 Coach Painter, thank you so much for being here and taking the time to join us on This Is Purdue. I know there's a lot of buzz about this season. It's really exciting. One preseason pull had us ranked sixth. So what are you most excited about coming into this season? Yeah, well for a coach, it's a little different. You know, you're very process-based in terms of working every day, you know, trying to have those building blocks to lead up to obviously get ready for your first game. I think for us sometimes in coaching, even though you have experienced players, you have to relearn things, you know, just like life or watching a movie and say, hey, I've seen this movie, but man, I forget how it finishes. I mean, everybody's had that moment. Then once you do, you feel, you know, like a fool and say, you know, how do I forget that? But that happens in basketball a lot from one season to another. You know, you have to be able to build things through the summer and do your best that you can do. But it's not like practicing, you know, five days a week, you know, six days a week, whatever it might be with your fall and winter schedule. So for us, just trying to improve, try not to miss any steps and just simply get better, you know, every single day. I know that's kind of coach's talk and you're excited about the person. What you don't realize is it's all relatively speaking. Like there's a lot of change in college basketball with the one-time transfer. We were one of four high major teams that didn't take a transfer. We returned our eight leading scores, seven leading scores, something like that. Then we've added some really good freshmen. And so for us, that's an advantage when you compare to other people, but you're still sitting there struggling to kind of go through things. So just trying to kind of stay the course. And you know, it's nice to be ranked. It's nice to be preseason ranked, but you also want to be there at the end of the year, not the beginning of the year. Right. And then do you guys feel extra pressure, you know, coming into the season? I don't. I mean, I think each guy is a little bit different, probably in that regard, but I think for the most part, you don't. Like you just, you dive into the season, you dive into doing your job and working. You know, it's hard enough the way it is. You know, guys are going to school, obviously practicing. The thing that you can't let happen is that, you know, social media and sometimes the attention can be a real positive, but then sometimes it can be a negative. It's how you take in the attention or the intel. And so you have to communicate some of those things. You know, you're not going to take, you know, criticism from somebody you don't take advice from. And so that's a good way of just kind of gauging where you are and gauging what's going on. But they do, they read a lot and take that in. And I think that mounts a little bit of pressure with guys. So you just have to help them and how they decipher everything. How do you think it'll feel for the team and for you to be back in Mackie and in a packed stating? I think it'll be great. You know, a lot of our guys, you know, our freshmen, you know, I've never been through that, you know, but our sophomores haven't been through that too. We have two redshirt sophomores right now. And they were here their first year when there was fans, but they both redshirted. And so we have a lot of guys that haven't been through. You know, Isaiah Thompson has been through it. Our seniors have been through it. And that's it. And, you know, I think it's going to be a real electric for everybody. And I think we've seen that, you know, with our first home football game. You know, everybody was excited about it. Everybody's excited to get back in the stands. Obviously, they played well and they won the game. And that was great. But I think you're going to see that, you know, across our campus with a lot of sporting events. And, you know, Mackie is always discussed as somewhere that's extremely hard to play at. And teams don't want to come here. Why do you think the Boilermakers spirit thrives so much in here? Why I think first of all, we have good players. I think sometimes that gets lost. You know, we're we're in basketball country here in the state of Indiana. But through the years, you know, traditionally, we've had really good players. And our fans, you know, are fabulous. Our fans are, in my opinion, educated fans. Obviously, they're going to yell when they're upset and things are going to happen. But for the most part, you know, we're very spoiled here because we have we have great student body, we have great fans. But more than anything, we have we have pretty good players. And I think I think that's the key. And speaking of good players and, you know, getting good players, how do you like what's your recruitment strategy? Like how do you get the right fits for this Purdue culture? Yeah, well, it's an inexact science, you know, sometimes like you when you just when you think you've got things figured out, you don't. So you have to always be working. Your puzzle is never complete. No matter what is going on, how successful, how much failure you have, your puzzle is never complete. You there's things that are always changing, you know, in coaching like who your team is on Tuesday isn't who your team is on Wednesday. I know for somebody who's not in coaching, they don't realize that there's just a lot of variables and a lot of moving parts, you know, with your team. But, you know, just trying to get a, you know, a good player, a good student, a good person. And people would like think, well, man, that's that's profound. That's obvious. But that's hard to do, especially when you're trying to get, you know, something of size, you know, an elite player and things of that nature. We've really been a program of development. So seeing guys that, you know, where are they going to be in three to four years? You know, they're, they're upside. Do they