NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: REGIONAL SEMIFINAL - SAINT PETER'S VS PURDUE

March 24, 2022

Matt Painter

Jaden Ivey

Zach Edey

Trevion Williams

Wells Fargo Center

Purdue Boilermakers

Sweet 16 Media Conference

Q. Guys, are there any challenges that come with playing a Cinderella, somebody who's obviously drawing a lot of attention for the run they're making?

JADEN IVEY: You know, just with that, I feel like they have a lot of confidence in themselves, and every team you play in the tournament you respect. And just going into the game, we've just got to be locked in and ready, and I believe we are.

ZACH EDEY: Yeah, I think a lot of teams underestimated them, they kind of doubted their ability because of the number next to their name. But we're coming into this game like we're playing the 2 seed because they beat the 2 seed, so we have to have the mentality that they're a really good team and we have to respect them.

Q. Zach, they don't really have a ton of size or at least seven-footers like you. What do you have to do to take advantage of that?

ZACH EDEY: Yeah, it's kind of been the thing for the last two teams that they don't have the size match-ups so we've dominated the offensive glass, getting my shots up, drawing a lot of fouls because that's what they have to do to guard me. Keep playing like I have the last two games, and hopefully it works.

Q. Much has been said about them coming in. They have a huge chip on their shoulders and all that. Is that the mentality that you guys have the way you guys have been hungry to make this run through the NCAA Tournament, especially coming out of a rough conference like the Big Ten?

TREVION WILLIAMS: Yeah, definitely. If you just look at the past couple years, seeing what we've been through. Obviously my freshman year making it to the Elite 8 and being five seconds away from a Final Four and then my sophomore year with COVID and just things, we had to kind of win out to make the tournament. Then my junior year, COVID. Now we're back in this position.

Man, it's just a tough thing to deal with, but you look at the past couple years and you've slipped up, you've came short, whether it's you've lost in the first round or something off the court. But man, just looking at the position we've been put in multiple times, we just can't let it slip away.

We've always been right there, we've just got to get it.

Q. Purdue has been to four Sweet 16s now in the last five years. What most is gained from there, not necessarily dealing with the games last weekend and this week, but handling the in between time going from one week to the next and keeping it flowing more like a regular season.

TREVION WILLIAMS: You know, it's been a lot of positivity within our locker room. I would say usually when we go back home, we watch a lot of film, we get off our feet, we get a lot of shots up, and we've been kind of just keeping that same routine. Coach has been taking bits and pieces out of the games we've played, and he looks at the good, he looks at the bad, and we just kind of move forward from there.

Everything is pretty straightforward. It's all about staying positive and who can play well together at this time of year.

Q. Trevion, there's only one kind of Cinderella really here and you're playing it. I heard what Zach said it's like playing a 2 seed. How do you balance the fact that people think you should win with they just beat a 2 seed? It's like a vicious cycle.

TREVION WILLIAMS: Yeah, man, I think our mindset going into this tournament or just coming into Philly, just treating every team like they're the best team in the tournament. They're here for a reason, and like he said, you've got to respect them. We've already -- like I said, if you just look at what we've been through as a team, we lose in the first round to North Texas, nobody expected that. But I don't think we respected them. I don't think we were as ready as we thought we were.

We're kind of in a similar situation where people look at the match-up and like, oh, Purdue is supposed to win, but in reality you can be beat on any given night. It's all about respecting them. Also having fun, and just taking care of the basketball.

Q. Jaden, are you more nervous about your mom's match-up, her Sweet 16 match-up, or your match-up on Friday night against St. Peter's?

JADEN IVEY: To answer that I'm not nervous at all. I've put a lot of work in to get here, to be on a great team like this, and I'm not nervous.

My mom has been in the same situation. She's been in a lot of tournament games where she's lost and she's won a tournament game. She's won a National Championship. I don't think she's nervous at all either.

Q. There's another level to the Cinderella team. They're 93 miles away from their school, so they can pack the place like you guys pack Mackey. What challenges does that face for you knowing they will have a pretty predominantly home crowd here?

