The Purdue men’s basketball team returned to the hardwood on Monday, preparing for the 2024-25 season. The Boilermakers will pursue a third straight Big Ten title and hope to make another deep NCAA Tournament run this year.
On Monday, Purdue coach Matt Painter met with reporters to talk about the offseason, recruiting, player development and more. Here’s everything he had to say.
On Purdue’s first practice of the fall …
Painter: “It really wasn’t our first practice, like 25th practice. We do things a little differently. We don’t do workouts in the summer. Obviously, they work out on their own and do stuff with our (graduate assistants). So, we practice in June and July — our first day of school we had a practice. Now that we get to this and everyone wants to anoint it as the first practice, it really isn’t.
“It was good. We’re playing a lot of different combinations, just trying to see who plays well. Sometimes it’s a little bit different when you have five new guys, you don’t want to put all five of those guys on one team, that’s not fair. We just try to split it up and help each other.
“Certain lineups are bigger, sometimes they’re smaller and you just go from there. Whoever stands out from a production standpoint is going to really help their cause.”
On if there’s a different vibe compared to last year …
Painter: “We still have three guys that, as sophomore, started on a Final Four team. All three of those guys are juniors and very productive players. So, I think we have a good place to start. We have some guys who are returning who played on that team that can really enhance their roles. They have to earn that, because we have good freshmen that are coming in.
“Caleb (Furst) gives us a lot of experience. Will (Berg) and Brian (Waddell) haven’t played much at all, so they’re fighting to get into that rotation. Myles (Colvin) and Cam (Heide) had their moments in spurts last year. That’s really hard to do. It’s hard to be a consistent player with inconsistent minutes.
“Just looking for those guys to have more of an opportunity and compete. Then, the young guys to try and find their way, because we need some of those young guys to help us.”
On how summer practices help during the season …
Painter: “Getting those practices, I think really helps getting ready to start. … We try to make basketball like a class, more than anything. That’s what we’ve done for the past 10 years. Treat it like a class, make sure they understand what they’re doing. Just that collective intelligence really helps.”
On how much of practice is determining what lineups Purdue will play …
Painter: “Just the production of it, right? From Caleb to Will to Cam, Daniel (Jacobsen), Raleigh Burgess — you’re just kind of waiting to see who is productive. They’ve all had good days. You’re just trying to see that consistency.
“Then your matchups from a defensive standpoint. I think Daniel gives us the best chance from a shot-blocking standpoint. Caleb gives us the best chance in terms of his versatility and guarding different people. Will is probably the most physical. Raleigh is going to be a really good player — he’s learning our system right now, but he’s done some good things.
“So, getting that figured out. A few years ago, Fletcher (Loyer) didn’t have another ball-handler with him. You had Braden (Smith) and he was our two-guard and whoever else played there was really our three. Then, having Lance (Jones) really helped Fletcher, being that second ball-handler. So, whoever that could be, at times helps him, at times it doesn’t matter. You can play that small forward with Myles and Cam with those two.
“Then there’s times when people will press or zone and you need another guy in there like Gicarri (Harris) or CJ (Cox) that has better ball-handling skills. Overall, you can sit there and angle everything, but it’s the guys who are most productive. I think matchups matter, I think blending guys matters, but I think production supersedes that.”
On how Purdue’s style changes with more experience in the backcourt …
Painter: “We’ve always tried to have balance. Some teams are going to be more balanced with scoring, some teams are going to be a little bit different when you have a guy like Zach Edey — you’re going to go to him a lot. You’ve got to understand that 25 (points) and 13 (rebounds) was his average. It’s crazy in its own thing.
“Braden, with guys that can shoot, he can really raise their value with his ability to pass the basketball. Zach could raise their value with his ability to get double-teamed. A lot of people don’t like to double for that fact.
“I think we can have some pretty good balance. I would look at the three returners to start with: Braden, Fletch and Trey Kaufman(-Renn). But anything can happen. We have quality players.”