want to be at Purdue? Where do they fit in at Purdue? You know, on campus, schematically in basketball. So there's a lot of things that go into it. The other thing is when you've done it a while, you have your history of success, but you also have your history of failures. And it doesn't mean something is wrong. It just didn't work with you before. And so sometimes you beat your head and like, ah, we can make this work with the next guy who's very similar. Then if that does work, it kind of gets you to change a little bit. And so why was this different? And how did it work? So you're always thinking through those things of, you know, what works for you, what works at Purdue. And then you just try to make the most things. What happens for us is when we get stuck and coaches understand this is that we're not drafting players. You know, we're recruiting players. And so we're trying to get them to come. You got to do a good job of evaluating, but you also have to have plan B, C, and D if you don't get who you want. And that's, that's sometimes the sticky point, because like if you just don't have any big guys on your roster, you know, that would obviously be foolish. And there's not as many big guys out there as there is quality guards. So those things are so important when you're trying to feel the team and figure things out is, you know, what is your emergency evacuation plan when you don't get who you want? And, you know, in 2020, Mackie was empty. Like I said, it was a rough year for everyone. How do you think, you know, do you think the players learned any important lessons? And like now they're ready to come back with a bang? Yeah, that's a good question. You know, you have to bring your own energy, whether you have fans or not. But when you're in Mackie Arena, you know, the fans kind of do that for you. So that was really our two cents to our players, you know, in our prep was just, hey, we have to bring energy, our bench has to bring energy, people on the floor have to bring energy, the coaches have to bring energy. And sometimes that's done that job is done for you when you're in an environment like Mackie Arena. So that was really our message of just sticking together, helping each other out, but being positive and bringing that energy. And I know all the latest buzz is about the name image like this. Do you think that'll impact college basketball, this program overall? I think college basketball, it'll impact. I think there's going to be some real positives from it. And I think there'll be some unintended consequences from it. There'll be some negatives. But like anything, you just have to be able to manage something and do what's right for your players and do what's right for your program. I don't think anybody is going to like sit down and say, okay, education is really important to me. Being around good people is really important to me. Fitting in a basketball program is really important to me. Now name image and likeness is more important than those three things I just said. Doesn't mean it's not important. It just can't leapfrog the things that's going to be with you. I always talk about our guys and say, hey, you're going to be a former player for 40, 50, 60 years. Like keep it in perspective. Like, you know, the basis of what you're doing and the decisions that you're making has to have substance. And, you know, choosing a school for academics, choosing a school for the people, choosing a school for the track record of the basketball program, you know, I think are the pillars when it comes to decision making. But sometimes that gets lost with some people, you know, you get some emotional decision makers in there, then they look back and then all of a sudden, you know, they're transferring really quick or they're not happy and things like that happen. So, you know, you have to be concrete and thought when you're going through this things, but I do, you know, think that name, image and likeness has a positive spin to it where guys can make some money. Guys can do some things. Our guys have done workouts with kids. They've done camps with kids. And so that's really where we've been so far with our guys. Obviously, we can't direct our guys in anything right there. And I think that's kind of the push to coaches out there is like, you know, hey, make sure you stay within the parameters of what this rule was intended to do and not use it, you know, and abuse the rule. So I think that piece is, you know, kind of on the shoulders of the coaches to make sure they follow those rules and do what's best for college basketball. That's great to hear that the players are interacting with the community as part of all of that. Right. And why does this program push so hard? You know, you train these really great men on the court, but also off the court, right? So how do you bring that community involvement to the players? Just having a balance. You know, they appreciate the support that they get. I think the thing that I've always preached to them is I, you know, use myself as an example is like, you know, if they fire me tomorrow, we're still going to have the season and keep things in perspective that we're lucky to be at Purdue and Purdue is not lucky to have us. And if you can just keep that because it's hard, you know, you get ranked, people talk about you on social media, you know, you're, you know, you're an all-star in high school. And so many of these things, you know, get built up. And then when you get here, it's like, you know, you're just, you're a part of it. You could be a big part of it right away. It might take you a little bit of time to be that piece of it. But you have to be grateful for the opportunity. And Purdue will work for you, just like any great academic institution, you know, they will work for you. Purdue has a, it's an unbelievable brand. And I think having that brand and having that blue collar, hard nose, great education, great people, you know, that's what we want to keep getting guys that are looking