A Lot of Milk

February 25th, 2024 at 5:25 PM ^

I don't envy their situation, they are stuck in basketball purgatory where they are a consistent top 5 team year in and year out but are one of the absolute worst tournament teams in a sport that is DEFINED by how you perform in the tournament. 

Painter is a good coach and developer but his system is so inflexible. When they get punched in the mouth or thrown off their rhythm, they're cooked. 90% of tournament success is dependent on your ability to adapt to a new situation. Take Beilein for example. In the 2013 tournament alone they faced: an offensive juggernaut team that tries to outscore you (South Dakota State), a VCU squad known for their press, a Kansas team with an elite front court and paired with excellent wings, uhhh Florida?, zoned defense Syracuse, and cheating ass Louisville. All 6 of those games were complete departures in style and system and Beilein navigated all of them BEAUTIFULLY. Got game-winning contributions from Burke, McGary, Stauskas, GRIII, THJ, and (almost) Albrecht.

Purdue doesn't know how to do that. They will throw Edey at you until it doesn't work, and if it doesn't work, they lose. Painter doesn't know how to adjust and that's been his downfall every tournament

Joined: 02/17/2013

MGoPoints: 48805

KBLOW

February 25th, 2024 at 5:20 PM ^

Counterpoint: Purdue didn't give a shit and only played with 80% effort because they knew if they needed to they could turn it on like they did at the end of the first half. Thus, while we didn't give up and gave good effort, it just looked a lot better than it really was vs a great team that played it easy once they got a lead of a few possessions. 

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 22692