Purdue's Matt Painter believe their Spurs-like mentality gives them an Edge | College Basketball

Summary

Eye On College Basketball | CBS Sports

Episode: Purdue's Matt Painter believes their Spurs-like mentality gives them an Edge
Date: October 9, 2025
Host: Gary Parrish
Guest: Matt Painter (Purdue Head Coach)

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Overview

In this special episode recorded at Big Ten Media Day, host Gary Parrish sits down with Purdue head coach Matt Painter for an in-depth conversation about Purdue's program-building philosophy, player development, the upcoming season, and Painter’s “Spurs-like” corporate culture that sets his team apart. Painter reflects on his program's success, candidly discusses learning moments from past seasons, and shares how Purdue remains a model of stability and consistency in a rapidly changing college basketball landscape.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Admiration from Peers and Building Purdue’s Program

• Parrish notes that coaches admire Painter, often citing him as the coach they’d want their own son to play for.
• Painter emphasizes this is “the ultimate compliment,” stating:

  “For other people to think that they would send their kid to play for you, like, that’s really kind of the ultimate compliment…who do you love more than your son or daughter?” (02:50)

• He credits collaborative staff, notably assistant P.J. Thompson, for their cohesive X's and O's approach:

  “I’m just a figurehead. That’s you, man.” (03:36)

2. Sustained Success & Program Philosophy

• Purdue has appeared in 16 of the last 18 NCAA tournaments (discounting Covid disruptions).
• Painter highlights their ability to avoid the transfer churn, focusing on retaining their core players and steady development.

  “We’ve done everything the way everybody used to…We just stayed the course and we do lose players, we just don’t lose starters.” (05:12)

• Evaluates players not by star ratings, but through granular evaluation and role definition.

3. Developing "Diamonds in the Rough" & Player Growth

• Many Purdue All-Americans weren’t highly touted prospects.
• Player development is at the program's core, as evidenced by talents like Zach Edey, Jaden Ivey, and Carson Edwards.

  “You think they’re going to be good, you know they’re going to be good. You just don’t know when they’re going to be good and at what magnitude.” (04:51)

• Painter sees both talent identification and program culture (“they have it…people just didn’t realize”) as reasons for this success. (07:06)

4. Braden Smith’s Rise and NBA Prospects

• Braden Smith stands out: 51% of coaches named him the best player in the country in CBS’s poll—a record high.

  “He affects winning more than anybody else…he makes other people better.” (08:37)

• Painter on NBA feedback:

  “He’s tough, he’s hard nosed, he’s intelligent…you have to be able to go pick the ball up and put pressure on the basketball and constantly put pressure on the defense when the ball’s in your hand.” (09:16)

5. Championship Aspirations and the “Spurs DNA”

• Painter doesn’t shy away from high expectations:

  “We have competitors. We have that corporate DNA that the Spurs had. It’s very hard to get that in college basketball today, but we have it.” (10:13)

• Stability is key: players who’ve been with the program 4–5 years form a strong team nucleus. Painter believes this Spurs-like mentality gives them an edge.

6. Learning from Past Seasons & Emphasizing the Final Four

• Painter reflects on not emphasizing the "Final Four goal" enough in previous seasons:

  “Looking back and reflecting is, why weren’t we talking about that? Like, all of our goals are still in front of [us].” (12:22)

• He now recognizes the importance of giving players belief in their championship pedigree, regardless of bumps in the road.

7. Roster Changes, Depth & Frontcourt Adjustments

• Losing rim protector Daniel and two-time Wooden Award winner Zach Edey in one offseason changed the team's rebounding and defense.

• Newcomers like Oscar Clough and returning players are expected to help:

  “His [Oscar’s] rim protection would really help. Our defensive field goal percentage at 2 was not very good…” (13:57)

• Painter discusses the trade-off with depth:

  “The thing you need to understand about depth is if you start going to a deeper rotation, your best players are playing less than they otherwise would be.” (14:40)

• On balancing minutes like different NBA teams:

  “You want your better players to play, but you also want them to be able [to handle] back to backs…You just have to balance it.” (15:23)

8. Oscar Clough’s Role and Mid-Major Translation

• Oscar Clough, a double-double machine at the mid-major level, might see his stats regress against Big Ten competition, but expected rebounding/defense per minute is key.