ZACH EDEY: Yeah, I think apart from the Big Ten, we're used to loud crowds. It's not nothing crazy for us. I think Big Ten is some of the loudest stadiums in the country. Just playing the last two games, even though they're March Madness games, I would say most of our Big Ten conference games were louder. So the crowd doesn't play a factor for us just coming from where we do, in our conference.

Q. Trevion, I talked to Carson and Ryan Cline last night and they both said how cool it is to watch you guys when you were role players back then, last time you made to run to now, you guys being the leaders. How much different is it for you in this role now knowing what you've been through but applying that and being in that role that they were once in when you made that Sweet 16, Elite 8 run?

TREVION WILLIAMS: Man, it was obviously a pleasure to go through that my freshman year. You don't walk in as a freshman and think you're going to go that far or you don't think how you contribute is going to play a part in how far we go. You just kind of have to be ready and know when your number was called.

Like I say, you have so much coming at you as a freshman. I didn't expect for us to be so successful, but just looking back on it and being in the position now, I'm just happy to be here. I kind of know what to expect. These guys have been through it, losing in the first round.

Everybody has got their own piece of how it feels to win and lose, and I think now we're at the point where we're just kind of like putting it together.

Q. Trevion and Zach, Purdue has such a good recent lineage of big men. What makes Purdue such a good place for a big man to play? And if I could ask specifically to Zach, there's been some guys at Purdue who are even taller than a typical seven-footer, Matt and Isaac obviously. Is it a system that really suits a player like that?

ZACH EDEY: Yeah, it's really just the way we play on offense and the way that we play on defense. On offense we really try to stress getting the ball inside, even in practice. It's not just in the game. Every day they're stressing for us to post touches, for us to get comfortable with the ball down low, for us to make the right reads of a double-team, stuff like that.

We have great coaches obviously with Coach Brantley and Coach Painter. They really know how to develop big people because they've been through it with a bunch of big people. Just working on the fundamentals. It's not like we do anything really crazy. I don't think I do anything crazy. Isaac never really did anything crazy. Matt doesn't do anything crazy. Trevion, he does some crazy stuff, but it still works.

But it's really sticking to fundamentals and keeping it simple for the most part for me.

TREVION WILLIAMS: I mean, yeah, just kind of to bounce off that, I think most importantly for our coaches, they do stress to get the ball down low, and sometimes the big man game gets forgotten about in today's world. I would say outside of basketball, I think the one thing that separates our coaches from other coaches is how well they communicate with the person rather than player. They take time to get to know you and understand you as a person, and I think it makes it easier on the court.

Q. Jaden, you seem to be another guard in a line of dynamic Purdue guards that seem to make a name for them in March such as Carson Edwards. Do you ever get advice from them knowing they've been here before?

JADEN IVEY: Yeah, I really started to build kind of a relationship with Carson over the past year. He wished me good luck the first round. I really got to know him, and obviously seeing him play, he's one of the reasons why I came to Purdue, just seeing how he helped his team win and led them. I really looked at that, and it played into my decision on coming here.

Yeah, I definitely still keep in contact with him.

Q. Jaden, you have someone on either side of you that should be an all-conference center. You can't play two centers at the same time. To see them sacrifice minutes and sacrifice accolades and sacrifice numbers, what has that impact been like on the Purdue roster, the Purdue team as a whole?

JADEN IVEY: I think it's big. Obviously these two guys sitting beside me, they're great players, and they work really hard.

Regardless of what type of accolades that they get or they don't get, I still love playing with them, and I know on a daily basis they're going to give it their all. Just playing with them is so much fun, and I just love being around them.

Q. Throughout the highs and lows of this season, how do you feel your team has stayed consistent to help you get to this point in the season as you hope to reach Purdue's sixth Elite 8 appearance?

