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Matt Painter reflects on NCAA Tournament loss, refers to ‘subtle changes’ coming

Keith Farner

By Keith Farner

Published:

Matt Painter has taken a holistic approach to how he’s reacted to the shocking loss to Fairleigh Dickinson for Purdue in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

In an interview with Dana O’Neil of The Athletic, Painter shared that he hasn’t watched a replay of the game, and doesn’t need to in order to understand what happened. And more importantly, what he needs to do to keep it from happening again.

“Get out a pair of No. 2 pencils, and just jab them in my eyes,” Painter said.

Immediately after the loss, Painter remembered how the Boilermakers have done in recent years, and pointed out that for 6 straight years Purdue has been a top 5 seed. “And that’s all you try to do. You just try to fight to get in the best position possible.”

Weeks later, Painter maintains that perspective.

“We’ve built a good program,” Painter said. “You can’t lose that. But I also know I would be a fool if I didn’t think I needed to make some subtle changes. And we will.”

Keith Farner

Keith Farner has written about college football for newspapers and web sites since 2005.