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In a crazy new-school basketball world, Purdue coach Matt Painter is decidedly and intentionally old-school.
The locker room is not a blur of NIL-chasing transfer portal faces, hopscotching from one program to another. The Boilermakers have had just two in the last four seasons.
Painter believes that is the fewest or second fewest in the country during that stretch.
In an era when sneakers rarely stick, players come to the West Lafayette, Ind., campus and stay.
They learn to play together. They bond. They win.
“We’ve won four Big Ten titles the last eight years and been to the (NCAA) Tournament 15 of the last 17 years,” Painter told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “So we can say some things others can’t say.
“That stability is a big part of that.”
That metronome of roster consistency is what No. 13 Purdue brings to the Rady Children’s Invitational for an opening-round game Thursday against North Carolina State at UC San Diego’s LionTree Arena.
Some players search for fresh start after fresh start, less inclined to play through the tough, character-defining moments.
Some players are easily wowed by the next sales pitch.
Some players simply chase the money waiting at each new landing spot.
“Some other schools can’t control it as much,” Painter said. “Any time you change jobs, it’s almost a blank slate and you have to start over. You can’t just fish 10 people out of the portal and have 10 success stories.
“Fortunately, I’ve been somewhere 20 years and have players in this area. We’ve been a developmental school. We just haven’t changed.”
Painter said Purdue’s recruiting philosophy is not built around being starstruck and chasing the shiniest player. There’s a deeper peeling of the onion.
Fit is as meaningful or more than raw athleticism.
“There are times we don’t sign by other’s opinion a great recruiting class, but we think it’s great,” Painter said. “It’s how productive you can be in college, how you fit. More coaches take talent and try to figure it out.
“There are times we do that, but a lot of times we like somebody nobody else likes.”
The Boilermakers made the NCAA title game last season, losing to bulldozing repeat champion UConn. They lost two-time national player of the year Zach Edey to the NBA.
They came back with homegrown talent and not a single impact transfer to knock off then-No. 2 Alabama 87-78 earlier this month.
Trey Kaufman-Renn, a junior who previously redshirted behind Edey, developed and grew in the ways Painter described. He scored a game-high 26 points against the Crimson Tide.
Patience, rewarded.
“They’ve got enough talent to win it all,” Painter said. “(In today’s game) everybody wants to play right away. If you redshirt and wait a year, you’ve still got three or four years where you can be very productive.”
That stability Painter has fostered is rooted close to home.
Guards Fletcher Loyer and Braden Smith, both Indiana kids, join Kaufman-Renn as double-digit scorers. Loyer is a former Gatorade Player of the Year in the state, while Smith was named Mr. Basketball.
Forward Caleb Furst also was selected as a Mr. Basketball, giving Purdue the first set of consecutive winners of the award since Billy Keller and Rick Mount in the mid-1960s.
“The first few years, we weren’t signing Mr. Baskektballs from Indiana,” Painter said. “The stability has really helped us in our state.”
It has been a formula built around the big picture, long term.
And a bit of not-so-secret sauce.
“That’s the No. 1 question I get, ‘How do you retain guys?’ ” Painter said. “The answer is simple, they have to want to come there for more than just one reason. If it’s just basketball, you can’t keep 13 guys happy.
“We go above and beyond in being truthful with them and not painting a picture that’s not accurate. If you recruit to recruit, you can talk yourself into a corner.
“You may not get as many players as you’d like, but you get the right ones.”
Painter makes it sound simple. In today’s game, it’s anything but.
In late June, ESPN cited EvanMiya.com to report that Louisville, USC and DePaul each signed at least 11 transfers and 16 programs saw 10 players enter the portal.
Staggering stuff.
Except, it seems, in West Lafayette.
“What happens in recruiting a lot, players sometimes get lost in their own world,” Painter said. “It’s not who can help you get better. Guys going into the portal are not going there to win, they’re going there a lot of times to play more and shoot more and have a more prominent role.
“They played for two high schools, played for three AAU teams, played for three colleges. They’re good at change. The money piece is big, too.
“If you’re only searching for individual happiness in a team sport, man, that’s tough.”
Old-school.
Rady Children’s Invitational
Thursday (FS1)
Noon: No. 13 Purdue vs. N.C. State
2:30: BYU vs. No. 23 Ole Miss
Friday (Fox)
12:30 p.m.: Third-place game
3 p.m.: Championship game
Originally Published:
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