TREVION WILLIAMS: I definitely think it's about staying together. I think every team goes through adversity at some point in a season, and we hit adversity, we hit a couple losses, buzzer beaters. We've had a lot of stuff happen. At the end of the day it's about staying together and just having fun on the court.

Sometimes when teams lose, they kind of forget about the good from those games, and we've been mostly working on just trying to put it all together, and that's how you kind of have to go about it. You've got to take the good and the bad and try to figure out a way to keep improving.

Coach tells us all the time we still haven't reached our ceiling. Some teams in this tournament have reached their ceiling, and we still have a lot of room to improve, and it shows. If we take care of the basketball, there's a lot more to us.

Q. Jaden, with you being known, part of your game being above the rim, do you anticipate St. Peter's to have a game plan to try to keep you grounded or try to keep you out of the paint? And also with both you and your mom, Coach Ivey, competing in the tournaments, what do you do to interact with each other for encouragement?

JADEN IVEY: I feel like the Texas game, their game plan was try to get me out of rhythm early. I feel like my teammates stepped up big. And when I got the ball, I tried to make plays for my teammates because I knew Texas was going to be heavy on stopping me and trying to limit my paint touches.

I feel like my teammates stepped up, and I'm just going to keep going to that, utilizing my teammates and getting them involved early so we can withstand the game and try to get a win.

Secondly, it's just a blessing to be able to play here and having my mother be in the Sweet 16, it's just a blessing from God. We're just going to keep going and see how far we can go.

Q. Heading into this weekend and given the way the bracket has kind of shaped down, I know you can't look at the numbers of the seeds, but with this team do you feel like there's an added sense of pressure to get over that hump and get to New Orleans?

MATT PAINTER: Not really. Obviously it's a goal of ours to continue to win and hopefully get to a Final Four, but if you just keep it process based and you're playing a very competitive team that's had two great wins, which I think everybody can say, in the Sweet 16 -- but I think just keeping our focus there.

I'm just impressed with St. Peter's. I'm impressed with how hard they play, how competitive they are. They've got guys that come off the bench that are starters. They're deep. They're well-coached. So we're going to have our hands full there.

The NCAA Tournament, I know the numbers speak for themselves because the higher number normally advances, but that's what makes this special in March Madness.

It's about match-ups, and so we'll see if this is a good match-up for us. Like you can look on paper and dissect it all you want, but once you get out there and if our competitive spirit is better than theirs, we're going to give ourselves a really good chance. If it's not, then they're going to have the advantage there.

Q. Along those lines, what is the message you tell your team about staying locked in despite what the number is next to the other team's name?

MATT PAINTER: Yeah, it really doesn't affect us. I think we can beat anybody in the country. And if we turn the ball over, I think we can get beat by a lot of people. I think we've shown both of those areas, and their ability to turn people over is really good. We've got to be able to handle their pressure. They might be 6'7" but Ndefo is going to block your shot. They're fast, they're quick, they keep people in front of you, and they play passing lanes. My college coach always said good players can be in two places at one time. I realized then I wasn't a very good player (laughter).

But they have a lot of people that can be in two places at one time. They're active. They're all over the place.

It's not about numbers. It's about match-ups. We just have to focus on ourselves and taking care of the basketball, but also understand what they're trying to do. He's got some real good packages of what they're trying to do offensively and he really uses his personnel, he spreads you out, he drives it. They've got quick hitters for threes, they'll back door you. He does a good job, man. He's a really good coach.

Q. St. Peter's Shaheen Holloway mentioned that he has players from New Jersey and New York, that they're not scared of anything. What do you have to say about your group of guys heading into Friday night?

MATT PAINTER: Well, I think we have a lot of experience. Our three seniors played in an Elite 8 game and came three-tenths of a second from going to a Final Four when they were freshmen.

We've been a little bit all over the map. Last year we were a 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament and got knocked off in the first round. The year before that we would have had to win probably a couple games in our Big Ten Tournament at least to get in the NCAA Tournament. As freshmen those guys won the league. This year we came up a little bit short in our tournament or whatever.

