GLENDALE, Ariz. — The magazines. Bring up Matt Painter to former Purdue teammates, and everyone usually starts with the magazines. “The Hoop Scoop,” “Street and Smith’s Official Yearbook.” Whatever he could get his hands on.
Tony Jones remembers the first time he saw Painter with one. It was 1989. Jones was a senior with the Boilermakers and Painter was a freshman. Jones walked through the basketball facility and passed assistant coach Bruce Weber’s office.
There Painter sat with his nose in a basketball magazine. And just in that moment, the thought flashed through Jones’ mind. “This kid’s going to be a head coach someday.”
Thirty-five years later, as Painter and Purdue prepare for their first Final Four since 1980, it’s necessary to question Jones. After all, didn’t everyone look at preview magazines back then?
An airline pilot, Jones, a former point guard and coach himself, tried again.
“Here’s the comparison,” he said. “I was a point guard. And in my view, point guards always make better coaches. We have to know the whole system. We have to know where everybody is. Our brain is kind of like a thunderstorm with everything going on. A forward or center, it’s like a clear sky in their heads every time down the floor.
“But the difference between him and I, I would read those magazines, but when Matt read them, it was like he was studying them. When I walked by, he didn’t even look up. He was a basketball junkie. I loved the game, but I don’t think I was a junkie.”
Apparently, there are different levels of basketball junkie. Painter was at the highest. He didn’t just know the starting five for every Big Ten school. He had a good grasp of nearly every Division I roster across the country.
“He could tell you the starting lineups for Slippery Rock vs. Colgate,” former teammate Ryan Berning said. “Most people didn’t even know they were schools.”
“Thank goodness they didn’t have the metrics and the film (like they do today) because if they did, he would’ve been taking over the film guys’ job,” former Purdue big man Steve Scheffler said.
This was back before the internet, back before every recruit had a profile page and social-media following. Basketball coaches often used “The Hoop Scoop” as a resource. Weber says half-jokingly that coach Gene Keady would ask him which players the Purdue staff should target, and Weber would have to tell his boss:
“Well, Matt has my magazine, so I don’t know, Coach.”
But Painter’s obsession went beyond print.
At the end of his first semester, the Purdue guard asked team manager Barry Stone to room with him in Owen Hall. Stone agreed, but was surprised to learn Painter didn’t have much in his dorm room. Just a bed, dresser and this enormous television, one of those older models that was nearly impossible to move. It had one purpose.
Once they left practice, many Purdue players wanted to get away from basketball. To detox. Painter embraced it even more. Later in his time at Purdue, he shared an apartment with Stone and Purdue big man Craig Riley. An engineering student, Riley spent most of his time studying. Painter stayed up late watching basketball.
“If there was a ball bouncing somewhere, he wanted to watch it,” Riley said.
“For some people, they need white noise for sleep or an ocean or whatever,” Stone said. “Matt needed a basketball bouncing. That was his comfort. That was his peace. That’s what he did all the time.”
Matt Painter learned the job under legendary Purdue coach Gene Keady, first as a player, then as Keady’s assistant before taking over the head job in 2005. (AJ Mast / AP)
It’s known in Purdue circles but maybe not elsewhere. Painter grew up dreaming of playing for Bob Knight and the rival Indiana Hoosiers. He participated in Knight’s camp. And he was an AAU teammate of Knight’s son, Pat.
In fact, Painter often spent the night with Pat Knight during the summer. Bob and Nancy Knight were then divorced, and as far as Pat Knight was concerned, his mom’s house was the place to be. Several AAU teammates stayed over. They would play basketball at IU’s Assembly Hall or at an outdoor court on the Bloomington campus, then just hang out.
“Now if my parents had still been married — no, I don’t think I’d be having all my buddies staying over at the house, because my dad would have had my ass in the gym,” Pat Knight said. “That was probably the only positive of (my) parents getting divorced. I got to have everybody out to the house, and it just wasn’t one night. I mean, Matt would be there for like several days.”
Painter played at Delta High School in Muncie, Ind., a guard who grew two inches every year from his freshman to senior season. Normally, a 6-foot-6 player at an Indiana school would set up in the post, but Painter never lost his guard skills. Plus, he was a strong shooter, and the Indiana High School Athletic Association had added a 3-point line before Painter’s junior season. He would average nearly 29 points as a senior.
