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Keady? Painter? Jones? Colvin? Edey?
Does this season start at last season’s end?
Purdue, a surprising upstart of a young team, carried by an undefeated non-conference and a giant 7-4 Canadian to its first #1 seed with Matt Painter, lost that first matchup against the #16 seed, Fairleigh Dickinson.
It looked like it might be the end of this season’s story after Zach Edey declared for the NBA in the summer.
Did this story start when Zach Edey decided to forego the NBA to run it back for his senior season? As soon as Edey announced, the clock started, expectations were set, and a season-long narrative followed them through every practice and game.
Could this team? Could this coach? Could those guards? Could a big man? Those were the prefixes attached to what people believed was the inevitable end to any March story that involved Purdue.
And if that is the case, can this story even be about just one season?
Purdue is back in the Sweet Sixteen. It looks like a team capable of doing things that a Matt Painter team has never done.
So is this really his story?
Can it even start there if Matt Painter is also a Gene Keady story?
Or does it start when Painter decided Edey needed another big man next to him?
63-58
“If you have a good team and you can’t score 60 points in the NCAA, it’s frustrating,” Painter said after Purdue’s 106-67 win over Utah State. “If you had a bad offense and a great defense, you’d understand… but that wasn’t the case last year.”
That 58 is last year’s point total for Purdue against Fairleigh Dickinson. Purdue had 57 points in the second half on Sunday against Utah State despite Braden Smith and Zach Edey sitting the final eight minutes of action, and all the starters cleared the floor with four minutes to play.
It was an absurd offensive performance. A performance sparked by one of Painter’s most important off-season decisions. One that didn’t go without some head tilting.
“We’ve gotta get better offensively. We gotta put more skill out there. We’ve gotta get different looks out there,” Painter said about what led to him putting Trey Kaufman-Renn in the starting lineup next to Edey. Kaufman-Renn was Purdue’s back-up five last year, a secondary post presence that appeared to take up the same space that Edey thrived in.
Painter regretted not having Kaufman-Renn prepared to play some four next to Edey last season. This season, he was going to start him at the four.
Kaufman-Renn kept Purdue in the game early against Utah State when its offense was struggling with two offense rebounds that led to two put backs that drew two fouls and ended in two And-1’s. He finished the game with 18 points, 3 assists, and 8 rebounds in 25 minutes.
“Our ability to play Trey, and then play Mason Gillis, and how different they are is really good,” Painter went on. “Because Trey is a bruiser and he can go down there, but he’s also skilled. Where he can make plays. Where Mason can drag people out and make threes. So that balance with Zach really really helps.”
Purdue’s offense was really good last season, but it’s great this season.
It just set a Purdue record for points in the NCAA Tournament. It wasn’t the obvious move, to add more heft and post to a lineup that already included Zach Edey. At times, it wasn’t clean, but Kaufman-Renn has adjusted and added a second mismatch that Purdue can go to, and another rebounder to help one of the nation’s best offensive rebounding teams in the nation be even more dominant on the glass.
Purdue didn’t miss often on Sunday, but of those 29 misses, Purdue grabbed 13 of them.
Purdue outscored its two tournament opponents by 67 points in Indianapolis to advance to the Sweet 16.
Or does this season’s story start with Lance Jones?
It’s another choice that Painter makes, his guy, his one transfer, a smaller guard from the school he used to coach at. Trust, you see, is what Painter chooses guys on. He heard the right things, not just about Jones the player, but Jones the person. He’s about the right stuff.
He’s also lightning quick. He’s strong. He’s a light in a locker room that might have gotten dark if it weren’t for all that human in the room.
“I kinda recruit the person over the player sometimes,” Painter said after the game.
At times in past seasons, that meant Purdue was lacking in real, on court ways. Size on the perimeter, athleticism, and in the past, shooting, and last year’s team lacked a stopper, a guard that could defend anywhere.