We have good experience. We have good skill, good athleticism. We've got a dynamic guard in Jaden Ivey, got good leadership from our seniors, good size. So just really playing to our strengths.

I think what he's really lending to is that competitive spirit. St. Peter's has got a great competitive spirit about them, and that's what you need. That's what you need to win games. Obviously they're talented, and that's what we have to be able to do. You have to be able to play harder and play smarter than your opponent. I know that's a little hokey, but it's true, and I think that's going to be the challenge for both teams.

Q. A bunch of coaches still in the tournament played at the schools they're coaching. You played at Purdue; Hubert, UNC. And some of these guys also played in the NBA, Hubert, Penny, Juwan Howard. Do you notice a trend of more schools hiring NBA alums and how appealing is that for kids who want to get to the NBA to learn from things like that?

MATT PAINTER: Well, I think just the passion you have for your alma mater. It's wanting to see Purdue win. Even if I wasn't the coach at Purdue, I'd want to see Purdue win and be successful and continue to do the right things.

But yeah, I think when you're looking from a recruiting standpoint, it's how can you help young men develop to where they want to go and reach their goals. Now these guys are on the different end of that. They've been in the NBA. They've played in the NBA.

Now that's really their track record going forward once they're in college, like what do they do to help those guys.

Sometimes when you have guys for nine months, you helped them, but it's such a short window. A lot of those are the overly talented guys that leave early. But when you have guys for three, four, five years, then they develop into an NBA player, I think that's what you're looking for, and that's where we've been. Like we've had one McDonald's All-American in 17 years, but yet we've been pretty successful. And you go look at people that consistently have McDonald's All-Americans outside of four or five people and then you see our success versus their success. And plus we graduate our guys, we just have a great balance at Purdue.

I know I'm making my recruiting speech to people right now, but it's what it's about. Having two dreams is what it's about and not having a narrow vision, and if you can understand that a college scholarship helps so many kids. That's why I fight -- I don't like the one-time transfer because I think it's foolish. I think it can help individual kids. I think it's the right move for certain individuals. But when you throw a lot of data out and you have 360 teams and you have 13 scholarship players, at the end of the day aren't we trying to help them have a better life through this opportunity?

I always talk about myself, like if I would have stumbled and things would have happened. Everybody in my family went to college, from aunts to uncles to whatever. You take some people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds that don't have as many resources and they transfer three times, who have they been loyal to? Who have they really been loyal to? So who's going to be there for them going forward in life? Because that's the whole thing, having a better life through an opportunity.

Those are the things that we've got to look at. Those are the things that we've got to be better at because that's what it is. It's like going to the Army or going to the Navy or doing whatever, and now that's really helped you and gave you that discipline. That's what it is, man. Giving those guys discipline and having fun and having a great experience. But if they're bouncing around all the time -- you've got to live two dreams, man. You've got to live a dream through basketball but you've got to live -- if you get a chance to live a dream through education and you have a whole institution that's going to help you the rest of your life? Man, that seems intelligent to me.

Q. You guys have been to four Sweet 16s in the last five years. Outside of the games last weekend and the games this weekend, how much does all that experience help in regard to dealing with Monday through Friday?

MATT PAINTER: Yeah, it's a great point. What I've really gotten to after the Big Ten Tournament and after our two games is to make sure I spend the next day watching us. Everybody is like, get ready for your opponent, because yeah, it's a good opponent, or Texas is a good opponent or Virginia Tech is a good opponent. They're all good opponents. But the most important team in the tournament is your team.

So just locking into making sure that we're not making the same mistakes or magnifying the good things that we're doing and really being encouraging to our guys like we're doing some really good things here. But it gets lost in winning. You're making mistakes when you win, and you're doing some really, really good things when you lose, and like just trying to have that balance and understand your team, then really diving into your opponent and seeing where you can have some advantages with it.

But just keeping it process based and not jumping over it and not worried about some of the questions you guys have asked about numbers or underdogs or Cinderellas or whatever. Just focus in on St. Peter's and just how good of a team they are because if you don't, they're going to beat you. I think they've proven that.

