Painter’s complaint
Purdue coach grumbles that Haarms and Eastern won’t finish what they started, but to what end?
It was just like old times when Purdue men’s basketball coach Matt Painter was interviewed Wednesday on Dan Dakich’s radio show.
We all needed a jolt from our pandemic quarantine.
Painter gave us one with his unfiltered views about the recent transfers of Matt Haarms, a 7-foot-3 senior center, and Nojel Eastern, 6-foot-7 junior guard. Haarms committed to BYU, and Eastern committed to Michigan.
Painter wears the Boilermakers on his sleeve, telling it like it is.
The venting session included Painter saying, “You might’ve gotten your degree from Purdue, but you’re not a Boilermaker if you walk out the door in the end.”
And this snippet: ”I try to take a step back and look at it from their perspective. How did you better yourself? Are you going to play against better competition in the league that you went to?
No.”
Of course, in Eastern’s case, he’s staying in the same league: the Big Ten.
There were other comments about players fighting through effort and adversity, and about Eastern putting his name in the NBA draft twice after averaging eight points and four points the past two seasons.
Painter has a history of reacting poorly when someone he has a vested interest in leaves. Feelings are rightfully raw when one side gets ditched. Breakups are never easy.
It just sounds bad when a grown man is sniping at a college kid.
To be fair, Painter talked about how he loved both kids. He couched his lecture in general terms about the lack of commitment from college players, who now can move freely without much resistance.
None of what he said was wrong. It’s just not useful.
This theme of being unfairly jilted goes way back with Painter.
Valparaiso High School graduate Scott Martin, who arrived at Purdue in 2007 with Robbie Hummel, was on the receiving end of an infamous barb when Painter said before a game against Notre Dame that Martin was the “kid who played with Rob (Hummel) in high school.” Martin had transferred to Notre Dame after his freshman year.
Painter had spent a good chunk of his life recruiting that “kid.” He was just telling us how he really felt after a tense ending.
At a time when college players actually revealed their reasons for leaving (now they break the news on Twitter), Martin said it was a family issue.
It probably was more than that, but what really happened didn’t matter.
The transfer worked well for Martin, who is an assistant coach at Notre Dame.
A similar issue occurred with La Lumiere graduate Sandi Marcius, who transferred to DePaul for a fifth year.
In a news release, Painter said, “We have invested four years and significant resources into helping Sandi develop from an education and athletic standpoint. Having Sandi here was in our plans, and we anticipated him having a great final year.”
That’s not your typical goodbye release. More like good riddance.
There was the messy issue of Purdue not paying for Marcius’ final class, which he had to take in the summer to graduate.
Two things really bothered me about the long back-andforth.
Painter recruited these kids, who apparently didn’t want to stick it out through adversity, and he’s been known to take a transfer or two or a fifth-year player if it works in his favor.
I didn’t hear him share any responsibility for bringing in those players that didn’t make it to the end at their former schools. There was no public self-reflection about how he perhaps made a poor choice recruiting Eastern.
In Haarms’ case, he did what he was supposed to do, which was graduate in four years.
Sometimes, the fit doesn’t work out for four years. And that’s it.
That’s all there is to it. Painter’s candor is great. Few coaches are as transparent.
Sometimes, though, it’s just too much information.
The best point he made to Dakich is that Purdue will be just fine next season with the players it has returning.
He’s right.
He should just leave it at that and enjoy the great players who are still there.