And at some point the way a team reacts to another team (the PRESS) needs to reflect on the coaching staff....Clearly all season we had issues with the press....Why not play 5 on 7 during practice ? Or figure out some way to get around another team pressing us?.....Painter does not adjust....He wants to play man to man ....When we clearly have guys who can not guard....We have a huge size advantage yet there really does not seem to be any plays to take advantage of that
How exactly is this Painter's fault.
- Thread starter TJBoiler
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They choked last year and they choked this year. Has nothing to do win seeding. It has to do with thinking the game is over when it isn't.
I'm not being hypocritical here because I said it clear as day prior to the game starting. The first half was everything. AJ was nonexistent. He wasn't getting down the court hard (how about Haas booking it? PS). He was hanging out on the perimeter cause he didn't want to battle inside. And guess what - we hardly got any offensive rebounds, wonder why. LR actually had more offensive rebounds than we did.
The longer you let a team hang around, the more problems it's going to cause. I'm not saying AJ is the 1 person I'd blame. I'm very disappointed in him as a senior because I would think he'd at least show up to play. Davis looked scared out there too.
If AJ showed up to play, we wouldn't have lost. You want to say the same about another player? I don't know if it's true. Vince was sloppy with the ball today, but he also saved our ass for half the game.
We had a double digit lead with 3 minutes to go!! What happened in the 1st half is immaterial. That game was in the bag and we let it get away including a terrible decision not to foul on the last possession of regulation.
Of course we would all have liked to seen us pull away in the 1st half and bury them. But we had the game in hand with 3 minutes to play. I think there is plenty of blame to go around and IMHO AJ isn't where I'm going to start.
Amazing how AJ is the goat with some folks when Painter basically made it a four on five game; Davis is SO absolutely full of nothingness on the offense end that LR felt no need to even guard him and doubled and tripled down on Hammons knowing the chances of anyone not needed Mathais knocking down a three were suspect at best.
Are you serious? If losing after you're up 8 with less than a minute to play isn't choking them I'm not sure what is. Some first year clown just punked painter plain and simple. That guy was acting like an idiot the whole game and painter couldn't even beat him. 2 years, 2 epic chokes.
So is this a Purdue thing? You see this happen a lot and you'll see it a lot more this tournament. I don't think when Cline is at the free throw line, he's thinking "well this game is over, so I'll just make one".
Is this a coach's fault if it happens a few times? Is it a coach's fault that they also get up by a good number that you view the game as "won"? The frustrating part to me is you didn't see 2 four year players step up at the end. I appreciate what these guys have done, but you see seniors shooting free throws at the end of games - not true freshman. You see seniors making clutch baskets - or clutch rebounds - that didn't happen.
I mean I feel bad for AJ and Raphael, and this will be with them forever. But I will say I like the confidence of guys like Vince, Haas, Cline, etc. - a helluva lot more than I see in our seniors. A guy like Raphael is an amazing leader of a team as a whole, but he's not a clutch guy. That's not a knock on him, but it's just sad to see him go out like this.
There is no such thing in college basketball as "having the game in hand" when you're up by 10 with 3+ minutes left with a 30 second shot clock. It just doesn't work that way anymore.
And the point of the first half is that the longer you let a team stick around, the more confident they become. A 10 point lead with 3 minutes left is not terribly intimidating when you're playing with nothing to lose. We should have had a 10 point lead at halftime. And built on the 10 point lead the second half. That's the freaking point.
That's cherry picking. I'm talking about the end of regulation. Purdue took its foot off the gas last year when Cincinnati was desperate and lost. They took their foot off the gas this year when UALR was desperate and lost. That is on the head coach for not getting them into the mindset of running the offense. They pretty clearly started dribbling the clock out after the under four timeout, and the turnovers mounted when to that point they'd been pretty good. Missed FTs are going to happen, but you shouldn't be in that situation in the first damn place.
So, yes, it is ABSOLUTELY the coach's fault that they view the game as "won."
Two things..
1. I am not pinning this on AJ only. I was disappointed in these 2 seniors not stepping up at the end. Raphael looked scared out there.
2. AJ's game is not just about shooting. It's FINE if he's being doubled and our guys take a 3. The problem is AJ didn't want to battle with their guys, so he hung way outside of the paint for a lot of the game. Swanigan wasn't as bad with it, but certainly wasn't good. What happens when someone takes a shot? AJ isn't there. Little Rock had more offensive rebounds than we did! That's what killed us. That's not JUST an AJ thing - but he was a major culprit of it being a problem. And not something you want to see from a senior, that's the most frustrating part.
You can't accuse me of cherrypicking when it happens regularly in college basketball.
There are a lot of "you shouldn't be in that situation in the first damn place" that have nothing to do with what you're complaining about. I'm pissed at our first half. And it led to LR having plenty of confidence. I'm pissed that our seniors were MIA down the stretch. Don't think Painter was like "now whatever you do don't let AJ and Raphael have the ball"....Raphael looked dazed out there.
Overall, the NCAA Tournament is basically a massively frustrating thing for 80% of the teams that play in it each year. Very few people end their season and say "wow that was great". But to start things like oh it's a trend we can't win close games - well we also win a lot of them. That's cherrypicking.
My entire issue is that Painter himself went down in regulation with bullets in the holster. You see plenty of coaches call timeouts in between free throws to go over "what if" with their team. There's really no excuse for Painter not calling a timeout after the game-tying three with six seconds left. He can still do that as it's not a live ball situation. Once the ball is inbounded, he can't. But after a make, he absolutely can.
His players didn't know what to do in the final 15 seconds, and he went down with two timeouts.
The other frustrating part is that the same thing happened last year as in this game: Purdue quit with a big lead in an amount of time where they shouldn't have blown it. Painter should've been showing them the UC tape and saying THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS so they knew to keep the pedal down. Part of that is also on the captains, which I don't think are particularly strong - they've not been part of a winning culture at Purdue before now. I think the sophomores will help with that in the future, but it's disappointing today.
But in the end, Painter himself blew this game with poor coaching. No, it's possible it would not have made a difference in the outcome, but the fact that he didn't even expend everything to win in regulation is inexcusable for a 15-year college head coach.
Kansas? Really? Yeah, that's not in the same ball park here. Kansas was one of the best teams in the country and Superman Hummel was the only reason we were in that game in the first place.
How tragic to watch both the team and the coach panic at the same time.Someone has to be a calming influence at a time like that.Obviously Painter has fail
we never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever figured out how to assertively beat a press. Never ever ever ever ever ever. Next question? This isn't complicated
I watched Painter and the team panic at the same time.The coach is supposed to be the calming influence.That's his biggest weakness and that's why he never will be a great coach.
Breaking the press isn't just a this year problem we lost the Kansas game Hummel's senior year due to it also.
You've spent this entire season dogging AJ. What will you do next year? In not saying AJ was perfect, but it's amazing how often you complain about AJ's "inconsistencies". I know we've argued a lot, but I've always thought you've been fact based in your arguments. But my complaints about KS after the Pitt game that you'd had a major issue with seem pretty lame now. You seriously need to find something new.
Amen.
AJ had 16 points, 15 rebounds, 6 blocks and 3 assists. Why the hell are you focusing on him as the problem. In this game he was the least of our problems. Find a different drum to beat.
How can you blame AJ due to his heart and then immediately mention that is someone had hit a free throw we win? You can't blame AJ on that loss. He played hard. He was being tripple teamed underneath and Painter had him moving with the motion sets to allow for drives.
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