Painter Preaches Effort

There’s an old adage that says: defense wins championships. I’ve fought it all my life and when I’m dropping money in Vegas, I always have to remind myself of the Rule #1. I think its human nature really—watching flashy high scoring teams packed with superstars is always fun. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older and now I appreciate hard work as much as talent, but seeing 5 guys on a basketball team play as one cohesive unit can be a beautiful thing to watch.

Watching Purdue drop the hammer on Michigan State last night got me thinking about how powerful a defensive team can look. Michigan State has been the best offensive team in the Big 10 all season, but you wouldn’t know it from last nights performance. Purdue’s suffocating defense forced the Spartans into a season high 22 turnovers, while holding them to a season-low 33% from the field. Mix in the 8 blocked shots the Boilermakers had and it was an old-fashioned beat-down.

Purdue’s performance on the defensive end on Tuesday showed the importance of a great head coach stalking the sidelines. Last season, Matt Painter was able to lead the Boilers to a 25-9 record on his way to winning Big 10 Coach of the Year. In only his 4th season in West Lafayette, Painter has the players that HE recruited buying into HIS style of play. Junior Chris Kramer already has one Big 10 Defensive Player of the Year award and this year it looks like he wants to keep the trophy on his mantle. But it’s not just the players that he recruits; it’s the effort that the entire team exerts when they’re trying to deny an opponent.

Here are a couple of guys that get it

This really shouldn’t surprise anyone in the upper-Midwest though. Before Painter signed on to be the heir apparent to Gene Keady, he made a name for himself in basketball circles at Southern Illinois. After being hired as an assistant for Bruce Weber (of Illinois fame), he took over the head coaching duties for the 2003-2004 season. One season, a 25-5 record and a conference championship later, he was hand-picked to replace the legendary Keady when he retired at Purdue. You won’t find a single superstar on that Salukis team that dominated the Missouri Valley Conference that year—just a hardworking team that played as a unit. If a coach can get his team to become greater as a whole than the sum of its parts, he is doing all you can ask of him. Painter has shown a knack for doing that with all of his players and all of his teams.

It will be interesting to see how the Boilermakers play down the stretch. Currently sitting on a 20-6 record, they have 5 games left on their schedule, which include a revenge game against Ohio State and a road game at Michigan State to finish the season. Painter is the kind of coach that will get his team to win the majority of the games they are supposed to win because the defensive intensity will not take nights off. It’s the games against the high-level opponents that will show if Purdue has turned the corner to join the nation’s elite. The best teams they had faced before Tuesday had been Oklahoma, Duke and Illinois twice. Say hello to 4 of their 6 losses.

If Tuesday is any indication, Purdue looks like they could make a strong push towards the Big 10 championship. Give a great coach some decent talent and it’s amazing what can happen. For those of you that like to watch a team sell out for the greater good of the team, then you might want to check out the Boilermakers this season. Whether they can make the jump to the next level this season or not, any failures won’t be due to a lack of effort. As a fan, that’s enough for me.

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