Indiana was interested in Painter, but the Hoosiers’ recruiting class already was stocked with Calbert Cheaney, Greg Graham, Pat Graham and Todd Leary, players of similar size and position. Bob Knight never offered Painter a scholarship.
Matt Painter once had visions of playing for Bob Knight at Indiana. The impact of his decision to sign with Purdue more than 30 years ago has culminated with this Final Four run. (Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
Ball State saw an opportunity.
Located in Painter’s hometown, the Cardinals were a sentimental favorite. Plus, they had a likable coach in Rick Majerus. To this day, former Ball State assistant Dick Hunsaker loves to tell the story of Ball State’s visit to Purdue in 1987. Keady’s team was loaded, No. 13 in the country, and the Boilermakers led by 45 late in the second half.
Majerus called timeout with 90 seconds left and talked to his team like a conference title was on the line. Upon breaking the huddle, Majerus barked with all seriousness: “Now let’s go out there and cut that thing to 40!” They lost by 49.
The Ball State coaches knew Painter could help.
“We absolutely thought we had a shot,” Hunsaker said. “We were just coming in (as a staff). We certainly envisioned great things for the Ball State Cardinals and thought Matt would be a hometown hero.”
Alas, Painter didn’t want to stay so close to home. He narrowed his choices to Purdue, Michigan State and Minnesota. Keady thought Painter was among the better passers he’d seen, a key for a coach who loved to feed the post. Assistant David Wood, however, couldn’t get over Painter’s touch. The Boilermakers two years earlier had lost guards Troy Lewis and Everette Stephens, the backbone of a 29-4 team. They needed shooters.
Wood recalled watching Painter at practice. Since Delta had a game the next day, the session was light. No scrimmaging. No hard drills. Just light shooting work. Even so, Painter did not miss a shot.
“It wasn’t like he took 18 shots in a minute and hit every one,” Wood said. “But when he took his turn, he didn’t miss that entire day. I don’t know of anybody who’s ever done that.”
Painter signed with the Boilermakers, a decision that would impact the program for the next 30 years.
On Thursday at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., The Athletic asked current Purdue players a simple question: What do you know about Coach Painter’s playing days?
Guard Braden Smith: “Not a whole lot. He tells little stories here and there.”
Guard Fletcher Loyer: “He always talks down about his game, acts like he wasn’t very good.”
Guard Myles Colvin: “I’d love to actually watch him play, his film and all that, but I haven’t gotten a chance. I’ve seen one or two clips but not much.”
“He always talks down about his game, acts like he wasn’t very good,” current Purdue guard Fletcher Loyer (right) says of Matt Painter’s tales of his playing days. (Darryl Oumi / Getty Images)
Actually, it took Painter time to find his place in college. He didn’t start as a freshman and was only a part-time starter as a sophomore. He struggled as a junior and, entering his senior season, the preseason magazines Painter loved so much barely mentioned his name. He used it as motivation, and as a team captain, had a strong senior season.
By then, Painter’s future was clear. Former guard Woody Austin said he knew it from the first time he met him — Painter would one day coach. Former teammate Brandon Brantley, an assistant coach on Painter’s Purdue staff, recalled that during timeouts Painter often would huddle with coaches before sitting with teammates. Former guard Travis Trice recalled Painter, even when he wasn’t playing much, sharing tips on how the opponent’s big men hedged to cut off penetration.
“You could always see it,” former Purdue teammate Linc Darner said. “Just because he understood everything. He could tell everybody where to be on a play. Back then, we ran a lot of plays, and it was easy for (Painter) to play the point, play the 2, play the 3. He could even play the 4 or 5, just to run plays because he knew them all.”
“We’ve had a lot of guys through the years go into coaching and people always ask: How do you know?” said Weber, the former assistant coach. “You can usually (tell) the guys that have interest. It’s just Matt took it a whole other step.”
GO DEEPER
Riding high with Purdue after a cathartic win 44 years in the making
(Top photo of Matt Painter at Thursday’s media day for the Final Four: Jack Dempsey / NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
