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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: CHICAGO

March 18, 2011

Matt Painter

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

Purdue Â– 65
St. Peter's - 43

GREG GREENWELL: From Purdue we have head coach Matt Painter and student-athletes Lewis Jackson, JaJuan Johnson, and E'Twaun Moore. We'll start with an opening statement from the head coach and then take questions from the student-athletes.
COACH PAINTER: Obviously, it's good to get that first win in the tournament. I thought our guys did a good job defensively. In the half-court, I thought our pressure really bothered St. Peter's and kind of knocked them out of what they wanted to do.
Outside the first four minutes, four or five minutes of the first half, I thought we did a great job on the glass, maybe our best rebounding effort of the year. So any time you can play in the half-court defensively and be solid and rebound the basketball, you know you're going to win a lot of games. I thought our guys did a good job in that area.
Got to do a better job from a decision making standpoint. I thought we were a little careless with the basketball, but that, I think, has a lot to do with St. Peter's. They're number one in their league defensively. They do a good job of shooting the gap and getting after it. Good athletic team.
Played very hard. A lot of seniors and a lot of experience, a lot of guys that care. I thought they really played hard today. But I thought, when it came down to it, our ability to rebound the basketball and pressure them and knock them out of their stuff was the difference.

Q. For JaJuan and E'Twaun, could you talk about the start. You had a 15-4 run, and a lot of that was created off defense. But that was very important in establishing yourselves, getting back on the winning track. Could you talk about what went right in that early start, guys.
JAJUAN JOHNSON: I would say we did a really good job just being ready to play today. I think they just started -- the practices we had, we had some really good practices this week. Like coach said, we didn't want to make it easy for them to catch the ball and things like that. Establishing ourselves early was definitely the key.
From there, we just had a nice little run.
E'TWAUN MOORE: We wanted to set the tempo of the game, come out with a lot of energy. Just come out and play well and being ready to play. I think we did a good job of it.

Q. JaJuan, did you get the sense that you were really dominant on the glass and defensively blocking shots early? Do you get the sense that in the second half they started to steer clear of you and maybe back off to the perimeter a little bit?
JAJUAN JOHNSON: Not really. I just think that -- I think we did a really good job playing defense. Guards did a really good job of just pressuring the ball, making it where they had to just shoot that pullup, things like that, where we had good help side defense.
I just think it was a good defensive effort by our guards, and they did a good job.

Q. Lewis, when you guys -- as a higher seed, does it get your attention when you watched TV yesterday and see all those upsets?
LEWIS JACKSON: I think so, to a certain extent, but I think with the veteran group that we have, guys really understand how this tournament works, and we identify with a 5 seed. We understand how teams with a higher seed overlook a team with a 13 or 16 seed behind their name.
I think it goes back to us being veterans. We understand we have to come out here and worry about Purdue and not overlook a team just because of their seeding.

Q. E'Twaun, tonight you became Purdue's all-time leading three-point shooter, passing Jeron Cornell. Just wanted to get your thoughts on what that means to you.
E'TWAUN MOORE: Just showed a lot of hard work, you know, especially in the off-season, getting a lot of shots up. I told JaJuan it's kind of ironic because in high school, I didn't usually shoot a lot of threes. I think it's kind of ironic that now I'm the leading three-point shooter.

Q. JaJuan, you had kind of a rough shooting night, only 6 for 16. Was it something they were doing to make it hard for you, or was it just one of those nights?
JAJUAN JOHNSON: It was both. I think early on I was going away from the basket. Once I settled down, I started going towards the basket, and things started falling for me. I went to the foul line a few times. You know, that's a lesson learned. Just start out going towards the basket, things like that, and hope it's better the next time.

Q. JaJuan, Lewis talked yesterday about not overlooking their size. Just because they were smaller didn't mean you guys could just expect to come in here and really dominate the boards. What did you think of the effort in terms of rebounding tonight?
JAJUAN JOHNSON: The team did a really good job from Lewis to D.J. to E'Twaun to Ron. Everyone did a really good job of really crashing the ball or keeping it alive. Some of them we've been missing a bit as of late, but today we were all on it and just ready to play.

Q. Lewis, you had talked after both, I think, the Iowa and Michigan State game, and Coach Painter had referenced the fact he wanted to see you guys compete again the way you did. Seems like you hit them in the mouth so to speak with their competitive edge early. Can you talk about how important that was in establishing yourselves tonight.
LEWIS JACKSON: It was extremely important. Coach talks about our identity. Purdue is known for competing and playing defense from the jump, and these last two games we all felt like they didn't compete as hard as we did and really didn't defend that well.
So we knew from the jump that we must compete before anything because that's always -- it gets our defense going, that gets our offense flowing. So come out here and compete and really playing defense and getting rebounds. That's what thrives on our offense. So getting that started in the first five minutes was great just because we got easier shots, and guys really were able to use turnovers to the easier buckets.

