Yeah, it was a great offensive game. Obviously we played really well in our last game and hit 20 3s but it was a different game. This was a possession game, a back-and-forth game.

You normally don't see that kind of efficiency on both sides in this type of game. Normally this game ends up at some point being a grinder. And it just wasn't. It's just one of those games that both teams really played well offensively.

But we played at a pretty high level on the offensive end.

Q. You've had some really good teams here, 2010 team comes to mind, until Robbie got hurt. Is this the best team you've had here?
COACH PAINTER: I think the thing that we do differently than that team is that everybody can shoot. So we keep you honest.

So when you see Isaac Haas down there and they stay one-on-one, that's just a back-handed compliment to the rest of our guys, because you should double him.

But then 3s are more than 2s. And so now they didn't double him and we make 11 3s. Heck, we're trying to switch to stop their 3s and they get 13 3s. And you could see where we were offensively and where they were offensively and it was tough to stop.

I think it's very comparable. Both teams have some different strengths but both teams have a very high value when it comes to competing and playing together and doing a lot of little things.

Q. Can you speak to the game Vince had tonight in the context of the sort of season he's having and what you needed from him this year?
COACH PAINTER: I think he's letting things come to him. A lot of times guys that get 30 points, it takes them 20 shots to get there, and Vince gets 30 points on 11 shots. And he's just been efficient for us.

I love him at the spot as a 4. That's what we switched up on last year, when we put Biggie at the 5 and put him at the 4.

He's such a good passer. He can handle the basketball. He's got great experience. I just thought he let some things come to him tonight and he's been letting things come to him here in the past month. He's been very good.

Q. I know you said this game was a little bit different than the last time you faced Michigan. But there's no denying that when you guys match up, it's a competitive game. What makes this matchup maybe so competitive for you guys; and do you thrive in that type of atmosphere?
COACH PAINTER: They really outclassed us, I thought, last year in Ann Arbor. Then in the Big Ten Tournament, we had the game. Where's it's a possession game and they had to foul us. And we miss a layup.

And they send it into overtime. But it seems like our games more than not come down to the last couple of possessions. I just think that when they didn't have a 5 that could shoot, it really helped us. Because we could bottle guys up.

When they have -- I think his system is the best, when he has a guy like Wagner. Everybody is a good coach when you have someone like Wagner. But it's really hard on us to do that.

And I think how we play and what we do is really hard on them. So I think we both sit around our film rooms and try to say is this the best thing for us to do to stop them.

And I don't think that's a consensus, at least in our film room it's not always a consensus. The one thing that I've found from playing John's teams, I always learn something. I just don't want to learn something through a loss.

I always learn something, I go back and I say why did I do this. And I felt the same way about Bill Carmody when he was at Northwestern, and felt the same thing about Dana Altman when he was at Creighton.

They always had you thinking in their system. Like we had to adjust and stop doing a couple things tonight that I thought were -- have been successful for us, but it obviously was not working and our guys were breaking down.

But we have a lot of, obviously, respect for him and a lot of respect for their program.

Q. What were some of the things they did offensively that maybe were different and maybe caused some problems?
COACH PAINTER: They didn't miss. There it is right there.

Q. How did they get the shots that they didn't miss?
(Laughter)

COACH PAINTER: I think we hit Abdur-Rahkman into the bench; I think we hit his head one time on another one, he still hit it. It was unbelievable.

6'11" guys aren't supposed to be able to shoot 3s and triple threat when they're 20 years old the way Wagner does.

It's a really hard thing. I used to joke when I played, one of the hardest things to do in basketball is closing out on somebody. Stop them from shooting and contain the dribble. It's a hard thing to do.

I would always tell our coaches, those closeouts don't work on Jim Jackson. They would say, no, do this, do this. You can tell me whatever you want. It doesn't work on Jimmie Jackson. So when you get against great players, man, they make you think and they make you break down.

We're fortunate to get this win today, just like we were fortunate in Michigan. But that's kind of part of basketball, being able to try to be one possession better.

Q. Coach Beilein talked about he said that without Caleb Swaningan, he felt like you guys matched up better against them. Did you feel that way and to take it a setup further do you see that sometimes against other Big Ten teams as well?
COACH PAINTER: With them, it's different. When you have that 5 that can pop and do stuff. And we just went to switching last year. I thought he did a really good job against us of kind scrapping what he does and just kind of going to a weave into those ball screens. If they would have ran their stuff traditionally, it would allow us to use some help. And it's good stuff, but it really would have helped us more. I don't know if we would have stopped them. But I think we would have had a better percentage of stopping them.

But when he was at the 5, we just had some breakdowns last year at their place. Then when we got them in the tournament, we did a much better job switching. But with all that being said, Wagner got in foul trouble in the tournament. And Wilson had a great game. Wagner was good one game and Wilson good the next game.

But, yeah, there's instances where, when we go smaller, it helps us in our switches. So I think against certain teams that have that ability, not everybody has that. Not everybody has four or five guys out there on the court that can shoot like they do.

Q. Talk about the leadership of your kids on and off the floor.
COACH PAINTER: They've done a great job. They hung in there today. And, obviously, when you let people score, they score on you and you feel like you're doing a good job, a lot of times when people score, you're not always doing a good job. Then when they're making the tough shots that they're making, it gets frustrating. But I think our guys did a good job of hanging in there.

And they've all done a good job, from Isaac to Vince, to Dakota and P.J., our seniors. But our team's done a good job.

I've got some guys that come off the bench that deserve to play more than they do. And they do a good job of kind of keeping their head. Sometimes it's one of those things where they aren't doing anything wrong, you're just sticking with somebody that's a little bit older.

Q. John said he didn't want you to make 3s. So obviously that means they're going to play Isaac one-on-one. But you need Isaac to finish then. He delivered when you guys needed him to tonight?
COACH PAINTER: Isaac's been great. I think the last couple of games, he's not had the same amount of opportunities because people have loaded it up with their weak side guys and their low guys, or they've doubled him. That's really got people in rotations. And we've got more attempts from 3 that way.

So I totally get what they're doing. When you get against the balance of an inside/outside team and vice versa, you have to make a decision on what you're going to do.

Q. Off to one of your best starts in school history. In the world of one-and-dones, you have four upperclassmen starting. Could you speak to how experience has gotten you guys as far as it has this season, especially?
COACH PAINTER: They've been great. They've really worked hard at their craft. Obviously we've got some really skilled guys. The thing about our four seniors are they're guys that have been with us four years; they're not transfers. They're not fifth-year guys.

And sometimes, in today's basketball landscape, that's how you have to get old sometimes, maybe take a fifth-year or two, which we've done, take a transfer and try to be able to do that because, just like you're trying to get people, people are always seeming to be leaving everybody's program.

When you have 800 transfers, the average comes out to two people are leaving each team. A little bit more than that, actually. So you have got to be able to get guys and develop them and keep going, but also it's hard to keep them. And it's hard to keep people happy. It just is. And to be able to keep those guys in the fold and grow them and develop, but also develop together, I think, is really special.

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