in that direction. I think once you get guys that kind of understand that, they start, you know, using this opportunity to have a great life. You know, it's just, if you're just going to have a great basketball career, and that's all you're going to have, then you've been shortchanged, but you've allowed yourself to be shortchanged. So we keep sending that message that, you know, this is a life decision. This opportunity to be on scholarship and be at Purdue and have all these things is great. But, you know, now going forward, you should use this as a springboard, not just to have a great basketball career, but have a great life. And you touched on social media. Do you think the way that social media has exploded, you know, even 10 years ago versus five years ago, it's totally different? How do you think that impacts, you know, recruitment and getting guys here and like their attitudes? Well, I think I'm very fortunate because I've been able to stay at Purdue for a long time. So you see the benefits of the consistency, where when you see change a lot at other places in college basketball, it's hard. It's hard to pick up the pieces and change all the time every four, five, six, seven years. And it just when you can have some consistency, that really helps everybody. It helps everybody in your program. It helps your recruits that are coming in, you know, looking at things and saying, Hey, they're guys are getting better, their guys are graduating. I want to be in that position here in four or five years. So I think that's really helped us. Emotional people are going to look at things differently than people are looking at the values of a program and things of that nature. So you get a couple different thinkers when you go through the process, you got to get that figured out and say like, who is really best here and who's going to flourish in your program. And sometimes we get blinded as coaches by maybe like the talent level and a certain spot. And now they're not a great fit. But man, they give us some length or they give us some quickness, but they're not. So sometimes in coaches, as coaches, we make those, you know, type of mistakes. And so when you get into social media, don't recruit through social media, don't recruit through somebody else's opinion, you know, form your own opinion, understand what's going on and do your due diligence and with their background to make sure they fit at your place. Right. And like only you know if they would fit in the new culture. And you got to be able to handle it. Like you got to be able as a coach, like when something is obvious to everybody else and you know it's not going to work, you know, you got to be able to take that. And just like losing, like you got to, you got to allow your losses to form who you are, you know, as a program, as a coach, as players, and then build use those losses as positives or the same kind of goes, you know, you know, with that area also, it's like be able to understand just because everybody is saying something or everybody is trending a certain way or somebody has ranked high. There's guys that are ranked in the top 100 that are in the 30s, you know, that I wouldn't take over somebody who's at like 110. And so, but that's their plan for us at Purdue. It's different. Like you know what works in your program. And speaking of change in college basketball coaches, I read that you wanted to play for IU when you were growing up. Yeah. Oh, what's that about? Our whole family, most of our family, I should say went to IU. So we grew up Indiana fans. Okay. Yes. So what brought you to Purdue? Coach Katie, you know, the opportunity. It was a blessing in disguise for me. You know, they wanted Indiana wanted me to go one more year and go to prep school for a year and then come there. And I just, and they had some really good players at the time in my class the time before that. And so then just I liked coach Katie and he was very honest in the recruiting. And so I was just something that kind of opened my eyes. I was emotional like we're talking about and I was not going to allow, you know, Purdue to recruit me just because, you know, I had just grown up an Indiana fan and then started to kind of think about it. And Purdue got in there, you know, my parents really talked about how it was a business decision and it's a people business and, you know, give them a chance. And if you don't like them, then so be it. And then right as they started recruiting, I liked everything about them. And it was great. It was a good decision on my part. I probably wouldn't have made it without my parents guidance of helping me do that. So that was, I feel at that point, like not everybody has that next to them. You know, some people will have that will they'll sit down and be devil's advocate and do what's best for them. Sometimes it kind of goes the other way where, you know, they're making a decision like they're, they're the recruit, they're not the recruit. So I think people that are close to recruits, they know their happiness. And it's so important that you go somewhere that you're going to be happy and you can sustain, you know, and stay for your entire career. So you had that one track, like I'm going to IU and that's that. Sure. Sure. And then your, your parents who are IU fans talked you into this. Yeah. My dad went to school there. My uncle, my grandfather, my brother, my cousin. So you can kind of paint the picture. What were family dinners like? Oh, they're fine. They're fine. They were, everybody was great about it. And so, but they got a chance to meet, you know, the people at Purdue, they got a chance to meet Coach Katie. And so everybody, you know, really liked, you know, Coach Katie. So that was, it was simple. They were fine with it. And you and Coach Katie have such a unique relationship. There's been two coaches at Purdue in 42 years. Correct. Tell us about your relationship and, and how he's still involved at Purdue and how, you know, he's impacted