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PURDUE UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

February 25, 2018

Matt Painter

West Lafayette, Indiana

Purdue - 84, Minnesota - 60

Q. I have a question for you about subbing the guys out all at the same time with four minutes and 30 seconds left. Was that something going in you wanted to do, and why did you think it was appropriate to sub them all out together?
MATT PAINTER: Well, I think any time you have that many guys and now you sub them out individually, you're going to talk afterwards. We do ours afterwards. I've got a lot of respect for Richard Pitino, and you get in a game like that where it's decided already, and now you're subbing each guy out and you're giving them standing ovations, it's a competitive basketball game, and they're on the short end of it. I don't think you need to make it worse for your opponent, and so that's why, I think, when you have four people, it can get a little bit long in the tooth there. So I just thought that was the right thing to do. And there was nothing wrong with it. I think you have banquets, you have senior night. They have a chance to speak. And I think the one thing you want to make sure that they know is that they're appreciated, and I think we were able to do that after the game.

Q. You've done this before, but it's the emotions of a day like this for you because what you were talking about, the commitment these guys have made, the sacrifice these guys have made, how special is this day?
MATT PAINTER: Well, it's a special day. It's kind of -- it's disappointing. You spend so much time together, then it's your last game playing in your home arena. But you know, I really don't reflect on it like that, while you're going through it, because you move towards the Big Ten Tournament. You move towards the NCAA Tournament after that. I think you reflect on it when they can't play anymore. That to me is when it hits home, especially going into the next year when you start to think about, what are we going to do. They've been a big part of that now for four years.

But it's part of it. You know, it's college basketball, and you tell those guys when they arrive, this will be over quicker than you think it is. You'll be going through tough times, and you think, man, this is hard, this is tough, and then you'll blink an eye and your career will be over. I think they would definitely say the same thing.

Q. After a couple of lean years, is this the group that kind of reestablished the type of player you want to bring to Purdue and the style that you want to play? What is their legacy?
MATT PAINTER: Well, it's not as much style because we've changed how we've played back and forth to kind of center ourselves around just the skill level of the players that we have. But there's no doubt you want to get players that are about winning, competitive guys where basketball is important, and then also guys that are skilled. I'd be remiss if I said like these guys -- they were such in terms of changing the culture, but there was other people, obviously, Rapheal Davis, Caleb Swanigan, were two guys from Fort Wayne that were very instrumental in our success, also, but there's no doubt when those guys came in that they were a part of a change to help us.

Q. Talk about Dakota and how was he able to get going the way he did today.
MATT PAINTER: Just getting in a rhythm. Obviously those guys did a good job finding him. We executed some things on some sets. He got one thing off kind of a loose ball early. But you just want to get him as many shots as possible in terms of him getting his shoulders square and getting into rhythm. I think the same thing could be said for a lot of our guys. We have to be able to manufacture a good shot, and sometimes when we don't move as well or screen as well or cut hard, we have more struggles. But I thought tonight we did a good job of finding him and just getting him into a rhythm.

Q. This seemed like the consummate Dakota Mathias game, just him doing a little bit of everything, some of the passes he made. How appropriate was it that he played this way?
MATT PAINTER: Well, it's how you want to play. I think you have some struggles -- every player has some struggles. I always equate it to Major League Baseball players. There's not a Major League Baseball hitter that doesn't have slumps at some time. Everybody has them. But in the long haul, if you keep doing your job and keep putting in the work, you're going to shoot a good percentage when you're as talented as he is. But no, this was kind of a quintessential game for him in terms of a guy that got seven rebounds, got four assists, didn't turn the ball over, and then made his shots.

Q. Just looking at the stats, it's easy to see from a basketball standpoint what this class -- not necessarily just today, but what this class has meant to the program, but just hearing them talk, it's clear what the program meant to them, as well. How have you seen them embrace that through their four years here, just what the program means to them?
MATT PAINTER: Well, they understood it. I think you've got to get out of your own way. I don't think self-absorbed people see it that way. You're constantly thinking about yourself, and I think P.J. Thompson really hit the nail on the head when he said you put others before yourself, and that's what a good teammate does. That's what someone who's about winning. And when you are that way -- a lot of times you will hear guys say the right things because they think that's what their parents or their coaches want them to say. P.J. Thompson like actually believes it. When he's saying something, he believes it. You see that in people, but you don't see that a lot of times in young people. You just don't. They haven't lived through enough experiences. It's hard for someone to be able to reflect on some things at a young age, especially guys that have been recruited. You've got to understand when you get recruited, like you get on top of the world, and now you've got to go play a team sport. It's hard. I think it's why you see so many people transfer, too. It's because this isn't working for me. Well, you're 19, everybody else is 22, 21. It's hard when you've got a little bit of advantage on someone to blend in.