  “The thing that I want from him…is I want the rebounds per minute to be up.” (17:16)

9. Big Ten Title Drought & League Pride

• Although the Big Ten hasn’t won a national title since 2000, Painter says he’d root for league rivals if Purdue is knocked out:

  “You want it for your league and you want it for personal reasons…if you’ve been around long enough and you’re smart about it, you want to see your league grow and be stronger.” (18:36)

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Notable Quotes

• On peer admiration:

  “That’s really kind of the ultimate compliment…that’s pretty cool.”
  — Matt Painter, (02:50)

• On maintaining program stability:

  “We do lose players, we just don’t lose starters.”
  — Matt Painter, (05:12)

• On Braden Smith:

  “He affects winning more than anybody else. When you go and look at like talent, like you don’t realize like how fast he is, how long his arms are, big hands can make speed, dribble threes. And so like he can just do so much more, but he makes other people better.”
  — Matt Painter, (08:37)

• On championship expectations:

  “We have that corporate DNA that the spurs had. You know, it’s very hard to get that in college basketball today, but we have it.”
  — Matt Painter, (10:13)

• On learning from last season:

  “Looking back and reflecting is, why weren’t we talking about that? Like, all of our goals are still in front of [us].”
  — Matt Painter, (12:22)

• On league pride:

  “If you’ve been around long enough and you’re smart about it, you want to see your league grow and be stronger and hopefully we can do that.”
  — Matt Painter, (18:36)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Peer coaches’ opinions and Painter’s reaction: 02:17 – 03:55
• Building and sustaining Purdue’s program: 04:20 – 06:44
• Diamonds in the rough & All-American development: 07:04 – 08:09
• Braden Smith’s rise and impact: 08:09 – 09:41
• Championship outlook and “Spurs DNA”: 10:00 – 11:21
• Final Four goal and lessons from last year: 11:21 – 13:19
• Depth, frontcourt, and balancing minutes: 13:32 – 17:08
• Oscar Clough’s transition to the Big Ten: 17:08 – 18:09
• Big Ten title drought and rooting for rivals: 18:09 – 19:24

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Memorable Moments

• Painter jokingly giving credit to his assistant:
  “No, I’m just a figurehead. That’s you, man.” (03:36)
• His honesty about missed opportunities in motivating his team for another Final Four run. (12:22)
• Openly discussing rooting for a Big Ten rival if Purdue is knocked out; rare candor among major college coaches. (18:36)

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This episode is a must-listen for fans of coaching, program-building, and those fascinated by how elite teams foster culture and consistency. Coach Painter’s openness, balanced with humility and humor, demonstrates why he and Purdue remain at the forefront of college basketball.

Transcript

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[Gary Parrish]

Hey there Gary Parish. Welcome back to the CBS Sports Ion College Basketball podcast where we sometimes discuss camel fighting, dodo birds and leaky Black. If you're watching on YouTube, you know what to do to the like button shouts to Brandon Davies. And if you haven't yet subscribed to the CBS Sports college basketball YouTube channel, please also do that while you're here. Let's get into it. Different deal today. As you'll soon realize, Matt Norlander is not here with me. And that's because I'm in Chicago for Big Ten Media day. And while here, I sat down with most of the coaches and some of the players for quick conversations about their programs and college basketball in general. And we figured, or at least we hoped, that you guys might like to listen to those conversations. So we're placing them in the I Own College Basketball feed. It's me, GP at Big Ten Media day. The conversations I had with coaches and players, they are on tap. I hope you enjoy them. Right after this word from our partners.

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[Interviewer]

Learn [e-mail] Gary Parrish here with Purdue head coach Matt Painter.

[Gary Parrish]

As I was telling you off air.

[Interviewer]

You really popular with your peers.

[Gary Parrish]

We just finished our Candid Coaches series.

[Interviewer]

[e-mail] and that's where Matt Norland and I asked more than 100 college coaches a series of questions and Purdue was the star this year. Coaches told us they think you're going to have the best team in the country this season. They think you're going to have the best player in the country this season. They told us they believe that you are the best X's and O's coach in college basketball. And they also told us that if they had a son and they could send to play for somebody for four years, they would most likely want to send them to you. What does that mean to you?

[Matt Painter]

Well, I wish they had players because sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't work. It means a lot, actually. I think there's a lot of things that go on that get a lot of attention that don't mean anything. Right. But especially the last one. For other people to think that. That they would send their kid to play for you, like, that's really kind of the ultimate compliment because, like, that's your kid. Like, you know, who do you love more than you, than your son or your daughter? And, like, and for them to think that that's. That, that's pretty cool. The other one, we. We really collaborate a lot from a staff standpoint. So I told P.J. thompson, our assistant who runs our offense, I did you see today that they thought you were the best X and O coach in the country? They said, no. No, they said that about you. I said, aha. No, I'm just a figurehead. That's you, man. So, like, he's done a really good job for us, understanding our personnel, understand play call, just the development, and we break things down like football. So we collaborate a lot. So I think that really leads to, you know, we have a really good, you know, coaching staff across the board.

