NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - YALE VS PURDUE

March 17, 2022

Zach Edey

Jaden Ivey

Trevion Williams

Matt Painter

Fiserv Forum

Purdue Boilermakers

Media Conference

MODERATOR: Joining us now are Purdue student-athletes, Jaden Ivey, Trevion Williams, and Zach Edey.

(No audio.)

TREVION WILLIAMS: Just to kind of bring it back off that, I don't think we've experienced the whole thing yet. Obviously, I've been through it. I've been through it my freshman year. And just going through it last year with these guys, they kind of get a glimpse of kind of what it's like. Although it was COVID -- but I think once we play our first game, I think everybody will get the full experience.

JADEN IVEY: Yeah, really, it feels normal. I get to go out of my room finally. Last year, I couldn't even step foot out of my room. It feels normal. And once we get open practice started, I'll start to feel like real March Madness.

Q. Jaden, I realize perfection's not going to happen, so you're not going to be at your A-game the whole time, but as you look back, you look at film, what's the difference with Purdue when you're pretty good and Purdue when you're really clicking?

JADEN IVEY: When we're pretty good, I think it shows glimpses of when we turn the ball over, you know. We make some mistakes on the defensive end. We're not as good. But when we're really good and we're all clicking, talking together on defense and just offensively just making the simple reads, I think we're the best team in the country.

Q. I was chatting with Coach last night. He kind of sat back, and he said, I've been doing this for 33 years. I've never seen it all the way. I know you guys know that, and I know that's been the storyline all season is this is a special roster. But have you had any conversations about that, of doing this for Coach Painter? It's been 42 years since Purdue's been to a Final Four, and this is the first step tomorrow.

JADEN IVEY: Yeah. I definitely want to play it for him, definitely want to make a run for him because he's given so much to this team and this university. We're just going to give it our all every time we step out on the court. And that's what we do when we step out on the court. We give it our all for Coach Painter and for the team. We're just going to try to do our best to bring him to his first national championship, and we're going to work really hard to get there.

TREVION WILLIAMS: I mean, Jaden kind of covered it. Not even just Coach Painter. Just doing it for ourselves. I think we deserve it. I think we've been working hard all year, and we've came short a couple games and a lot of games that we should have won. This is kind of our chance to kind of prove ourselves. We've missed out on the Big Ten Championship regular season and then, obviously, the tournament. So just having those things happen, at this point, we kind of have no choice but to kind of go out there and play our all.

ZACH EDEY: Yeah, kind of off what they said, there's a lot of people we do it for. Obviously, Coach Painter's one of them. He's a big thing for us. But we do it for our families. We do it for our moms. We do it for our dads. We do it for us, Coach Painter, friends back home. But there's a lot of whys on this team, but Coach Painter's definitely a big one.

Q. For Zach and Tre, can you just talk about what's most important to make sure your size advantage is as much of an advantage as it can be tomorrow now that the game starts to get played a little bit smaller again and to make sure that your guys' advantage is as much as you can get from it, the small ball element doesn't necessarily hurt you?

TREVION WILLIAMS: Just from the past couple games that we've watched so far, the early-on games, even the IU game -- we've been watching games, scouting, and the refs, they've been letting a lot of stuff go, and it's going to be -- just from watching those games, you can tell it's going to be very physical. Every game's going to be physical. I just think if we go in and embrace the physicality of the game, we'll be fine, just use our size advantage as best as possible, being smart, just being disciplined. Then, obviously, you know, having to guard those smaller teams, you know, for instance, Yale -- they're not the biggest guys in the world, but they're going to force us to guard on the perimeter as big men. Just be disciplined, and we'll be fine.

ZACH EDEY: Yeah. I think our size really comes into play. Coach Painter was talking about it on film. As long as we're physical, as long as we get as deep as we can, we just do what we can. We finish over the top of them. That's where our size comes into play. Make them pay on the offensive end for things they maybe have an advantage of in terms of defense, just really playing physical. That's really it.

Q. They watched you guys last year at this time walk off the court with a lot of emotion and stunned against North Texas. Did that discussion even need to happen this year of this can't happen again in the first round? How are you going to lean into the feelings you felt last March leaving Lucas Oil Stadium?