you. Yeah. Well, he's, you know, been able to, to travel with us at times. Obviously he lives in Myrtle Beach now, so he's not around all the time when he comes in for kind of a period of time trying to, you know, to see two, three games. He likes coming to the practices. I think he probably misses that more than anything, but he follows a lot of, not just Purdue, but like his former assistants, his former players that are now in coaching. And so he's a huge basketball fan. But no, we stay in contact. We talk about things and, you know, he just, he wants to see Purdue do well. He gave 25 years, you know, of his life, you know, to Purdue University. So it's, you know, he means a lot to me. He means a lot, you know, to our other coaches and, and obviously our entire program and our fans, I think our fans get a kick out of it. Obviously when he comes back and he's still competitive, when he's in the stands and in cheering us on. But, you know, one of the nicest guys you'll meet, you know, you see him on the sidelines and, you know, he has a scow and he's competitive. And that's not who he is as a person. So he's always there for people and just wants to see Purdue do well. What was it like playing for him? Do you have any stories? Oh, it's fun. Yeah. It's, you know, he was, he was demanding. He was really demanding after, after losses. But he was, in my opinion, he was easy to play for. He was simple, you know, you know, you just, he expected you, you know, to give your best. He expected you to compete. And if you didn't, you know, he was, he was on you, you know. But no, it was, it was a great experience. And something that I, you know, I didn't look back. And, you know, the thing that they've been able to do for me, you know, Tom Ryder and Bruce Weber and, you know, all the coaches, not just Coach Katie, but like after I was done, I went into coaching and those guys, you know, hired me and helped me and helped me get other jobs, helped me get this job. And so, like, that's kind of the thing that we have. I think that, you know, we're not going to be there for you for four years of your career. You know, we're going to have you, you know, you're going to have us, you know, afterwards. And then they've always been there for me. And I've always appreciated that. And there's nothing I can really do to repay them. So you've got to, you know, kind of pay it forward and help the next guy out who comes through this program. That's so funny. I interviewed the Anthrop family. Yes. And Drew said almost the exact same quote as you about just like how you helped him and the assistant coaches helped him. You brainwashed him well, huh? Yeah. And then now he's in that, you know, working for the Lakers. So that's, that's really interesting. Do you have any favorite stories or something maybe behind the scenes with Coach Katie? No, you know, he had an uncanny ability to be able to yell at somebody and tell them they were okay in the same sentence. I don't, either I'm like excited and supportive or I'm upset. Like, I mean, I'm not in the gray area. I'm in one of the other. And so he just had like, it was a way to, like, whenever something happened, he was, he was great at being able to fix it and make you feel good about it all in the kind of same breath. And it was like, it's, it's, it's obviously an art. It's a talent. It is a talent. I was like, I'm still amazed by how it was. We, we'd leave the locker room or wherever we were meeting or talking about it. Like, I guess we're okay. Like, we're fine now, right? And, but no, he, you know, was always eventful, you know, was always eventful. He was, they seemed as a coaching staff, like they were prepared. And it's something that I've always taken with me of just kind of making your hard work fun. Like, this should be a, you know, it's, is it demanding? Yes. Is it tough? Yes. Do you have to sacrifice without question? Everybody has to sacrifice when you win. And the people around players have to sacrifice. That's sometimes a tough piece to be understood because they want to see their, you know, their son or daughter do really well in competitive sports. And so, you know, he was somebody that did that. He, you know, he made his, you know, we worked hard, but we tried our best to make it fun. I didn't think the conditioning was fun. I didn't think the lift or weights was fun, but the basketball piece was pretty demanding. But, you know, we, we really worked together and we're competitive together to have fun with it. Do you think, you know, from when you played here to now you're coaching here, like how has the program changed? Or do you think social media is really impacting the team? Or is it just at the end of the day is just basketball? I think it's kind of the blueprint that he let coach Katie left for here. We've used a lot of it from a program standpoint, from an academic standpoint, from understanding big picture things of holding guys accountable academically, socially, but also holding them accountable basketball wise, you know, play the game the right way, you know, play together. I think that's something our fans, you know, really appreciate. When it kind of gets to social media or whatever, you can't be an old curmudgeon in just like, say, I'm older and social media, I don't care about all that. No, that's, it's the way it is. You know, you have to adapt as you start to get older as a person. I think that's so important as a coach, as a players to be able to adapt, be able to use something in a positive fashion, but also understand nothing changes in terms of the pillars of success. You know, you still have to be on time places. You still have to try your best. You still have to be a good teammate like those things are always going to be there. You can't turn the ball over. You have to rebound. You know, you have to win that possession more in a game, especially if you have a little bit less talent. And those things don't change, you know, and that's something for your guys and like what leads to