These guys stuck it out. You talk about transfers, these guys didn't transfer. They stuck it out. It wasn't -- Isaac Haas played 15 minutes as a sophomore. It wasn't just an easy road for all of those guys. Dakota Mathias was in and out of our lineup, always played the first couple years, and it's kind of a true test to them, it's kind of one of those things where everybody talks about the negative, but I think there's a lot of positives with this class.

Q. This actually played out exactly like the game in Minneapolis.
MATT PAINTER: In a way, yes.

Q. What was it that swung the game in the second half?
MATT PAINTER: Well, the difference in the game in Minneapolis is we took bad shots in the first four or five minutes, and today we didn't, but we didn't make them, and that's what you're always trying to get them to feel good about themselves when some good shots don't go down. I thought it was just getting some stops at the start of the second half. We got that lead, and then they pushed us and pushed back in the first half, but I thought it was just getting stops in the second half and then being able to knock down some shots.

Q. You had nine blocks and nine steals today as a team. Was this a step forward defensively going into the post-season?
MATT PAINTER: Yeah, we were obviously better. Illinois caused us some different match-ups for us than these guys did. I think sometimes it's not the quality of the team, it's the match-up. I thought the other night, Illinois, they gave us some problems in some of the things they did, and I thought we helped them because we had a couple turnovers that led to their run-outs. But I just thought we were better tonight. I just thought we were better defensively. We did a better job on their guards. We didn't let Jordan Murphy get going because he's dangerous once he gets his head up.

Q. Vince played 25 minutes; how's the ankle and how is he feeling after the game?
MATT PAINTER: I didn't ask him. I thought he looked good out there. I don't think he looked 100 percent for me, but I'm also guessing just watching him. But I thought it was a good game for him to kind of get the rust off. Any time you sit out, it's not as much the ankle sometimes, it's the fact that you haven't practiced. He needs to keep getting treatment, keep working on it, but he also needs to be able to practice, and I think once you practice and you kind of get back into your flow, it really helps you come game time.

Q. How would you describe the response to the Wisconsin game and the three-game losing streak in general?
MATT PAINTER: Well, I thought our response was good. I thought our response also to not having Vince Edwards was good. I think that adversity really helped. I think the guys that had to play in his absence really played well and helped us win games. Obviously Carson had a great game in one of those. But I thought we responded. I thought our Michigan State loss went right down to the wire. I thought we put ourselves in position to win the Ohio State game. We just played poorly the last 10 minutes, but they also played pretty well.

With that being said, in Wisconsin we get off to a good start, we're up 9-2, and then we just never could get any energy. We just couldn't feed off anything. I thought we shot the ball a little bit too quick. But we did play well defensively. I thought we held them to enough points. So you learn from it. It's one of those things where it's unfortunate. You get one more win and you're Big Ten champs, but that's part of it. We didn't do that, and now we've got to learn from it, and hopefully we're better because of it.

Q. With the Big Ten Tournament a week earlier, what's your plan for that week off between the tournament and selection Sunday?
MATT PAINTER: Yeah, just take a couple days off and just practice. I think a lot of people are making more of it. It kind of gives a story line. But there's not much to it. It's a week before. It's seven days before. It's not that big a deal. If people are injured, you're going to get healthy. Everybody is kind of worn down at that time. The one thing you want to be able to do is you want to be able to stay on edge. I think people have that, like when you go deep into a tournament, a conference tournament that is, sometimes playing back in the NCAA Tournament, it's taken a little bit out of you. Sometimes getting beat in the conference tournament if you're a team that's already in can help you a little bit. Sometimes none of what I just said matters.

And so it's hard to like say, hey, this is the right thing. I think the one thing that you do have experience of, you have experience of coaching your team. I don't think there's just a theory out there for all teams to jump on. You've got to have a pulse on your team. You also don't want to go scrimmage and be competitive and go crazy and somebody gets hurt. So you don't want that, either. But you also want to keep them fresh. You want to shoot the basketball. But you want to be able to keep them on edge. So we'll just kind of play it by ear, but we'll definitely take a couple days off, practice a couple days, take another one off, practice a day or two, find out where we're going. You don't know if you're playing on Thursday, you don't know if you're playing on Friday, you don't know if you're playing close, playing away. It's everything that jumps into it you try to help yourself after that selection. But I don't think it's really that big a deal. I really don't.

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