5 highlights from Matt Painter's media session: On Virginia comparison, Zach Edey and more

GLENDALE, Ariz. – Five highlights from Purdue coach Matt Painter’s news conference on Sunday ahead of Monday’s national championship against UConn:

I’m sure you’re trying to keep a lot of consistency in your prep, but have you noticed a different energy or vibe from your players?

“Not really. Obviously, it’s a quick turnaround. Like, you go to your postgame meal, you go to breakfast, you watch film, and here we are. It’s not a lot of time in terms of what we’re doing. They understand what we’re up against.

They understand we haven’t played anybody like UConn. They’re not fools. We have cable where we’re from, so... we’re very familiar.

I think that’s the number one thing of not fearing your opponent but respecting your opponent. We have a lot of respect for UConn. They have great individual players, they have a great coach. So understand it, like absorb that, take that in.

That’s where you have to start. But we’ve played great teams all year. Just like when we dive into the personnel, whether that’s Gonzaga, Marquette, Wisconsin, Michigan State, on down the line, respect your opponent, respect those coaches, respect the players. Understand how they’ve really beat people, how they’ve really dominated people.

I think the word ‘dominate’ comes out with UConn, right? They've dominated people. They haven’t just dominated the bad teams, they’ve dominated some great teams. It’s easier to study and look at. You got to be able to do your job, embrace the physicality, keep them out of transition, keep them off the glass, keep them out of their sets and what they want to do. It’s easy to watch and understand that, but it’s very, very hard to do. And that’s our challenge.”

Could you give us a little X’s and O’s insight on the big man matchup. Reflect a little bit on your philosophy of staying with recruiting and developing big men like Zach (Edey) when the trends of the game have clearly gone away from that.

“Right. For us it’s circling the wagons around our best players. If it’s Carsen Edwards, so be it. When we came 3/10ths of a second from going to a Final Four in that game, we didn’t play post-up basketball. We tried to do as much stuff in space. He was so good and dynamic that we just let it rip.

People don’t realize with that team that he really struggled at the end in the Big Ten, even though we won the Big Ten that year, we really struggled. Got beat in the first round of the Big Ten tournament. He didn’t shoot well the last couple games of the season after really shooting well.

Then going into the tournament, he became the darling of the tournament. His last three games he made 10, nine and eight 3s. Going in we thought we had a lot of makes coming our way.

We just tried to circle around our best guys. We just had a lot of big guys. We still had some pretty dynamic guards from E’Twaun Moore to Jaden Ivey to Carsen Edwards. Obviously, we have good guards on this team. Just trying to play through them and their strengths, keep building out off of that.

I think the one thing we do a better job than most people with it is we make ’em decision-makers. If they’re going to get the ball a lot – yesterday like Zach had some turnovers, and let’s watch those turnovers, let’s learn from that.

No different than a point guard. Braden had some turnovers yesterday. Let’s watch that and see the mistakes that you’re making, then just grow from that. Even when you start to have success in certain areas, it can still rear its ugly head.

Great teams, they will enhance that with their pressure, size or length. But both players are really good. I think the important piece of it also is not to neglect who UConn brings off the bench, too, because Johnson, he’s a really good player. Their backup is a really good player. He gets out in ball screen defense, he’s active. He does a great job on his flip-up dunks. They have a superb system. I love their system. I love what they do. They have purpose in what they do on both ends.

Everybody defends on that team. You’re not allowed to play, right, if you can’t guard. It’s one of those deals, like old school. But no, (Donovan) Clingan is really good. He changes the game defensively, but offensively he’s a good player, too. He’s just going to keep coming. He’s going to be a fabulous player. He's got 15 to 20 years in front of him.

But don’t take anything away from other guys on that front line because they’re good players.”

What do you see as the backcourt size disadvantage that your team has in this championship game? How do you want to play into that? Does that change your strategy at all?

“I think we have a disadvantage if they make poor decisions. I don’t think it’s a disadvantage if we make good decisions. They swarm you, they get into you, they make it difficult on you. Don’t put yourself in difficult scenarios. Take care of the basketball, run our stuff, make good decisions.

Those guys are really good at pressuring. Stephon Castle, all down the line. When they sub, they’re good. All those guys can pressure, take care of the basketball, make good decisions, run what we've called, and stick with that.

If we do those things, you’ll have success. What they do a great job of is when blood is in the water. When you show weakness or you turn your back on pressure, you dribble in place, you leave your feet, you don't play on two feet, those guys are the best in the business, they will make you pay. Like I said earlier, that's two or three points at the other end of the court.

I think that’s important for us. That’s our challenge, is handle pressure, take care of the basketball, make good decisions. They’ll get into you. They’re solid. But they’re just waiting for you to do something stupid. Don’t do something stupid.”

How hard is it to find guys like Zach Edey in the current climate?

It’s very difficult because most big guys that are that size aren’t very good at basketball. If you go look at the numbers across the board, like how many other players are good at 7-4, 300 (pounds)? There’s not very many of them out there, period.

We scoured the earth for size. We try to go out there and get it because it’s proven if you can work with it – I think we have a great assistant in Brandon Brantley, done a great job with those guys, gives a lot of time and film, individual instruction.

Then you have to offset it with skill. Both of these guys to my right just didn’t come to Purdue and learn how to shoot. These guys were great shooters before. If you can get high-level competitors that are skilled, both of these guys are very, very competitive, but they're also maniacal in their work. It’s not something I got to check on because I found out that's who they are no matter what.

If they would have went to another school, they would still work on their game, right? A lot of people say, ‘Through our development, we did this.’ I think that’s (BS) a lot of times.

Like these guys did it. Give them credit. It’s a players’ game. That’s an important piece to really embrace in coaching. I’m yet to see somebody come up here and get interviewed all the time with bad players, right? It's a players’ game, and these guys are great players. But we also have to piece it together. They sacrifice, too. They can do more than they actually do, but they’re playing with a guy that now they get role definition.

Fletch (Fletcher Loyer) might get 12 rips at it, he might get six. Mason (Gillis) has games where he shoots the ball two or three times, sometimes seven or eight times. If you want to let him play one-on-one, we’ll let him play one-on-one. If not, we’ll pass the ball. They pass the ball, too. They pass it more than he does, and rightfully so. It’s a system that they know that they can flourish in, and we feel that they can flourish in. Now, when he moves and we change, like how will that -- that's the difference. We’ve won games before that, too.”

What similarities can you draw from the journey you're on compared to what Virginia did in 2019, or do you look at it as something different?

“I think it’s actually an accurate narrative. Sometimes people will pick up narratives out of thin air instead of doing their work. This is actually the right narrative.

The thing I grab from it more than anything is just the humility of Tony Bennett and how he handled it with class. I think anytime you can take it, you got to be able to take it, you’re a little kid, that was always the line, ‘You can dish it out but you can’t take it, right?’ We’re all that way as young people. We can say whatever we want, then it hurts when it comes back your way.

Use that in a positive spin. More than anything what stood out to me was when we had that loss, we joined that club with Virginia and Tony Bennett. He had just gotten beat by Furman that day.

You’re at a low when you have tough losses like that. For him to think of us and to think of me and to reach out to me on that day, that was great. So, from just a humanity standpoint, there are some good people out there that are thinking about others even when they’re down and out.

Once again, it’s not who you are, right? It’s not who you are. It’s what you do for a living. It means a whole lot, but it’s not who you are. Try to keep that in perspective.”

Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.