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

March 17, 2023

Matt Painter

Fletcher Loyer

Zach Edey

Nationwide Arena

Purdue Boilermakers

Media Conference

Fairleigh Dickinson - 63, Purdue - 58

COACH PAINTER: Want to congratulate Fairleigh Dickinson on the win. I thought they played excellent. What they were trying to do and what we watched on film is exactly what they did -- always trying to spread people out, use their quickness, use their skill.

Obviously they press and come after you. A lot of that is semantics. I just thought they played really hard and did a lot of really good things. Whether the turnovers, it was us or it was them, it was still a well-played game on their end of things.

It's hard, it's a really hard thing. We worked very hard and done things the right way in our program. And I think six straight years we've been a top 5 seed. And that's all you try to do. You just try to fight to get in the best position possible.

And now we get in the best position possible and this happens. And obviously it hurts. It hurts bad.

But with that being said, I don't want to take anything away from them. They earned it. They played better than we did. They coached better than we did. And we have to sit in it. We gotta to face it. We've got to deal with it. And we've got to come back stronger.

But that will take some time. That will take some time. These guys have been fabulous. Our players, it's a joy to be around them. These guys all love it. They work hard. They're good dudes. We don't have problems like a lot of other people have problems.

We worked our asses off to get the right people in on our team. It's unfortunate.

With that said, I want to congratulate coach and all they've been able to do. He's a grinder, D-II guy. Won 80 percent of his games there, brought some guys there. Done a really good job in a short amount of time.

Tip of the hat to him and his players, because I thought they were fabulous.

Q. Zach, what did they do to make things uncomfortable for you, or did you feel they made you uncomfortable?

ZACH EDEY: Just the way they played. Limited my touches in the post. Saw a lot of times they would have one dude guarding from behind and one dude basically sitting in my lap. They were full fronting the entire game. Made it very hard to get catches.

They'd full front and they would sit someone underneath the rim, which makes it very hard to catches and get into a flow and rhythm. Credit to them, they had a great game plan coming in. And they executed it very well.

Q. Fletcher, knowing what they were doing to Zach and how many 3-pointers you guys shot, you must have known that it would come to that. What is that feeling like as the game's unfolding realizing he's not the one that's going to win it tonight; you'll have to make some 3s?

FLETCHER LOYER: When teams decide to go out and do that defensively you've got to step up and knock down a shot. Obviously 5-of-26 isn't what we expected. It's not what we've worked for. It's not a product of the work we've put in.

But when they crash in the paint so hard and don't let us throw it in or over the top, it's just my eyes open wide up ready to knock down a shot. Then it comes to me every time and we just didn't knock down shots.

Q. Zach, I've been here before asking this question. And it sucks, but we're not going to get you here for a long time and you're the national player of the year. Do you know if you're going to come back next year?

ZACH EDEY: I have no opinion on that. I'll make my decision going forward.

Q. Fletcher, how uncomfortable did they make the game tonight from start to finish?

FLETCHER LOYER: I mean, not really uncomfortable at all. I felt good out there. Their pressure was nothing we haven't seen before. But it was constant. And really when you're playing with guys coming from behind you the whole time you've got to have eyes in the back of your head a little bit.

We had a few turnovers like that. But we just didn't play our game, I think. I think we got a little rattled. We were a little panicked early on. But a game like that you can't be panicked. You've got to go out there and let them know who is boss.

Q. How are you dealing with this? Three years in a row against a double-digit seed. Do you have any earthly clue why this has happened, had great runs but the last couple --

COACH PAINTER: Today, what we've tried to -- the form within our system in terms of recruiting is to have the balance of great bigs with skill. And obviously you shoot 5-for-26. And this wasn't something for us that was just today. We had a couple stretches during the season, even in the Big Ten Tournament, our last game against Penn State.

And it's frustrating. I think it kind of just mounted for us and it got worse at time just because I think we shot one out-of-rhythm 3 in front of me, maybe another one. But like the game plan for people is not to like stay in there on him and then go contest.

They stay in there on him and they don't even contest. So, like, we're taking wide-open shots from some guys that can shoot the basketball, and that's kind of been the case for us the whole year.

We've had stretches where we shot the ball well, and we had other stretches -- it's that inconsistency. I think that just kind of builds, especially within individual games like this here, to where, like, who really wants to step up and knock that shot down. You've got to have three or four guys that want that. And it's really hard when you're not as confident and you've missed some wide-open shots.