[Interviewer]

The thing that we hear more often than anything else is that you are more or less you and your staff running a program that people really admire. People look at it and they say, you know, that's the way to do it. Did you recognize, as you were, I don't want to say building this because it was in a good place before you got there, but you have certainly taken it to a new level. Did you realize you were building the type of program people could admire while you were doing it?

[Matt Painter]

Well, first of all, we've been to 16 out of the last 18 NCAA tournaments. If you throw out Covid. So we went to six straight, and then we didn't go to two straight, and now we've went to 10 straight. Those two years where the, like, we really took a step back and just said, like, from an evaluation standpoint and piecing things together and recruiting, like, learning to recruit and get into battles that you can win, that's tough because we all want the best. But when you piece a team together, we know it's not the 10 best players like you can get. If you get a couple guys that are elite now, how you fill in with that. So I think that was the change. More for us is just doing a better job of Valley evaluating, doing a better job of piecing a team together and then kind of getting to the role definition. Because when you take Zach Eady, you don't understand that he's going to be the two time national player of the year. When he's averaging three and a half points in high school, you don't know, you know Carson Edwards is going to score. You don't know that he's going to have magic like that in the NCAA tournament. Like Jaden Ivey was just an explosive player. But you don't know. You think they're going to be good, you know they're going to be good. You just don't know when they're going to be good and, and at what magnitude. So that piece of the evaluation is kind of getting figured out each year kind of like who are your two or three best guys and then really fitting around there. We've done a better job with that and fielding a team, but we've also done everything the way everybody used to. We just didn't change. You know, I think that's. Some of people always cross their eyebrows when we say that, like, hey, what we're doing is what everybody else was doing. We just stayed the course and we do lose players, we just don't lose starters. Right. And so like the fact, and that's what drives me bananas is when I see guys have success and they're good in a system and they're good with a coach and they have a lot of success and then they roll.

[Interviewer]

Right?

[Matt Painter]

Because ultimately it's, it's to make the NBA right.

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Matt Painter]

And it's also if you, if money is your deal and you're at that level and it's really your second contract in the NBA where the real money is. And, and so like those things are for us, like we've always, we haven't had anybody leave our program and go to the NBA that made a poor decision. It was the best decision for them at their time. We've had a lot of people stay that put their name in, so just trying to just do what's best for them and help them.

[Interviewer]

You've had one all American after another, but really none of them were expected to be all American level players. When you recruited them, evaluated them, enrolled them. Sometimes people will describe that as finding diamonds in the Rough. Other times, I think the opposite is true. You found whatever you found and then you turned it into what it became.

[Matt Painter]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

How do you chop all that up?

[Matt Painter]

Yeah, I would say both. I would say, you know, it's just the development, but it's also, they have it, you know, that people just didn't realize that Caleb Swanigan was the one player that we had that was a McDonald's All American and then he skipped his senior year and then he was an all American by a second year. We've had a lot of guys become All Americans in their second year. You know, Carson Edwards. Zach Eady actually was his third year. Braden Smith was his third year. Jay N. Ivey was in his second year. Caleb Swanigan was in his second year. So I think that's it. And I think also it's those guys coming to Purdue and we have really good players, but you just don't come to. Jay Nivey doesn't come to Purdue and look around and see three or four J Nivies. He sees one and then I think that really you see where like, hey, what happened to this guy? And why did he go there? Well, they got to do the same thing that we're doing. They got to put their team together. And if you're not a high volume guy, excuse me, if you are a high volume guy and then you don't get that, it's hard, it's hard for to go talk role definition to that particular guy.

[Interviewer]

Braden Smith, in our candid coaches series, we asked the same question we ask every year. Who's going to be the best player in the country? He came back with 51% of the vote, which makes him quite literally the biggest vote getter ever. When we've asked that question, I think it's the right answer. How did he go from mostly unheralded recruit to guy college coaches believes the best basketball player in this country and somebody who could, you know, theoretically pass Bobby Hurley and become the all time assist leader.

[Matt Painter]

Yeah, you know, great instincts, obviously an elite passer. You know, I think the one thing that jumps out for great players is do you make others better? And he does. He affects winning more than anybody else. When you go and look at like talent, like you don't realize like how fast he is, how long his arms are, big hands can make speed, dribble threes. And so like he can just do so much more, but he makes other people better. That big guy rolling to the rim, the guards, you know, getting open opposite, like he finds guys, he passes the basketball he can score, he can do a lot of different things, and then he brings a lot of positive energy when he competes.