TREVION WILLIAMS: We've been watching film on that game. At least I have. And I know we have a couple times as a team. But we've watched film on that game pretty much all summer, and that was kind of our drive and motivation, becoming a team that we were -- or that we are. It still motivates us to this day. You appreciate experiences like that because these guys are freshmen and they were young and they didn't know what they came into. They didn't know what to expect coming to the tournament. Now they know what it feels like, you know, to -- in March Madness, you never know. You can be beaten on any given night. You've got to respect everybody. Everybody's here for a reason. And like I said, they've been through it. So now that they know how it feels, believe me it's going to drive not only them but our team.

Q. Zach and Trevion, is there a part of you that's looking forward to getting away from Big Ten teams who know your every move and know everything about you guys, that maybe you'll get a little bit more freedom down low?

ZACH EDEY: Yeah, for sure. I mean, it's one thing we kind of said going into March Madness. In the Big Ten, most teams have been playing the same style of basketball for like 30 years now, so everyone knows exactly how each other plays. Everyone knows that's what they run. So getting out of that and teams have to play us on like a two- or three-day scout, it's going to be a lot different. There's going to be a lot more things to help because people don't have all that time to prepare for us. It's tough. It's hard to simulate some of the things that we have on this team. I'm looking forward to getting that fresh feel that we had at the beginning of the season before we started the Big Ten play.

Q. Trevion, you played on a team that made a deep tournament run. What have you shared or what can you share about these guys about what it takes to navigate these next couple of weeks for something like that?

TREVION WILLIAMS: Like you said, I have been a part of it. As a freshman, I didn't play that much. But when my number was called, you know, I had energy. I was ready to go. And these guys are different because they both start now. As a freshman, I was on the bench -- or I was coming off the bench, I should say. But one thing I always try to tell those guys is try to respect every team and just -- most importantly, just have fun, man. This is our best time of year. This is the time we should have fun, the time you come together with your team and really trust each other. I don't say much, but one thing I do say is I just always tell them to have fun. Jaden and Zach, I tell them before every game, Don't worry about anything else out on the court, just have fun. That's it.

Q. Jaden, for you again, Trevion, really quickly, and Jaden, I want to know what you said to make him giggle later. Trevion, really quickly, you said you watched that film a lot on North Texas. Was that your choice, or Painter wants you guys to watch it?

TREVION WILLIAMS: It's a little bit of both. We've had time. Coach will pull us in the film room, and we'll watch a couple clips. I know when we started our first set of, like, summer workouts, Coach had us watching that film. In summer, you're like, Well, the season's not here, so what are we watching film on? And it kind of made me wonder. And the first thing he pulled out was the North Texas film. You know, that's something you don't expect as a player. Obviously, it was heartbreaking to go through. It was a hard pill to swallow, man. But that's something he started out with in summer. He wanted to kind of build that foundation and let guys know, like, here's where we are, and here's what we need to do to get better from it. I've obviously watched my own film. I couldn't stop thinking about it after the loss. I think I watched it every other week after. Man, it was just, like I said it was a hard pill to swallow because I know -- I truly believe in our team, and I know we're better than that.

Q. Then, Jaden, you guys are in one-game-at-a-time mode, I would assume, but still there is a big picture here. Are you allowed to talk about what your big picture goal is? Like you guys arrived here. What's going to make a successful month?

JADEN IVEY: Obviously, we have the big picture as a national championship. Everyone has dreams and goals of winning a national championship. But you just have to approach it one game at a time. I'm ready to hoop for real. I don't like waiting to play games. But I'm ready to hoop, and I'm ready to get going with my team.

Q. For Jaden, I was just wondering what you remembered about playing on that under-19 team with James Jones, the Yale coach last summer. Anything sticks out about him?

JADEN IVEY: He actually texted me, I think, a couple weeks ago. He just said, you know, Good luck with the rest of the season, and you're doing well. I appreciate Coach Jones. He taught me a lot just from an emotional standpoint. I'm an emotional type player on the court, and he just said, Just keep a positive attitude about you, and Coach Jones is a great coach, and I'm looking forward to seeing him.

Q. Jaden, I told you I caught up with your mom yesterday for a little bit before they were heading out to their tournament game. She told me they scheduled practice tomorrow from 11:00 to 1:00 so she can watch you. She packed her Purdue shirt. I also talked to Coach Painter, and he said you guys are going to try to watch their game on Saturday. He admitted he thinks you play a little better when your mom is in the stands and it's unfortunate she can't be there. But, I guess, how are you guys embracing each other, embracing your separate opportunities while both going dancing at the same time?