On the benefit of playing Myles Colvin and Cam Heide last year …
Painter: “Cam was somebody that we could float him, play him undersized at the four. We’ve done it a little bit in practice but not a lot. I think it just kind of depends on everything — how people in the backcourt are playing, how people in the frontcourt are playing and how he’s playing.
“I’d like to think both him and Myles, their experiences will really help their cause this year. I don’t like speaking on it, to be frank with you, because when you speak on one or two guys, whatever it might be, you’ve got 13 scholarship players on your team.
“I always tell them when they walk in, I’m going to tell you everything you need to know to help your cause. But the problem is, when you walk out and the next guy walks in, I’m going to tell them, too. When you do that and you’re open and honest, that creates a real competitive landscape. Guys are going after each other and competing for things. I think I have a good problem on my hands.”
On the competition in the frontcourt …
Painter: “It’s good. You have a lot of different guys. Will, with Zach coming back (last year), that really hurt his chances of playing. Really kind of eliminated it. He needed someone to get hurt or get into foul trouble to put him there. And we don’t foul a lot, so that’s something that really set him back a year. That’s nothing he could control. Zach was that good. Now I know he’s really hungry to play.
“Caleb has started as a freshman some, started as a sophomore, and then, because of Zach, he got short-changed with minutes. So that’s really competitive. Raleigh Burgess has looked really good. Where he ends up in his first year, I don’t know, but he’s looked really good and been really productive.
“Trey has worked really hard. I would be shocked if Trey is not an all-conference-caliber player. He’s looked really good there.
“Daniel had a really good summer playing USA Basketball. But the Big Ten is not U18s. You have 22-, 23-, 24-year-old guys with the last year of COVID. He just has to keep going at it, keep getting stronger, keep getting bigger, keep working. His ability to block shots has got to be a weapon for us. He can catch lobs, he can run, he’s good around the basket — sometimes he gets pretzeled up and gets too narrow, but for the most part, he’s made really good strides.
“But there’s times that everybody is so physical, not everything is getting called in a practice. I think he’s going to function a lot better in a real game when you get a real whistle. I’m out there refereeing, which is half of a joke.”
On the progress made by Brian Waddell …
Painter: “He’s just kept working, kept putting in time. For him, he’s just got to feel good about himself. Sometimes, when you haven’t had that experience, it’s hard to make a mistake and recover from it. I think it’s easier to compound something good and trying to get on top of it. Then when something bad happens, it’s a little bit harder to shake off.
“For him, it’s just building confidence. We try to be as positive as we can with him and just go out there and compete. I told him the times that he’s gotten in at the end of games — like, if you go sit for two hours, I don’t care how good of a player you are, you have to go sit for two hours and then go in for three minutes at the end of a game, it’s hard. … He would always play well. I would say, hey, that’s the focus you have to have. You have to do well for five-to-10 minutes. Then you have to do well 10-to-15 minutes. You have to grow your minutes.
“So, I said, your ability to go in and focus — people say those minutes don’t matter. It matters to the people playing. It matters to me. I thought he always did well when he went in there, he was just up against it because of all of our other guys.
“Everybody here is pulling for him to get some success and build off of it.”
On Gene Keady’s health scare last week …
Painter: “I haven’t talked to him yet. But Todd Foster, our academic counselor, Elliott Bloom have talked to him. They say he’s fine, he’s going to the facility to do some rehab. Obviously pulling for him, but they said he’s going to be fine, so that’s great news.”
On his optimism about Trey Kaufman-Renn …
Painter: “He would have had a bigger role for us last year if it wasn’t for Zach. It was just hard. When you get with somebody who is that great of a player, you have to learn to co-exist with him and he did. Mason (Gillis) did, too. And they were two totally different players and they both gave us a punch.