[Interviewer]

What do NBA people tell you about him?

[Matt Painter]

Well, I think the thing that jumps out is you got to be careful because there's 10 people his size in the NBA. And if you look at the consistent, you know, attributes of those 10, you know, he has those attributes. You know, he's tough, he's hard nosed, he's intelligent. I think resilient is what you have to be like. You have to be able to go pick the ball up and put pressure on the basketball and constantly put pressure on the defense when the ball's in your hand.

[Interviewer]

One of the things I've noticed throughout this preseason is you haven't shied away from anything. People think you've got a national championship contender and you agree with them, right? You don't try to talk about, well, we'll see. And it's long season, it's there. You believe you've got a team good enough to go do this.

[Matt Painter]

Yeah. And I think the thing that jumps out is that like, you know, we. I think we have one of the best or the best front courts. I think we have one of the best or the best back courts. And for us, we can have a little slippage and we still have guys like we have. We have some real tough decisions for us because we have a lot of really good players and across the board, but we have good guys, we have competitors. We have that corporate DNA that the spurs had. You know, it's very hard to get that in college basketball today, but we have it. We have guys that have been with us for four and five years and that's our nucleus and then we build from that. So add in Omer Meyer, Oscar Clough or Antoine west, or, you know, now you're adding some pieces where you have depth with Jakari Harris and you have C.J. cox, who started most of the season for us. Daniel Jacobson's played on, got two gold medals in usa. Like, there's a lot of guys there for us to go either way. Like, I think we can play small, I think we can play big. We have to be a better rebounding team and with the changes personnel, we will be. But we have to be really good in that area and then get better defensively. I think that's the one area. If we don't, you know, achieve some of those goals that we're talking about, it's going to be that, like, we have to be able. When the ball doesn't go in to be able to grind out some victories.

[Interviewer]

I read where you said, looking back on it last season, you didn't feel like you talked about the Final Four enough, like, you didn't emphasize it enough. And I think we can all, you know, look at our own lives in any different manner. And so, you know, if I'd have talked about schoolwork with my kids more often, expand on that thought.

[Gary Parrish]

Like, you wish you would have just.

[Interviewer]

Talked more about, we have a goal and it's to get back to another Final Four.

[Matt Painter]

Right. I think it starts with, you know, just how do you deal with losing the year before that, going into the year that we went to the final game, the 116 game. And I think that's something, you know, Tony Bennett in Virginia went through. And, you know, if this can make us stronger and make us a better program and get us to where we want to get, this could be a blessing in disguise. So we had a lot of meetings about that. Then we didn't have as much going to the next year. And then when we lost Daniel, it was like, you know, I should have said, we have enough. Not against everybody. But you don't play everybody in the NCAA tournament.

[Interviewer]

That's right.

[Matt Painter]

Like, you get, like, how it unfolds is how it unfolds. And then we were right there. We had some bad breaks in that Houston game, and we'd have been playing, you know, Tennessee again to go to a Final Four. But then looking back and reflecting is, why weren't we talking about that? Like, all of our goals are still in front of, right? And it's. I think when you have somebody that gives you that confidence like Zach Edie gives you, it's easy to talk about it. And then when your margin of error is different now, it kind of quiet. You get kind of quiet because you don't want to get out there as much. But within, you know, in reality, you still got the best point guard in America, right? Trek, Hoffman, Wren made the most field goals. You know, Fletcher Lawyer is the best shooter in the country. You still have really, really good pieces. Like, I should have done a better job of just convincing them that we belong. Maybe it has a difference. Maybe it doesn't have a difference. But I know coming into this year, it allows us to open our eyes as a staff to say, hey, we do have enough, but you got to earn them. Like, you still got to go out there and do the job.

[Interviewer]

Well, it's a smart point, because let's say you're the 10th best basketball team in the country. And that means by definition there's nine teams better than you. But you might not have to play any of those in the NCAA tournament to win a national championship.

[Matt Painter]

Exactly correct.

[Interviewer]

You mentioned Daniel losing him. I think it's just because he was really just Zach Eady's replacement as opposed to some all American. I don't know that it registered with casual basketball fans a big deal. But to lose the two time Wooden award winner and then lose another seven foot four guy right in the middle of the season, that's the explanation for why the rebounding numbers changed last season, right?

[Matt Painter]

Yeah. He's on an elite rebounder like Oscar Clough is, but his rim protection would really help. Our defensive field goal percentage at 2 was not very good. We didn't have rim protection. We were, we were really good in transition offensively, but we didn't get enough rebounds, you know, to put that in play more. And we needed more opportunities there. So we're hoping with his ability to block shots and be there in Oscar's ability to rebound. And Oscar's a really good interior defender. So we just think the defensive piece is really, really going to help us. But we always, you know, with TK moving over to the 4, we also can go back and play him at the five like we did last year if we have to.