Q. E'Twaun, you said in high school you didn't rely much on three-point shots. How much did you work on that part of your game in college, and is it one of those cases where hard work certainly paid off in this instance, right?
E'TWAUN MOORE: Yes, definitely. I mean, I don't know. I spent a lot of hours in the gym, especially in the summertime. Going to the gym two or three times a day just shooting and getting shots up. That's why it paid off, just hard work.

Q. Did you feel like your team sort of regained its identity tonight? Do you feel like your team played well?
COACH PAINTER: I thought we played well defensively. You know, they're a tough team to play against, and you watch them on film, and they really mix it up, and they get after you.
The one thing I wanted our guys to do is just try to knock them out of their sets, don't let them get into a rhythm, and I thought we did that today. There's no question that we were a lot better on the defensive end.

Q. Matt, Terone, he had a couple of turnovers, but you look at his line and especially the way I thought he played defense when he went in the game, you had to be pretty pleased with him because he had the great game at IU, and then he's had a couple games not so good. But tonight talk about what he provided for you in a time of need.
COACH PAINTER: You know, it's hard coming off the bench and playing because sometimes your minutes aren't real consistent. Sometimes you'll get 15 minutes, sometimes you'll get 22. It's real back and forth. It depends on other variables. It's hard coming off the bench and being consistent. Now the fact that he's going to get some more minutes, that really helps him. I think it would help anybody.
I thought he did a good job. He did a good job defending. He did a good job following the scouting report. Obviously, he knocked down a couple of shots, and that really helped.

Q. You hear E'Twaun talk that he wasn't really maybe a natural three-point shooter. When did you think he was going to develop into the kind of shooter he became?
COACH PAINTER: You really don't know. He's always been a scorer. He's always been a guy that can score the basketball. He averaged a lot of points in high school at a young age. He averaged 18, 19 points as a freshman in high school. So he's always had a knack for scoring.
Now it's something for him that, I think, just over time putting in lots of hours in the gym. But he shot 44 percent from three his freshman year. Probably going to be his best percentage for a year in his career. So it's something that's always been there.
I think in high school they needed him to play more inside like you do a lot of guys in scoring. So just happy for him. He's one of those guys that are going to kind of rewrite the record books. He's not going to be on top of everyone, but he's pretty close on everyone.

Q. You knew that Lewis was going to have to play more. You figured that he maybe would play more. I didn't see how many minutes he ended up playing. But he came and said yesterday, I hope I didn't pass out. He didn't pass out today. How did you think he played with maybe even more minutes and still expecting him to do everything?
COACH PAINTER: I thought he did a good job. The one thing that you don't want your guys to do is pace themselves. You have to play at a high level. I run out of things to say during those time-outs. Those things are long. And how many times can you tell someone to box out and take care of the ball?
But, Lew, we just kept talking to him about the time-outs, just four-minute games. And the one stretch where we struggled, I kind of set him up for failure because the TV time-out took forever. There's like seven minutes. I said, just make it a four-minute game. Play as hard as you can for four minutes.
That's what we have to buy into. We have to buy into that and play good half-court defense and get into people. We also have to play with our feet. We can't get fatigued and all of a sudden start reaching. I thought Lew did a great job.

Q. Obviously, another week of distraction for you guys. You have another roster move, a lot of rumors around your team, most of which were silly. How do you keep your guys focus SXD ready coming into such an important game in the NCAA Tournament?
COACH PAINTER: The thing about what actually happens in your program, your players know. So you really don't care what other people say or think because they don't know. Sometimes in this business, you're not in the info sharing business even though you guys would love for that to always be accurate.
You always do what's best for your team, and you just try to keep your focus, especially at this time of the year. This is the most important time. This is why you put in all the time as a player, to get to this and be able to perform.
We have enough to advance. We were able to do that today, and we'll see the next game. But I'm confident in our guys. Sometimes a little adversity can bring you closer together. Nobody on our team wanted to lose the last two games. They didn't want to lose to West Virginia and Minnesota back to back. But I think those losses can help you, and they can also showcase your weaknesses, and you should try to do a better job of playing to your strengths.

Q. In your eyes, how impressive is E'Twaun's record at becoming the school's all time leading three-point shooter. Obviously passing a lot of great players along the way to be atop that list.
COACH PAINTER: He's played in the most games, started the most games, won the most games. So I think those things are pretty impressive also. He's going to be second on a lot of lists when it comes down to it. But his ability to put in his time and to make the most threes in Purdue history is pretty impressive, if you think of the guys that have come through Purdue. We've had some pretty good shooters.
But the thing that he was when he walked on campus was a scorer. And now I think he's a pretty good player. So we really have tried to get him to focus on the other parts of the game, and he's done a good job of that.

Q. Coach Dunne, when he was in here a minute ago, described Moore as one of the most efficient players he's seen in quite a while. Would you agree with that assessment?
COACH PAINTER: When he lets the game come to him -- today he had some careless turnovers. He could have even had a better game than he actually did. He didn't let some things come to him. When he let's things come to him, he's one of the best guards in the country. I think he's proven that.
He presses at times, like most scorers do. Scorers get a little bit more rope from their coach, and rightfully so, because you want them to have that freedom to be able to make plays. When he's making good decisions, he's pretty efficient.

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