winning, what leads to success, what leads to us having, you know, kind of that good harmony within ourselves, you know, as a program, those things don't change. Now the information and how we get it changes. Everybody knows everything, but it's no different than, you know, 30 or 40 years ago when you told somebody growing up, don't you know, don't believe everything you read. You know, now you just read more and now you see more and you'll see it's like a highly recruited guy come in and like, you know, after three or four games, he's playing 14 minutes and he's averaging four points. Everybody's like, well, what's wrong? He's 18 or 19 and these guys are 21, 22. They're more experienced and it doesn't mean they're better, but they're just in a better position right now because of their experiences that they've already had that that person hasn't had in time. Obviously, he's a talent. He's going to grow into that when you don't know. I always say that about players like, hey, he's going to be a really good player. When he's going to be a player depends on all these other variables and so you try to do everything in your power as a coach to help that person be successful. How do you sense that that they're going to be a really good player? Just their abilities and their production. Like you get the contrast of talent versus production. If you just want to go get the most talented guys, you're going to find some guys in that talent pool that's productive, but sometimes you're going to find people that can jump over the moon, but they can't get a rebound. They're just very talented. They can do a lot of different things, but when you get into a game, are you doing productive things to help your team win? We get gauged on winning. You don't get gauged on rankings. You get gauged on how constructive are you working with four other people on the team to help your team win? Don't get lost in that, but also find the really talented people that are productive. That's the key. You've got to be able to see what they've done before in what fashion, in what environment. We get to watch guys in a lot of different environments. You get to see them play open gym in their high school. You get to see them practice at their high school. You get to see them play a high school game. You see them in an AAU game. You watch huddle or synergy on film. You're seeing a lot of them. You're getting their stats. You're breaking things down. You have a transcript. You're talking to people that are around them that are unbiased. You're talking to people around them that are biased. You just have to use your experiences close to 30 years of coaching and evaluating. Going through the process yourself as a player. You have a wealth of experiences that should help you as you've made a lot of mistakes. Hopefully you've had more success stories than making mistakes. It's not really a mistake in taking a player. It's making a mistake in the process of evaluation or in the process of understanding what's going to work at Purdue. That's what I started with with that puzzle. That's what you're always working towards and realizing that you're never ever going to be 100% in this inexact science. 2019 was a really big year for Purdue basketball. I ended up going to that game in Louisville. It was amazing, but it was heartbreaking. What lessons do you think were learned after a game like that? Well, I think for that season, we started off six and five. We lost four starters. The four reserves on that, a lead 18, big 10 championship team in 2019. Those guys were reserves and now they became starters. I didn't think when we had struggled that we were playing the wrong guys. Sometimes you get to where it's like, man, I got to find the right combination. Maybe a couple of these guys are just reserves and they're not starters. That happens sometimes. I didn't feel that way. I felt like, hey, we're playing the right guys. I like these guys. We have to play better within what we're trying to do. Obviously, we had an electric player in Carson Edwards. We had a very experienced player in Ryan Klein, Grady Eifert, Matt Harms, no Joe Eastern. Those guys really shaped our team and really helped our team there. To get to that point at the end of the season, we lost in the quarterfinals of the big 10 tournament. Didn't play well after getting a share of the big 10 title. Then really started to play well in the NCAA tournament. It really started to shoot well. Obviously, Carson was very hot and made a lot of shots. Just a lesson learned. You never know. Sometimes you can be playing well and just kind of keep that momentum going. Sometimes you could be struggling and then the switch. The NCAA tournament is a crapshoot. People don't realize when you play somebody in the NCAA tournament no matter where your seed is, they're good too. Everybody earned their way into it. Now you're on a neutral court. You're not as familiar a lot of times with teams, but for us to be able to play well, shoot well, to get there, is it heartbreaking there at the end, especially when you as a coach, you go back? Sometimes as a coach, you go back and you're like, man, I like to be able to do this all over again. I don't feel that with that game. Most of the time you do feel it. You do feel like, man, I wish we had these things back. Someone will go, well, I wish you could go back and make this shot or make that shot. Well, that's different. Everybody's trying to make those shots. That's not what you do as a coach. You go back and say, I wish I wouldn't have ran this and ran this at this time or maybe played this guy a little bit more through this stretch or had an offense defense sub more. You don't feel that way after you watch that game. Obviously, you have to go back and watch it for us because we ended up playing Virginia in the ACC Big 10 Challenge the next year or so when you go through. It's tough to watch. When people bring it up, you want to grab a couple of pencils and jam them in your eyes just because