For the first time since 2022, Michigan State basketball beat Purdue and head coach Matt Painter on Tuesday night. It was a very important win for the Spartans, and a tough loss for the Boilermakers, who have now lost three straight games heading into the final slate of the season.
After the game, Purdue head coach Matt Painter spoke to the media about the game, along with some more comments on Tom Izzo breaking Bobby Knight’s Big Ten wins record.
On MSU’s aggressive defense on Braden Smith
‘You know, that’s exactly what he has to do is get the ball out of his hands. At times people do that, at times they don’t. And we just have to do a better job of, when they get aggressive, not over-dribbling. But you have to give them credit. I thought their bigs… It takes some work… We’ll keep re-screening it, doing it multiple times to try and drag those bigs out… I thought they were active. He’s always got good role definition with his bigs. They’re physical, they rebound, he runs them in and out in there and keeps them fresh.’
On Coen Carr’s first half alley oop dunk
‘Yeah that was a big game-changer… We’re up 26-20, if we’re talking about the same dunk. I mean, when he dunks four times, it’s hard to know which dunk… We had a little bit of a lead, and you want to go into the halftime with some momentum, and then you want to start the second half and play well… They took control of the game right then and there.’
On Tom Izzo breaking Bob Knight’s record
‘I compared it to Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hit streak, and obviously it still stands, right. For me, it’s a lot different. You know, he recruited me. I’m 54, that means he’s old, when he was an assistant here, so I’ve known him for a really hard time. He’s done it the right way. It’s hard man. Like, battling everyone else in competition but battling your own people. I think people don’t understand that the people that support you, you battle also, because when you raise your expectations and you go to eight Final Fours and ten Big Ten Championships, people expect that. When you’re a coach, what people expect from you is your best year. So as a coach, if he doesn’t win the Big Ten he’s [expletive]. If you can’t handle that, you shouldn’t coach… But he’s been able to take that and change a lot of people’s lives and help people through opportunities… He has discipline, and he’s on people, but he cares about them. And that’s something we always talk about, that we don’t yell at people we don’t care about.’
On this year’s MSU team
‘Well I don’t think it has star-power… That’s a compliment. Everyone wants to play shortstop and leadoff. You know, Akins is their leading scorer, but Jase Richardson probably has the biggest upside? He does have the biggest upside. They have good players. Like Fears, what he came back from, the toughness, I actually recruited his dad. They have really good pieces, they have a good team, it fits together. Sometimes they’ve had more talent, and their record’s been worse. Sometimes they’ve had more talent, their record’s been great. I think that’s the key, you can see they are playing for each other, they are sacrificing for each other.’
Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan state news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Andrew Brewster on Twitter @IAmBrewster.
This article originally appeared on Spartans Wire: Matt Painter comments on Michigan State basketball’s win over Purdue