I thought the Saint Peter's game, those guys really made it hard for Zach once he got it. And he had those turnovers in that game. Where here that wasn't the case. When we could get it to him, he could score the basketball.

It was just after, it just kept coming, and we're just wide open and they're just not going to let us get it in there because why should they, right? Make those other guys move it.

But I thought another key piece of the game was we had to have more cracks at it. Shooting that way is one thing. But then having 16 turnovers and about half of those was just us passing and catching, being able to make fundamental plays.

And we overdid some things, had a couple of charging calls. And when people press you like that, you've got to go get layups. You gotta get wide-open shots. And then after you struggle shooting, you've got to get layups. That's so important for us right there.

We had some decision-making in there that just wasn't very good. And just kind of allowed them to linger and hang in the game right there even though neither was taking a lead and pushing the game out.

And that was really hard because now we're having empty possessions with no shots. At least when we take a shot and it's wide open and we miss, we've got a chance to rebound it, we've got a chance to set our defense.

But if you're turning that basketball over right there, now you're playing in defensive transition, you're not giving yourself a chance to rebound, you're not giving yourself a chance to score.

Q. What do you tell the team after such a successful year, winning the regular season, winning the tournament and the Big Ten, and then getting upset like this. What do you tell them at the end?

COACH PAINTER: There's nothing you can say that's going to change it. Right? I mean, it stinks. They outplayed us. They outcoached us. I think that's the one thing as a coach that you always face it, and you'll get ridiculed. You'll get shamed, you'll get whatever. It's basketball. You've got to get better. You've got to keep fighting to get yourself in this position and then be better. And that's what we have to do.

But just told them that I was proud of them. You win the league, you win your tournament. You fight to get into this position. We haven't been in this position as a 1 seed in a long time. And we get here and we don't take advantage of that opportunity.

But they're good guys. They work hard. It stings. You can get a lot of different people looking at it a lot of different ways, but when you're the one playing and coaching and you invested the time, it's really hard to take. But like I said, we're the ones that have to sit in it. We're the ones that hopefully have to be better because of it.

Q. Do you think the team got worn down, the pressure? It certainly did get so much worse as the season went on. Even the Big Ten Tournament, you won some games, didn't play that well. Was it the stress of being the hunted all year?

COACH PAINTER: You don't want to make excuses. I think the shooting, maybe. But like, you know, I don't want to take anything away from Fairleigh Dickinson. I thought they were great. They were special.

Look at their two leading scorers, it wasn't like some guy went off for 30. They were 7-of-21 between them. The next kid there, Moore, he had a really good game, but he's still 7-for-17. It wasn't one of those games where like -- they were 7-for-23 from 3. It was a grinder. We had to be better at grinding that game out than they were and we weren't. But I look at it, I take a step back, you outrebound them by nine, they have nine turnovers, we have 16, that's where it kind of lies for us.

We had a stretch there where we lost games in Big Ten play where we had 16, 17 -- 16 turnovers, if I'm accurate. It was too much for us. If you're not going to shoot well and have high-level turnovers, you're going to put yourself in a tough position. But I think as a person who played college basketball and struggled shooting myself, you start to play that game within yourself. And you've got to be confident and you've got to step into things.

Q. The last time this happened, obviously the only other time it's happened where a 1 lost to a 16, Tony Bennett's team, that team came back and won the national championship. I know you're still processing all of what happened, but do you plan to address that with your team, that, look, the low point is tonight? But you can still, next year, build something with it?

COACH PAINTER: Sure, you're going to talk about it. But it's going to be the work. It's going to be the drive, the hurt. It's got to sit with you, man. It's got to sit with you to get you to work harder; not talk about it. You don't need to talk about anything. We've got to work harder.

People can say we have young guys. It doesn't matter. When you step out there it doesn't matter. You've got to compete and be better than your opponent. We're not going to give into it, I know that. Unless they move me.

We're not going to give into it. We'll keep fighting and do everything in our power to make our program better to get right back here and play better.

Q. Will you converse with Zach about his future?

COACH PAINTER: He's a level-headed guy. He'll take the information in and make a decision and do what's best for him. So he's not somebody that -- he's pretty simple in things.

But it's not me. His parents are great. The people around him are great. He's a good dude. It's too bad. He deserves better than this. He deserves better.