JADEN IVEY: We're just super blessed to just be in this position. I just think it's just what God's done for us to put us in this position. You know, both of us are in March Madness right now. We're doing what we love to do. It's just a blessing.

Obviously, I'm not going to have her in the stands, but I know she's going to be rooting for me, and I'm going to be rooting for her. You know, I don't want to see her -- I want to see her go far, so I don't want to see her in the stands, and I know she doesn't want to see me in the stands. I'm just so blessed to be here, and I know she's supper excited to get her journey started, too.

Q. Is it easier or harder to play in the post against smaller guys as opposed to your kind of traditional 6-10, 7-foot guys you see more in the Big Ten that you don't necessarily have to worry about squashing?

TREVION WILLIAMS: Honestly, it's a little tougher because you kind of got to worry about guys flopping and, you know -- I don't know. I mean, I don't really know how to explain it, but -- I don't know -- it just teaches you to be physical with everybody. I would say with the smaller guys, it's different. You've got to worry about we're so big, and those little guys kind of get under us. They try to get into us, take our ball. I would say it's tougher with the little guy, whereas with a big dude, you can kind of bang a little bit and be as physical as you want. But that's just how things are with smaller guys. They send doubles a lot, so it just prepares you for whatever they throw at you.

ZACH EDEY: It's definitely a lot different. Obviously when you have smaller guys on you, they know that, so they'll send double teams at you. They'll tell their guys try to set up some fouls, so you have to really watch, like, what you're doing with your arms. And even when you do nothing wrong, they just fall over, and you get the foul anyways just because they're smaller. And they're allowed to do a lot of different stuff to you. It's just a different game. Obviously, it's easier to get to the post position. It's easier to back them down. But you just have to worry about a completely different game, really, when you're playing a small guy.

Q. For Jaden. For as much as we're talking about getting the ball inside, you guys have been really good all year in transition. Is there anything you guys have to do or want to do to kind of get out in the open floor a little bit more? Is it about forcing turnovers? What's kind of the secret sauce there?

JADEN IVEY: I think the biggest thing is getting rebounds. I think we did a good job because -- Iowa, I think we won the rebound battle, but we had turnovers. And I think when we cut the turnovers and just make the simple reads and -- that just opens up a lot in transition for us to get going.

Q. Trevion, this is also serious, but we often see some smiles come from the guys. Who's the guy on this team who relaxes it, kind of breaks the mood, or kind of keeps things a little bit light when you guys kind of need a moment to just kind of relax?

TREVION WILLIAMS: I don't know. I guess, like I say, myself. I try to be positive all the time with the season and with everything going on, man. You constantly have stuff just coming at you, coming at us as a team. I try to be that guy, that voice to try to keep everybody level-headed, try to keep everybody happy, smiling. Even this dude, he tries to -- when he gets in game mode, he's like straight-faced. Like I just tell him when he's out there, Just have fun. I tell him to try to smile all the time. This dude, too. I don't know. I guess you could say I'm the guy and I've kind of accepted that roll on our team, just being an energy guy, being positive, being happy. It does more than you think, and I think they appreciate it, so I try to, you know -- and it's also something I've learned to do, something I've grown into. I used to be the quiet guy on the team. I was always to myself. And as I grew up, as I got more mature, you know, I found out that that's kind of being selfish, you know, because, as a team, you should be able to open up and talk to guys and be honest with them and -- I don't know -- just keep them level-headed. Like I said, it's something I've grown into, but I've definitely accepted it as a senior and as a leader on this team.

MODERATOR: Joined now by Purdue head coach Matt Painter. Questions, please.

Q. Matt, what do you have to do to make sure the dynamics of you guys playing really big and some of these teams you're going to play being smaller goes in your direction the best it can?

COACH MATT PAINTER: Yeah. Don't turn the ball over, more than anything, just be efficient on the offensive end, make good decisions, take what they give us. If they're going to overplay things and sag and double and triple team, just make easy fundamental passes and move the basketball and get them into rotation. I think when we come in with predetermined thoughts and don't play off our instincts, that's where we struggle no matter who we're playing. I think we've proven that throughout the year. When we just take what people give us, we've had a lot of success.

Q. Just wondering: What's the biggest thing that sticks out when you look at Yale? What is it that catches your attention and impresses you?

COACH MATT PAINTER: Probably the No. 1 thing is how hard they play. I think anytime you can go through a season and you get to the end and you've got to win your tournament, I've always had respect for the coaches that have to win their tournament and just the resolve of their players. It's so much on you as a player and a coach to know, Hey, we've got to win the quarterfinals, the semi-finals, or the championship game to get into the tournament.