it's painful to a degree. When you get a question about it, you're like, man, but you've got to use that kind of anguish to motivate you to push forward to get back in that position and just be a little bit better. People don't realize as we did get into overtime and we do have a lead under a minute in overtime too. We were in very good positions twice and it comes down to one play, one possession both times. Give them credit because Virginia got into the Final Four and was in that position in both of those games again where they were in a tough spot and they found their way through those things. That's what you have to be able to do. It's a fine line between winning and losing and you've got to be able to make that one more play to help your team. That's so interesting that you feel so you're okay with that loss. You're okay with your decision making is what you're okay with. That's the piece of it because sometimes you go back and you watch those and you're not okay with your own decision making and you're really regretful. A lot of things get dissected and basketball is an easier game to understand but it's still watched by millions and understood by few even though if you watch a college football game or a professional football game you have to have some background in football to be able to understand everything. If you have no background you're not going to understand anything. Well basketball is a little bit different and so more people understand it. More people think they understand it. They get a grasp but it's just a little bit easier so you get a lot of that. There's an old saying in coaching if you listen to those people you'll be sitting with those people and so like you have to be strong in your convictions but you also have to have an open mind to be able to think things through to say you know hey maybe I should have done this or maybe I should have done that in those positions and you like to get some of those moments back but that wasn't one of those examples and it just wasn't. It was a super exciting game. My mom was Grady Eifers kindergarten teacher in Fort Wayne so I brought her with me and it was a fun memory for everyone but switching gears you know we've talked about the Purdue community the culture the spirit what's it been like you know living here raising your family in West Sofia? It's been great you know it's a it's a nice place to live it's obviously I'm biased being a Purdue grad and but no it's cool it's a great location it's the community is obviously very supportive it has a little bit of a high school ring to it in terms of when you have games everybody comes and and watches and support you don't have to battle professional sports here you know obviously Indianapolis is close and Chicago is close but still in this community you know the football men's basketball and all of our sports is you know it's a big deal and I think that is something that I really look forward to is like being able to come back in come back into Mackie and see those fans and all the people that you know have supported us but no it's a it's a super place to live and obviously the education's you know very good you know in the high schools in this area. And your son Brayden graduated last year he's a manager for the team now what's it like working with him? It's good you know he gets he gets excited he gets probably a little bit more excited than I do at times as a coach you know your emotions and how you do things like you try to measure them and you try to stay one step ahead and so sometimes you're not even thinking about what's in front of you as much as what could possibly happen at the next step so you're kind of you know being that way he's not that way he's fanatical and he's cheering on the team and you know very very supportive so it's it's it's cool to have him around. And do you think he got the love of basketball from you or he's always been that way? He's always been that way he's that way about Purdue football too like he's a big supporter of Purdue football like he loves he wants to talk about it a lot more than I want to talk about I like I like on my end I like doing it and then kind of you know your answer yeah well your answers are gonna come to you organically you know and people always say who you're gonna start or what are you gonna do here and I'm like I'm waiting for the players to tell me so he's always wanting those answers from me and I always give him the same answers and like you know whoever earns it whoever gets it but then he'll talk to me about you know the third string free safety and Purdue football I'll be like hey man like unless you give me a program I don't know who that is or what's going on but he he stays on top of it with with our team and obviously with the football team. So he's not getting any inside scoop from you that you wouldn't tell anyone else? Well he's here you know he's in practice so he hears me talking for two three hours so what he can take from that but it's not no well it's you know you have to be fair to your players and just because these guys started last year if somebody comes in and beats them out and that's clear um you know you you have to be you know you have to be fair to those guys you can't say okay here's the way it's gonna be in three months no you know that's just no it's not the way it's gonna be I shouldn't say that it might be that way you know they have to earn it yeah no doubt and and so you have to make sure everybody understands that in your program and I think that's really helped us with our chemistry in our culture is that we're not you know we're not giving out promises that this is how many minutes you're gonna play this is where you're gonna you know you're gonna go this is automatic you know you got to come in and earn it and a lot of people you know look at you and they're not quite hearing what they want to hear but then if they've been through it before they respect it and coach katie was always that way you know he was always