“People don’t realize whether you get beat in the Sweet 16 or the first round or you don’t make the tournament, you always go back and dissect and look at yourself,” Painter said. “Like I can’t fix them if I don’t fix me.”
So Painter brought in the small guard from Southern Illinois because he both needed the juice and the person that Jones offered.
“I thought anytime you can have that combo guard that can play both positions and guard both positions and then you have a quintessential point like Braden,” Painter said at the podium after the game. “Now you have the luxury if something does go wrong, you have that other guy to be solid and run your team but also be able to defend.”
“We put Lance on points. We put him on twos. At times, we’ll put him on a three. Just kind of depends on matchups,” Painter continued. “He’s been great for us.”
Braden Smith went to the bench with about 8 minutes left in the first half. An offensive foul left him with two fouls. The game was still a game.
When Smith came back at the start of the second half, Purdue’s lead was almost twenty. Those final eight minutes were a masterclass in Purdue finding answers besides its star point guard.
A big part of it was Lance Jones, who finished the half banking in a long three.
But Purdue’s offense is more often tied to its defense, and it was Jones that led the way, giving one of his best efforts of the season locking down Utah State’s Darius Brown.
It was an option Painter didn’t have last season.
In two NCAA Tournament games, Purdue gave up 50 and 67 points.
Or does this story begin with two big men not choosing Purdue leaving Painter to offer Zach Edey?
Or the decommitment that allowed Painter to offer Braden Smith?
I guess, what I’m really asking is whose story is it so we know which chapters to include.
Kind of a cop out, eh?
But the truth is, you can’t tell the story without all the chapters, the ones this team wrote, and the ones before.
This is a Zach Edey/Braden Smith/Myles Colvin/Gene Keady/Camden Heide/Fletcher Loyer/PJ Thompson/Trey Kaufman-Renn/Sam King/ Glenn Robinson/Lance Jones/Carson Barrett/E’twaun Moore/Chase Martin/Chris KramerCaleb Furst/Ethan Morton/Carsen Edwards/Jaden Ivey/Josh Furst/Brandon Brantley/Terry Johnson/Paul LuskJace Rayl/Ryan Cline/Rapheal Davis/Elliot Bloom/Chad Young/Sasha Stefanovic/Nick Terruso/Tommy Luce/Chris Forman/Jared Wulbrun/Will Berg/Briant Waddell/Neil Armstrong/Purdue Pete/those guys in those gold and black suits and funny glasses/Orville Redenbacher/Rick Mount/Todd Foster/and all the other Boilermakers, story.
The beauty of college sports, of teams, of communities that grow with the identity of its teams and program in the way Purdue has, is that the success and joy transcends sidelines, bounces further than out of bounds. The tragedy of it all, too, the pain.
Stories, they’re about the characters, most of all, and Matt Painter is one of college basketball’s best characters. He’s been a tragic figure for too long.
This is his story.
“It’s rewarding,” Painter said to me after the game when I asked him about what it means to be in a tournament that has former assistants of his as head coaches, former players as assistants. “I say that kind of tongue in cheek, but I do try to stop players from trying to go into coaching. I always say just have a hell of a life, get a job, get Colts tickets and enjoy yourself.”
“Why put yourself – people don’t understand like if you’re 25 and 5, you’re miserable those five times. You’re absolutely miserable.”
“It sits on you. The people around you that you love, you’re not fun to be around. No one enjoys it. Your kids looks at you like what the hell’s his problem? Well, Michigan State beat us by two. That’s doesn’t make any sense. Why would you be mad? You know what I mean? But you are. That’s the way it is. You live with it, and you kind of have a one track mind.”
“It’s rewarding if they understand. They’re there for them. You’re there for your players. You’re there for the program. You’re a lot smaller than you think you are. You’re a lot bigger than you think you are. So keep things in perspective and understand what the mission is.”
You’re a lot smaller than you think you are. You’re a lot bigger than you think you are.
It’s all of Purdue’s story.
And it’s hard as hell not to root for it to have a happy ending.
