Purdue can't be the only team in college basketball with these problems.
Whether it's guys who don't pass, guys who take bad shots or guys who have short attention spans as it pertains to defensive assignments, whatever it is, I can promise you Purdue does not have the market cornered on it.
College sports are played by kids - or young adults, I suppose - and kids by definition are not fully developed as people and so inherently flawed. Part of the beauty of the game is watching them grow up and mature. It's the underlying narratives behind senior days like Sunday's, and part of the challenges for college coaches, to take these flawed beings and turn them into something cohesive or at the very least, functional.
Purdue's 2013-14 team is dysfunctional, now immortalized in the record books as a last-place team despite improving its roster considerably over last season, at least on paper and to the naked eye.
Matt Painter just committed press conference hari kari, plunging the figurative "my fault" sword into his own belly four times in the span of like six spoken sentences.
And he's right. Of course it is fault. Everything a team does well is a credit to its coach; everything is doesn't, isn't. Purdue is a last-place team.
The irony, I guess, is that the last time a Painter-coached Purdue team finished in last place, he actually did a hell of a job. I think I might have just used the Alanis Morissette definition of "irony" there.
Anyway, this roster is Painter's. He and his staff recruited it and have coached it to this point. Like they did last year's roster, which had similar issues before a mass exodus.
That's two seasons, two very different rosters, same problems. Worse ones, actually. Purdue has a better team now, but it plays worse, as again shown by Purdue's dreadful Sunday loss to dreadful Northwestern. Last year's CBI quarter-finalist Boilermakers beat last year's Northwestern by 31 in Mackey Arena.
Purdue's roster is flawed, yes, but so are a lot of people's. Part of a coach's job is to make it work, one way or another. Part of Painter's failing the past two seasons has been an inability to do that.
Last year, a bunch of guys transferred. Not a one of them was really missed this season, nor were any of their departures much cause for consternation beyond the obligatory disappointment of seeing things not work out for a young person. You never want to see people fail.
We'll see what happens this spring.
Painter is not players' buddy - nor should he be, because that's neither his job, nor his responsibility to his players - but part of coaching, and it's easy for me to say from the periphery, is making it work, whether it's in getting guys to listen, getting guys to understand, communicating, relating, whatever.
He's not asking a lot from these guys: In essence, just play with some measure of good sense and try hard. It's a simple message that's not gotten across, either because the coach can't get it across or the players are being overtly defiant. Or, they're dense.
Painter has had great teams at Purdue when coaching Painter-ish teams, kids cut from his same cloth. As an astute colleague mentioned the other day before I could come up with this line myself, Purdue has been good when it's had a few high-level players surrounded by crotchety, motivated and smart role players willing to put all they have into niche. This team is almost all alphas and has had to be made into a team. It never really happened, because the pieces never really became the puzzle.
Painter can say it's his fault, because it is. He selected and crafted the pieces.
But those pieces have to want to be put in place too.
Painter's had great success at Purdue with Painter-ish teams. Somewhere along the line, the complexion of those teams changed.
Once this season mercifully meets its end, it will be up to Painter to fix this, to show he can adapt to coaching a team that he might not always share a wavelength with.
Painter is right when he says that this is his fault.
But while he said it, there were 10 or so people in that locker room who can't be totally absolved either.
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2014. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited. E-mail GoldandBlack.com/Boilers, Inc.
Whether it's guys who don't pass, guys who take bad shots or guys who have short attention spans as it pertains to defensive assignments, whatever it is, I can promise you Purdue does not have the market cornered on it.
College sports are played by kids - or young adults, I suppose - and kids by definition are not fully developed as people and so inherently flawed. Part of the beauty of the game is watching them grow up and mature. It's the underlying narratives behind senior days like Sunday's, and part of the challenges for college coaches, to take these flawed beings and turn them into something cohesive or at the very least, functional.
Purdue's 2013-14 team is dysfunctional, now immortalized in the record books as a last-place team despite improving its roster considerably over last season, at least on paper and to the naked eye.
Matt Painter just committed press conference hari kari, plunging the figurative "my fault" sword into his own belly four times in the span of like six spoken sentences.
And he's right. Of course it is fault. Everything a team does well is a credit to its coach; everything is doesn't, isn't. Purdue is a last-place team.
The irony, I guess, is that the last time a Painter-coached Purdue team finished in last place, he actually did a hell of a job. I think I might have just used the Alanis Morissette definition of "irony" there.
Anyway, this roster is Painter's. He and his staff recruited it and have coached it to this point. Like they did last year's roster, which had similar issues before a mass exodus.
That's two seasons, two very different rosters, same problems. Worse ones, actually. Purdue has a better team now, but it plays worse, as again shown by Purdue's dreadful Sunday loss to dreadful Northwestern. Last year's CBI quarter-finalist Boilermakers beat last year's Northwestern by 31 in Mackey Arena.
Purdue's roster is flawed, yes, but so are a lot of people's. Part of a coach's job is to make it work, one way or another. Part of Painter's failing the past two seasons has been an inability to do that.
Last year, a bunch of guys transferred. Not a one of them was really missed this season, nor were any of their departures much cause for consternation beyond the obligatory disappointment of seeing things not work out for a young person. You never want to see people fail.
We'll see what happens this spring.
Painter is not players' buddy - nor should he be, because that's neither his job, nor his responsibility to his players - but part of coaching, and it's easy for me to say from the periphery, is making it work, whether it's in getting guys to listen, getting guys to understand, communicating, relating, whatever.
He's not asking a lot from these guys: In essence, just play with some measure of good sense and try hard. It's a simple message that's not gotten across, either because the coach can't get it across or the players are being overtly defiant. Or, they're dense.
Painter has had great teams at Purdue when coaching Painter-ish teams, kids cut from his same cloth. As an astute colleague mentioned the other day before I could come up with this line myself, Purdue has been good when it's had a few high-level players surrounded by crotchety, motivated and smart role players willing to put all they have into niche. This team is almost all alphas and has had to be made into a team. It never really happened, because the pieces never really became the puzzle.
Painter can say it's his fault, because it is. He selected and crafted the pieces.
But those pieces have to want to be put in place too.
Painter's had great success at Purdue with Painter-ish teams. Somewhere along the line, the complexion of those teams changed.
Once this season mercifully meets its end, it will be up to Painter to fix this, to show he can adapt to coaching a team that he might not always share a wavelength with.
Painter is right when he says that this is his fault.
But while he said it, there were 10 or so people in that locker room who can't be totally absolved either.
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2014. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited. E-mail GoldandBlack.com/Boilers, Inc.
