Warning: Long post/rant.
In general, it seems to me that our guards (outside of Carsen and Cline) are consistently ending the season playing with fear of failure (e.g. doing wrong) and concerned about 'playing correctly' rather than opportunistically, assertively and confidently taking the opportunities they do have on the court. It's like they are playing the game in their head against Painter instead of reacting to the actual team and game on the floor. They play with a 'safety' of just playing the right way and it will work out in the end. There has been a large enough data pool over the years that I'm convinced this is Painter's conditioning and coaching's affect on them. Any natural assertiveness, aggressiveness and opportunistic instinct in them has been conditioned out of them by season's end.
Carsen was just wired differently when he got here. He wouldn't let Paint affect his confidence and had such a high belief in himself and wouldn't let anything or anyone stop him from what he felt was his. Cline senior year benefitted from playing on a team with no low post scorer, so every shot from him was needed and he was an above average shooter who could get hot. Both guys had games that had the fan base shaking their heads in frustration with shot selection. However, both guys needed the freedom to play that way during the regular season to make their tourney run and hot streak a possibility. Take away Carsen's all time tourney run and what does Painter's post season look like since Hummel went down? It is not good. It's not that we lose or didn't get to the Final Four, it's how we are outcoached, out-game planned against by a lesser talented team and we make little to no adjustments. That's what is so difficult to swallow. It's one thing to lose to Lehigh when they had CJ McCollum (bona fide NBA talent). You can accept those. We're losing to teams we should not be losing to.
Painter is without-a-doubt the easiest coach in America to game plan against for a mid-major coach. These mid-major coaches eyes light up with dollar signs when they play Purdue in the tourney. No wonder the FDU coach can call out Purdue so confidently in video before the game, calling his shot to win it and pulling it off, like Babe Ruth pointing to centerfield. Now he has a 5 year deal with Iona.
Look, I like Painter and Purdue has had a lot of success with him at the helm. I don't think he should be fired and, if for some reason he wasn't our coach, I don't think the next guy would have nearly as much regular season success. For the most part (90% of the time), he is a great Xs and Os coach. He has cracked the code to succeed in the B1G. However, he has a huge blind spot in terms of playing a mid-major whose coach game plans to overplay what we try to do. He sticks to his guns and has no counter and walks right into the quicksand time and time again. It is schematic. He needs someone in his inner circle to tell him the hard truth otherwise he'll just dig in his heels and nothing will change. It's a shame because he is a great coach and I honestly believe he'll have tourney success just getting past these mid-major upsets. I just hope he is open minded enough to self reflect and not stubbornly dig his heels in.