[Interviewer]

I want to talk to you a little bit about depth because obviously you have it. But I read a comment where you said like, the thing you need to understand about depth is if you start going to a deeper rotation, your best players are playing less than they otherwise would be. Right. This is interesting to me because there are NBA franchises that approach this dramatically differently. Correct. The Knicks want their best players on the court as often as possible, or at least they did under the previous coach. And where I live in Memphis, the starters played the lowest amount of minutes in the entire NBA. And in Memphis they would say we, we want fresher bodies at all times.

[Matt Painter]

Right.

[Interviewer]

In New York, they might say we'd want our best players on the court as much as possible. How do you balance between those two things?

[Matt Painter]

I think it's. That's the correct word. You just have to balance it, you know, like we didn't have, you know, another quintessential point guard besides, besides Braden Smith. And when you have Braden Smith, it's hard to recruit other point guards. Right. Because they're like, hey, he's playing all the time. So now having Omer Meyer, I think that will help us. We have another freshman named Antoine west who's played really well in practice so far. So I think that's the, the key for us is that, you know, you want them to be in the best possible situation to start in March when March Madness hits. But you're also, you're gunning for a championship to try to win the Big Ten, which is going to be difficult. And so like now I just feel like you got to balance it. Normally things happen. So injuries, injuries happen, foul trouble happens that you have to deal with anyways. But for the most part I, you know, you want your better players to play, but you also want them to be able to, you know, can they play back to backs in an exempt tournament? Because the only time you're going to play back to backs is when you probably get into the Big Ten tournament. Right? You're always going to have a day off in the and so like there's not a lot of things that jump out that really put you behind. Like the NBA is always going to talk about their back to backs. Right? That's a big deal. How they travel and how you adjust the things on college, it's different, you know, it just is. It's more keeping kind of the fresh mind and understanding with each guy. You know what you want to do. Obviously you're better guys. You know, we don't have, you know, Braden's preseason player of the year, but like Trey Kaufman, Ren could be national player of the year too. Like either one of them could be. He's been very good in practice. And then to have Fletch and his leadership and his shot making ability, like it's just a really good nucleus.

[Interviewer]

Just a couple more things for you. You mentioned Oscar, obviously 17 and 12, but at the mid major level, how does that translate to the Big Ten?

[Matt Painter]

Yeah, well, he was 7 and 4 and 20 minutes at Washington State. I think he's probably somewhere in between his Washington State stats and his South Dakota stats. If you get the thing that I want from him, because you know he's going to split time with Daniel, is I want the rebounds per minute to be up. I want their ability to defend and do their work and ball screen D and post D and just be great there. You know, he can score with his back to the basket. Daniel's more of a flip up lob type guy and so just playing to their strengths and then playing off of them. I think that's a hard. Like while he was at Washington State, he had to play off of those guys. You know, he just did, you know, still average seven points in 20 minutes and you're the key guy. Well, then he was more of a key guy in his last one. He's once again, he's probably going to be somewhere in between there. Well, he'll get some opportunities in the low post, but he's not going to have the volume of Braden Smith and Trey Kaufman ran last thing.

[Interviewer]

Obviously, you're a contender to win the national title. I think even the favorite in some betting markets. The Big Ten has not won one since 2000. That gets brought up every year. I know you want to win one for Purdue. Does it matter to you, winning one for the Big Ten? In other words, if you couldn't get it, you get knocked out of the tournament. Yeah, but Indiana's still alive or Illinois still alive. Could you find yourself rooting for sure a Big Ten rival?

[Matt Painter]

Oh, yeah, sure. And I think when you look at the big picture, especially with conferences kind of being like corporations, like we have 18, you know, teams in our league and how things shift and how things move and just the units that you receive financially, you want it for your league and you want it for personal reasons. And obviously you have the childish aspect as a competitor that we all have is like, you know, you don't want to see people that you compete against, whatever. But if you, if you've been around long enough and you're smart about it, you want to see your league grow and be stronger and hopefully we can do that. Hopefully we can do that for our league. That's what I love about the Big Ten is that like, you know, the challenges are going to be extreme. So, like, you know, you're going to be ready, but it's how you're playing and you know where your whole team is in your mindset going into that tournament.

[Interviewer]

Congrats on everything. I appreciate your time.

[Matt Painter]

All right, man. Thank you.

[Interviewer]

Good to see you.

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[Matt Painter]

Long.

[Interviewer]

Good luck.