“Mason’s ability to stretch the defense and Trey’s ability around the basket against that second-most physical guy. Right now, Trey could play the four for us and be the guy we go to in the post more than those other big guys. He was productive. He’s been productive in practice. He works very hard. He’s a maniacal worker, so he puts in a lot of time. Anytime you do that, I think you really build trust with the coaches.
“I want guys who can do their job and guys who are just out there. This is their focus. You came here to go to school, you came here to play basketball. That’s what he does. That’s his focus and he keeps his focus right there. He’s waited a long time to be in this position. If we didn’t have the guys that we’ve had, he would have been in this position before.”
On if he looks at competitiveness in recruiting …
Painter: “Yes. Your competitive spirit is a big thing. Your skill is a big thing. And then your overall success. You’re going to see a lot of high-major players have success in high school because a lot of high school players don’t play college basketball.
“When you look into it, you say, ‘Hey, does a guy play the right way? Do his teammates like him? Does he care about his teammates?’ All those variables. We haven’t done a better job recruiting the last 10 or 11 years, we’ve done a better job evaluating. Our ability to evaluate to know what works, but it starts with competitive spirit, there’s no doubt about that.
“You’ve got to have guys that have to have a passion. If you’re constantly calling guys on the phone and they’re with their girl or they’re everywhere except a gym, even though they’re really good, they’re probably not our guy. No different than, we’ve been able to keep a lot of guys vs. everybody else because education has to be a piece of it. It doesn’t mean other people don’t have good education, because they do. But just what are those guys thinking about? What are their parents thinking about? They’re coming to Purdue to get a good education. They’re coming to Purdue to win. If you’re just going to school for an opportunity just to play — it’s not recess. If you’re like, ‘Hey, I don’t know if I’m going to play there right away,’ or ‘It’s going to be tougher to play there right away,’ yeah, well no shit. Like, we’re successful. We’ve won games. It’s also because of the people we’ve signed weren’t scared of that.
“They’re like, ‘Yeah, I’ll compete. I’ll go in there.’ We have a crowded backcourt but we’ve got a crowded frontcourt. But that’s what championship-level teams have. They have a bunch of players, they don’t just have two or three guys. That’s the important piece to keep getting guys of that nature. A lot of people say you’ve gone to a Final Four, you’ve won back-to-back Big Ten championships, now you can go get a better player. And I’m like, ‘No, we want to go get the same players that got us there.’
“Braden Smith is way more talented than people think he is. He’s a really good basketball player. Fletch is a really good basketball player. Very intelligent. But both of them are skilled and they love basketball. They fit that box.”
On the benefit of keeping a coaching staff intact yearly …
Painter: “It’s good because you have the consistency. That’s something we started doing eight or nine years ago when we split it like football — offensive coordinators, defensive coordinators. We split a lot of assignments. I started it because I was tired of being in huddles and hearing three or four different things and being more confused by talking to them than actually getting some clarity. I like the breakup of that. But I like it because of our players. I think it makes sense for them.
“Now they know when they have an offensive question or a defensive question or a personnel question, who they go to. That’s really helped us.”
On mentality difference between this year’s team and last year’s team …
Painter: “I think that question gets answered by how we play. When you play with a great player, he gives confidence. He just does. I think we have some guys who can really step up this year and give us that confidence. Maybe not the same type of confidence, but I think that’s so important.
“I always felt good playing at Purdue when Glenn Robinson was out there. You just know we’ve got a weapon out there that they don’t have. I wouldn’t trade Braden Smith for anybody in the country. I think that’s a good place to start.
“Fletcher’s intelligence and competitiveness, his skill, his ability to win everywhere he’s been. Trey’s worked so hard to be in this position and now he’s finally getting his opportunity. But he’s also separated himself from a lot of other people through his work and through his production.
“I think those three guys, collectively, can give off that confidence. That’s a big deal. I think that’s the epitome of a really good player, is he makes others better. We can’t get enough of that.”