And it happens to a lot of people across the country. It's very hard, and one game can knock you out to where you might not even make the NIT or another one of the tournaments. So it's very hard to do that. But once those type of teams get in there, that's the concern. Like, these guys here have been up against it, and they've played so well, and they've played so hard, but Coach Jones does a great job with his group. I think they defend really well. They have positional size. A lot of people will kind of go overboard about our centers and size, but there's still four other positions out there, and they have great positional size in those positions, and kind of those combo forwards that are athletic and strong, they can cause a lot of problems for you by taking away things and getting into passing lanes.

Q. You've been to the tournament a ton, I know that. I believe this is the first year Purdue's ever been No. 1, so I'm guessing this tournament, entering it, I'm wondering how different does it feel pressurewise because this year's not like a lot of years you've had?

COACH MATT PAINTER: Right. Well, we've been a higher seed before. We've been a 2 seed once before. We've been a 3 seed before. So this is our second time being a 3 seed. I think we've been a top --

Q. (No microphone.)

COACH MATT PAINTER: We've never been a 2 seed?

Q. I don't know, but this is the best team you've ever had.

COACH MATT PAINTER: You enunciate better in the hallway than you do with that --

Q. Let's just go backwards.

COACH MATT PAINTER: You know, this is the first team we've had that started the season in the Top 10 and finished in the Top 10. We have really good size. You really don't worry about it. You get to your next game. You respect your opponent. You understand what March Madness is all about. You're on a neutral court, and you have to play the right way. You have -- your functionality as a team, you can't get away from your strengths, and you want to do your best to, you know, stay away from your weaknesses. I know that's kind of coaches' talk, but it's so true. I think that's the focus for us, and I think sometimes when you struggle at something -- we turned the ball over 10 times in the first half against Indiana, and we then won six straight games. Then we turned the ball over in the next game. So we went a couple games in our tournament, but then we get into that last game where we turn the ball over again. So that's reared its ugly head with us, but yet we've proven that we can get that fixed and go on runs and not turn the basketball over. I think that's the focus for our team is to be efficient offensively, take care of the basketball. And then we'll really going to help ourself defensively if we do that.

Q. Of course, we brought up North Texas to the guys. Trevion actually told us that I think it was one of the first summer workouts and you actually brought in the North Texas film and started showing it to them.

COACH MATT PAINTER: Correct.

Q. So I wanted to know what went into your thought process there of starting to show it 10 months ago and what kind of switch that flipped for your team almost a year ago.

COACH MATT PAINTER: It just goes to -- the last question is some of the possessions that we had in the North Texas game and not taking care of the basketball, especially in the first half. We would like to have those possessions back just like we would like to have some offensive possessions back in the Iowa game and the game at Indiana that I mentioned and a couple others. That's what's going to send you home. Like be intelligent as a player and as a team and understand, Okay. It's no different than playing time. Understand what gets you on the court, and understand what gets you off the court. Everyone wants to talk in theory. There's no theory to it. Take care of the basketball. Make simple plays. If they want to double-team you, get the ball out of your hands. If they want to cover you one-on-one, be aggressive, things of that nature.

But that's your start. If you don't learn from your losses, then you're a fool. And that's all I was trying to do is, like, Hey, let's learn from our loss with North Texas. Use it as a springboard for next year and put ourselves in a great position, which I think we have. We've put ourself in a great position. But Yale has also put themselves in a great position. You've just got to get into this tournament and then go out and have fun and play to your strengths.

Q. Follow-up with that: Is that something you did that was unique to this team knowing you had everybody back, or is this something that you had done in previous years with teams to start some film stuff like that in the summer?

COACH MATT PAINTER: I don't do it a lot. I've done it a couple times just to kind of plant that seed, especially if you have a tough loss like we did. But credit to North Texas and Coach McCasland. I thought they played better than we did. Even if we won that game, I thought those guys really played well. Just trying to use that loss. You always got to take your losses and use them and learn from them, and that's what we were trying to do. I think that's important for us to really hold on to is just the efficiency of the game and playing the game the right way because there's a handful of those possessions we'd really like to have back.

Q. Coach, I was listening to Coach Jones talk earlier, and he referenced your relationship, his relationship with Zach Edey and Jaden Ivey. I know the basketball world is small, community is small, but how unique is it to step on the court with him and how great of a job he's doing at Yale?

