Purdue coach Matt Painter’s first instinct was to not say much about the IU basketball program and the attractiveness of their open head coaching position when asked on Sunday.
It seemed all he really wanted to do was show his respect for Mike Woodson as a colleague, and a basketball player he admired as a young boy growing up in Indiana.
“I don’t really have a thought on the (Indiana) job,” Painter said following his team’s 73-58 loss in Bloomington.
“Obviously we compete against them and they’re our rivals. (Mike Woodson) is a peer of mine. Even though you compete and want to beat somebody, you want to see other people be successful and keep their job. Just like any of you guys would think the same thing about the people sitting to your left and right.”
But Painter pivoted.
Perhaps subconsciously he sensed the mood of his own fan base with his team on a four-game losing streak?
“It’s like anything, you’ve got to get a good person, you’ve got to get a good coach, you’ve got to get a guy to understand it. They’ve (Indiana) had a lot of turnover. I think you kind of look at some of the common denominators here, more than anything. I think that’s an important piece right here: Don’t beat yourself.”
What does don’t beat yourself mean?
Painter suggested fans riding the roller coaster of emotions — getting too high when things are good, too low when things are bad — is not helpful.
In other words, let things play out. Play the long game.
But social media has provided a forum for everyone to share their views with the world in real time. And make every development a referendum on the program.
“Let’s support somebody,” Painter said. “Try that out for once every now and then. Like, when shit goes wrong — you think Purdue fans are happy about what just happened (loss at Indiana)?
“See, a fan base isn’t the people that tweet. A fan base is — the people when you’re bleeding, they support you. They jump on and off things here (at Indiana) way too much. Support your coach, man, support your players. Don’t tweet negative things about them. Like, be supportive. See how that works for you.
“But they build them up, they overdo things. Quit overdoing shit. Just accurately talk about what’s actually happened. Don’t get recruits and be like, ‘It’s Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.’ Then they come out here, well, they’re not Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, they’re good college players. They build it up and are like, ‘What’s wrong?’ They’re part of it.
“It’s not their total fan base. Everyone out there has a bad percentage of their fan base now because of Twitter, and then we think that’s their fan base. It’s not our real fan base, it’s not their real fan base, either. I think that’s an important piece.”
While the negativity on social media isn’t a major part of the overall fan base, Painter believes the critical noise that gets back to the players does have an impact.
“It’s hard for young people to hear all that and then collectively go out and play. Like, ‘hey man, we’re playing for you, but you dog us when we lose and we’re the best when we win.’ We’re somewhere in between, right? I think they need to learn from some of those things and support (athletic director) Scott Dolson and support the new coach and support the staff. And also kind of be grounded with everything.
“I think they’ll (Indiana) be able to have success. It’s just a different world now. We have 18 teams, we’re going into name, image and likeness and some changes are going to be made here in April. It’ll be real interesting to see the landscape for everybody.”
I asked Matt Painter for his thoughts on the #iubb job and its place in the college basketball landscape, and he gave a whale of an answer: pic.twitter.com/ltHqR2KUil
— Seth Tow (@SethTow) February 23, 2025
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