Q. You've had in your program three guys 7'2" or taller and another one coming next year, which seems like more than a coincidence. Knowing you've had a lot of really good big men who are more like standard seven-footers or 6'10", is there something about that exceptionally tall player that's a particular fit with your system and your philosophy?

MATT PAINTER: Yeah. Well, obviously it happens initially organically when you first start. Our first big guy that I coached here that was a good player was Carl Landry and he was a traditional 4 in the NBA. And then it just grew from JaJuan Johnson, A.J. Hammons, Isaac Haas, Caleb Swanigan, now Trevion Williams, Zach Edey. I'm probably missing someone in there somewhere. I didn't want to leave anybody out.

But it just kind of happened. Purdue has played inside out. If you look in the '80s with Russell Cross, Jim Rowinski, Melvin McCants, Steve Scheffler; into the '90s, they had Brad Miller. When you look at some of those guys already -- Purdue has had a great experience of having really good size. Obviously Joe Barry Carroll, the last time we went to the Final Four in 1980 was the No. 1 pick in the draft, Glenn Robinson wasn't a traditional post but he was a big guy, especially in college.

So the more success you can have with something and now being able to show them, it's like every coach in America 15 years ago would say, hey, we're going to run the basketball, we're pushing the basketball, we play an exciting brand of ball. And then the next coach would say the same thing and the next coach would say the same thing. Well, not everybody is doing that, but that's what's appealing to a recruit's ear. They want to hear that. Now analytically you see numbers and you see things so you can present this to them and you can say we were the second-best team in the country last year at throwing the ball inside.

You'll see other schools recruiting them that don't ever throw the ball inside, they might dive to the rim or get the ball on a lob or something of that nature. So we've been able to have guys with that kind of size, but also analytically show them, hey, you're going to get the ball here. You're going to get the ball in low post positions, get the ball in dive positions. We're not just going to use you as a guy that defends and rebounds and sets ball screens and that's it even though all three of those things are very important parts of the game.

Then we show them the evolution of the decision making. You've really got to work with big guys on their decision making more than anything because we all get frustrated with big guys, you throw them the ball, they drop it. I'm never throwing it to you again. Throw the ball to them, they throw it away, I'm never throwing it to you again. Even though that guard turns it over three and a half times a game, that's the way guards think. We won't throw it to them.

We're opposite of that. We've been able to learn. Each one of our big guys especially, guys like Zach that cause different problems, it really teaches us a lot because the defenses throw a lot of different looks at them and then you're able to manipulate that defense and kind of play what you want. But then it's just kind of grown from there and guys see that this is a great place to get an education but it's also a great place for a seven-footer.

Q. You mentioned your three leaders and how close they were to making it to the Final Four. To watch them as a coach go from those guys coming off the bench back then and to where they are now, how cool is that for you? And the second part of that is it's one thing for you as a coach to preach to them about this tournament and what they need to do, but how have you seen them step up maybe in even just the last couple weeks, that trio preach to their own people, this is what we need to do, we've been here before?

MATT PAINTER: Yeah, well, one of them was First-Team All League last year and was Sixth Man of the Year this year so he's made a lot of sacrifices to help our team win in Trevion Williams. Eric Hunter didn't start the first half of the season and now he has started here. They've had true tests of their character, and are you really wanting to do what's best for the team, and they have proven that. Sasha Stefanovic had no high major offers. I told him if he comes he's going to have to redshirt. He wanted to be at Purdue, and those guys have proven that they've wanted to stay at Purdue. I always say everybody has a reason to leave, but if you stay and you fight, the rewards are going to be a lot higher if there's nothing wrong, and there's nothing wrong with adversity. And these guys have handled adversity and they've pushed through, and that's why they'll be successful.

Whether we win or lose our next game or not, these guys are going to be successful, get their degrees at Purdue, and just happy for them. They've done a great job for our program.