very forthright and um and I think once you are that way with your players now you might lose some people that way you might lose some recruits that way but when you do get them now you're gonna get the best version of that guy right and then it's meant to be if you lose them because they're not playing the Purdue way right well it's it's just they want they want promises and they want and then there's there's just no promises there just isn't like if you're it's not an individual sport it's a team sport you're going to make decisions on what's best for your team and when we talk about other schools in the state why do you think the IU Purdue rivalry is so so special I think it's great you know I think anytime you look at the the in-state rivalries and sometimes you'll have some in-state rivalries you know like a North Carolina duke that's within your conference and so like we have the same thing we have that in-state rivalry and it's within a conference too so I think anytime you have that within the state you know you're you're gonna have through the years you know the rivalry gets branded you know but it's still trying to win a big 10 championship and trying to beat your rival too so that that makes it you know even you know bigger than it really is so I I think it's exciting it's it's some of my best moments as a as a player is is you know being able to beat Indiana you know coach night was you know such an icon and they were so successful and so that was really our measuring stick you know when when we play when I played in coach night was at Indiana that was the the measuring stick you know you had to beat Indiana you had to be more successful than Indiana you know and that was that was huge that that was big for us I Indiana and coach night made us better there's no doubt about that that competitiveness that that rivalry you know those personalities you know coach night and coach Katie that was cool I don't think you'll ever see you know that again yeah I would agree with that yeah is there anything special that you and the team do to prepare for you know these these rival games I'm not really you know we try to keep our focus on doing our job and knowing what's going on we'll do some things every now and then just make sure if we're going into a place like a Michigan State or an Indiana how loud it can get they probably do the same thing when they come into McArena and we you know we'll bring in the noise and you know practice that way where we can't hear ourselves think and things of that nature will have some former players you know reach out to our current players to kind of set the tone for how important it is to them you know and so to make sure they understand sometimes you'll get a younger player especially somebody from a distance that doesn't totally grasp it yet so we want to make sure they grasp it before they go through it when they're walking into assembly hall yes like what just happened yeah yeah no question you know why Purdue why have you continued to stay here you were a player here you have a long history you know with Purdue basketball but why why here I think it's the best place for me you know when you look at anytime you have success you know you can't look at it like Bill Walsh calls it the disease of me when you're in a group or an organization and you run it there's a lot of people that lead to your success and you can't look at it well a lot of coaches look at it like I'm the reason why we've had this success and you're a part of the reason but you're also a small part of the reason you know I'm yet to see a great basketball coach and bad players I'm just yet to see it you know I don't think that exists so you know your product is your players and you have to have good people you have to have good players you know around you and then you have to have the support so like when you're looking at like jobs you look at Purdue as a job and you say well what do I want to do what do I want to achieve but you know it's got great academics it's got great people and they've had a really successful basketball program you know through the years and so now you got to be able to go match that and then raise it the next level to say this job is going to be better than Purdue and for me I don't think there's a place out there better for me than Purdue University I'm familiar with it I understand it I understand what's important but I also stay in my lane like I'm just the basketball coach like I'm not I'm not making decisions on campus I just want to be the basketball coach and that's been very easy and healthy for me in that regard we have a great president we have a great board of directors we have a great ad and Mike Bobinsky and I always say to other coaches out there and they wouldn't be able to comment publicly I said but who can say that in high major basketball like who can say hey like you guys are going in this direction on campus you're going in this direction financially you're going in this direction you know with everything that you do you know and Purdue's really going in a great direction and is having a lot of success and you're not even talking about basketball now when you're in the situation that we are in this state you know like why would you want to go any place else like this is this is just a perfect fit for me is there anything else you want to say to our listeners a lot of loyal faithful Purdue basketball fans out there yeah just you know thanks for all the support like you know we have we have great fans we have a great alumni base you know we are a self-sufficient you know athletic department it's pretty cool you know and so but it can't happen without the support you know from the John Purdue club you know from all of our boosters so you know we're very appreciative of everything that we have from a coaching standpoint from a playing standpoint just overall program thank you so much we really appreciate your time and we love talking to you all right no problem thank you thank you