Date: March 17th, 2023
Opponent: Fairleigh Dickinson Knights (20-15)
Location: Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio
Tip-Off Time: 6:50 EST
TV: TNT
Streaming: March Madness App, NCAA App
Radio: Purdue Sports Network (96.5 WAZY if Local); The Varsity Network,
Odds: Purdue -23.5 O/U 145.5
Live Stats:  Link
Fun Facts: FDU starts the smallest lineup in college basketball, quite the contrast to the Boilermakers. They start two guards that are under 5-9. Their biggest starter is 6-6. FDU defeated Texas Southern in their play-in game. FDU is in the tournament due to an archaic college basketball rule, where a team transitioning to Division 1 basketball cannot partake in the tournament, Merrimack won their conference tournament, but cannot play due to this rule.

@Purdue Grad in Texas will have his pregame analysis, as always. Boiler Up! Win & Advance!

First of all, I went to Purdue when Painter played. I like him as a person and I think he a good regular season coach, but not many people outside of the Midwest care much about BIG titles and certainly not the national media calling Purdue the "Choke Artist Program of the Decade" etc...
College basketball is all about March and us losing to North Texas (#13), St. Peters (#15), Fairleigh Dickinson (#16) along with Little Rock etc. are not acceptable for program like Purdue.

The head coach is the CEO of their program, so when you have failed on the biggest stage you should be accountable for his failure.
I think Painter has become too comfortable, too stubborn and too rigid for the good of Purdue.
So with this petition, this is your chance to voice your displeasure with Matt Painter.
This might not get him fired but it should be put him on notice to at the very least to make major changes if he wants keep his job.

I thought this article was relevant, since Robbie played for us, and he is a beloved Boilermaker. I think several of the things that he said has been mentioned on here at nauseum over the last few days.

We all know about our shooting woes, and that was mentioned in the article multiple times. The one question I have though is why we stopped recruiting sharpshooters. We would get a sharpshooter in each recruiting class every year, like we get a QB in each football recruiting class. Painter stopped doing that. Maybe that has something to do with COVID and the roster numbers. I don't know.

The press comment was the most confusing though. Do we have locker room issues, because that problem, which could cause shooting issues too, sounded like players didn't care? At least, that is how I took this reaction wise below from the article statement.

"The press-break stuff, that's a different story," Hummel said. "I don't understand why the press gives them so much trouble. Sometimes, at the Big Ten tournament, Bruce Weber and I were sitting there watching, and it was guys were catching (the ball) refusing to turn to actually break the press."

Here is the article:

We have a great group of guys. I truly love them all. but this is a "business." So, the best survive ... or at least those who take the company to their goal. Here I am, hatchet man:
Newman - Luv ya' bro, but you gotta go
Morton - Luv you too, but you're gonna sit the bench
Gillis - Luv ya and you're gonna stay!
Furst - Luv ya, but dammit, work your ass off on what you need to
Edey - Luv ya, Hope you stay, if you don't, still luv ya man
Loyer - hit the damned weights and get your confidence back
Smith - Luv ya, but you are who you are ... take the good and take the bad
Waddell - You stay as long as you want, but don't see a lot of time
Heide - All the opportunity in the world. Please grab it and thrive
TKR - Loved you this year, but please develop a face to the basket game
Berg - MY GAWD if you can shoot the three... YAZ!!!
Colvin - Damn man, what a game you have. Bring some street ball to the boilers.

2023-24
PG - HELP, Smith
SG - HELP - Loyer
WING - ?? Gillis? --- or HELP
PF - TKR -- can't be a backdown 5
C - Edey? -- Furst>> Who knows. Will we continue with the back to the basket style

Fairleigh Dickinson coach: 'The more I watch Purdue, the more I think we can beat them.'

That was the most embarrassing loss in the history of sports. Ever. Period. That’s on the resume now forever.

Better find a way to bring Zach back for another try.

Hope to hang on to 5* Catchings.

But again that was the most embarrassing loss in the history of sports.

Drink.

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This is clearly now in our program’s collective head.

Watching the Memphis/FAU game, and now TCU/Arizona, we clearly need better athletes at every position.

But beyond that, we might need to bring in a sports psychologist, before this becomes endemic.

She had to drop out sophmore year because we got preggers with our son Henry. She still bleeds black and gold though! I know purdue is his safety school if he can't get into Kentucky or the University of Indianapolis.

If you want painter back, you have a loser mentality.
I hope Colvin and Catchings decommit. He doesn’t deserve their talent.