COACH MATT PAINTER: Oh, he's been fabulous. Obviously, he's been there a long time, I think 23 years. But he was an assistant for our U-19 USA team last year and did a great job and got a gold medal, coached Caleb Furst and Jaden Ivey and competed against Zach Edey. So he's very familiar with our guys.

And he's a basketball guy through and through. Him and his brother, you know, have been in the game a long time. So, like, those guys get it. They understand it.

And he's been great for Yale. I've always said that about -- if more coaches would get that opportunity to have that longevity, I think you'd see more positive returns. And they've obviously seen that at Yale, especially here in the last five years with going to the tournament three times.

Q. Coach, I was going to go back to when you were talking about turnovers, like thinking about the IU game, Michigan State, most recent Iowa game --

COACH MATT PAINTER: There you go.

Q. You said that we can usually kind of put a stop to that and go on our own run. What's kind of the first thing when you call that timeout after six straight turnovers? What are you putting into players' heads?

COACH MATT PAINTER: Yeah. I normally get to that timeout before six, though. I'm normally right at three. The three in a row normally triggers me, but I understand your point.

Just keep it simple. I think everybody in our -- the guys that cover us all the time probably get sick of me saying it, but turnovers. It's not just one thing. It can be your traveling, your bad passes, your pick sixes, your offensive fouls in the post. There's a lot of different ways to turn the basketball over, and there's a lot of teams in the country that prove that. I just don't want to be one of them.

Just trying to get them to settle down. Sometimes we leave our feet when we pass too much, things of that nature. So whatever has happened, just settle them down, getting them to focus on what we're trying to get accomplished and how they're defending things. Are they doing something different than what we prepared for? A lot of times, no. Like, a lot of times, people that mix things up a lot normally aren't very good at one thing. They're just trying to surprise you. But the people that do one thing normally get pretty good at that one thing. They might change it a little bit.

So a lot of it's ball screen coverage, and a lot of it's post doubles for us. But when it's just carelessness, that has nothing to do with the opponent, and Purdue's beating Purdue. Then those are the ones that you've just got to settle down and settle into the game. We handle some things differently sometimes in terms of like when things don't go our way. Instead of being more simple, we'll try to do more like we're going to get it all back in one possession, and that's not the right way to go about it. When we do it the other way and we settle into the game, we normally have success.

Q. Can you tell us about Yale's offense and what makes Swain so good and what you need from Eric in that matchup?

COACH MATT PAINTER: Well, Swain is one of those guys that's a threat right as he steps on the court. He can shoot off the dribble, he can play in the mid post. He can obviously catch and shoot. He can dribble into 3s. He's just got a real mature pulse to his game.

A lot of times, guys who can shoot the ball, there's something where they can't do it. If you make them dribble, if you make them go one way or the other, now their percentages really drop. With him, he can do all of it in terms of scoring the basketball. So you really want to be able to take up his space and make it hard for him like you would any other scorer or shooter.

When you have a guy out there that can get 30, 35 points in a game, as a coach, that always scares you. But offensively, they have good balance. They have guards that can really drive the basketball. He's a guy that can really score the basketball.

But the other guys -- Gabbidon's had individual games where he's scored in the 20s, 30. They have guards that can drive the basketball. Knowling's a guy that's kind of a matchup nightmare with his athleticism and his quickness. There's guys -- Kelly and Jarvis can drive the ball there, they can score at the rim.

So they have good pieces. They do a good job with their spacing in kind of their ball screen motion. They do some different things out of it, they have some quick hitters that they can go to. They spread you out, and they really try to come and attack people they think they have a mismatch with, whether they think it's in the post or driving the basketball.

Q. Swain feels like a pretty physically mature physical sort of guard. Does it compare at all to Pickett and A.J. Hoggard from the Big Ten tournament?

COACH MATT PAINTER: I would say more Pickett, but he -- obviously, he shoots more 3s than Pickett. You know, Pickett's a guy that, East Coast guy, obviously played at Siena, scored a lot of points, scored over 2,000 points. He can really get you off balance, then step back and shoot that fadeaway. He's a more prolific shooter, though, than him. He's more of a scorer where Pickett's more of a play-making type guard where he can get other people involved. I would say a little bit, but I would say Swain from a scoring standpoint is probably a little bit better.

MODERATOR: Coach, thank you. Good luck tomorrow.