After sleeping on it and still waking up pissed off, I think I’ve come to the realization that Painter won’t be fired or resign. We’re likely to have him as HC for the next 7 (25 yrs as HC) to 10 years.
He’ll continue to do what he’s done which is have middle of the pack recruiting because he’ll recruit system players and not talent, he’ll win 20 games and finish upper half B10, make the tourney and maybe get to a few S16s but unlikely to go deeper and almost guaranteed not to get a NC. He won’t change his defensive or offensive philosophies and his teams will always be athletically a step slower than top teams.
To some, they’d feel satisfied and consider that a successful run. They believe Purdue has inherent recruiting disadvantages and we’ll never be considered a top school for talent. These same people are afraid of what would happen if we changed coaches and believe Painter is the best Purdue will ever do.

To others, they appreciate what Painter has done to this point but believe Purdue can do better and a change in culture is needed.

To the administration, they probably feel that as long as there are asses in the seats and the program is sound financially, then winning in March isn’t really the goal, it’s just gravy.

Where do you stand?

I know where I am. Time for a change…..

But he needs to do something different. We flat out choked tonite.

Quit playing thru the low post, go get some better scorers at the 2 and 3 spots. Maybe shake up the coaching staff.

At this point, there is a national narrative that we always choke in the NCAA, and that really can’t be argued against.

And now it will become a crushing burden to every Purdue team moving forward until we break through to the Final Four.

That's a tall order. Those teams are just so athletic and it makes foe tough matchups.

His teams are never prepared. I don't care of we will be back for several years. Fire his ass now...

Purdue alumnus and life long fan here. Have followed Purdue msg boards for years but rarely posted a msg. However after this loss, just felt I had to speak my mind and get things off my chest just for catharsis so here goes…

Realistically, we all know Painter will not be fired, at least not in the near future- esp not after winning the league, the BTT, and being #1 for multiple weeks with a team picked to be a conference middling. Losing to double digit seeds in multiple years with different teams would indicate the constant and issue is with the coach. So if things have to change but we keep the same coach, that means the coach has to change some of his philosophy….so what specifically does he have to change? Well, probably no simple answers otherwise he would have done it already. However here are just some thoughts which have been mentioned by others already:

Need to stop offense philosophy centered around the big man. We know basketball today is all about guard play. Therefore, can still recruit bigs but athletic 6’9-11” big guys who can jump, rebound, and rim protect. Purdue mostly needs to recruit athletic alpha guards who have handles, can penetrate, and create their own shots. It has been hard for Purdue to recruit such since its offense has been big man centric, but if Painter is willing to change to a guard centric offense, I suspect he’ll be able attract some good options.

Opponents know exactly what Purdue is going to do. Play man on man D and get it inside to the big man on O. Period. Makes preparation for Purdue a little easier. Therefore, Painter really needs to have some flexibility and be willing to make in game adjustments. Throwing in a zone once in a while especially against a team who has weak perimeter shooters (like Purdue), press once in a while especially if you have a deep bench (like Purdue had)- learning how to play zone and press means you can practice how to play against them as well (which Purdue obviously needed).

Anyway, I don’t think Purdue needs to tear everything down and start from scratch with a new coach. We all know that’s not going happen anytime soon anyway. Hopefully Painter can do some self reflection and have some sort of epiphany like he did after 2012-14. I know he is known to be stubborn/rigid but he has shown the ability to change before (after 2014)and hopefully can do so again. I know people say he will never be able to get Purdue to the Final 4 let alone a Nat Champ. However, despite many years of continual disappointments (since Keady- that 88 loss to K state still haunts me) which goes with being a Purdue die hard….I somehow still have that glimmer of hope that Painter still can be the guy- he has proven that he can evaluate talent, develop players, overachieve with no 5 stars and win conference titles despite that….and dare I say, when it comes to March, he has made it to 6 sweet 16s and 1 fluke play away from a final 4. So, I do feel that if he is willing to change his philosophy some (and he has shown he can coach and succeed with a guard centric team- ie Edward/Cline that again was 1 play from a final 4) and show a little flexibility,
the F4 (and dare I say the NC) is not out of the realm of possibilities. However, I’ll just settle for a F4 for now.

Lastly, as much as this loss hurts us fans, I can only imagine how much worse it is for Painter, the other coaches, and the players. Hopefully this helps to motivate Painter to make such changes. Can a repeat of Virginia happen next year? As is typical of a Purdue fan, I’m pessimistic, but always can hope.

Ok, I’ve said my peace. It feels good to get that off my chest….Here’s hoping Painter can similarly get that monkey (or more like a gorilla) off his back.

Hard to argue and he does make some very good points. I've said it for a long time, CMP is too comfortable and too stubborn to change...and now the choker of the decade.