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Matt Painter praises Purdue iconic trio after Elite Eight loss ends illustrious era
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Matt Painter sat at the podium late Saturday night after Purdue once again fell short of the ultimate, winning a national championship, and instead of bemoaning the obvious used the precious time to praise his iconic trio of seniors.
Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn won a ton of games and brought a ton of glory to West Lafayette during their brilliant careers wearing a Purdue uniform. But their 1 last shot at winning a national title was swept away in a sea of Arizona points in San Jose, as the top-seeded Wildcats took down Painter’s second-seeded Boilermakers, 79-64, in the West Region final.
Arizona is heading to Indianapolis next week while Purdue is going home, 1 win short of a second Final Four in 3 years with the senior core that was sitting next to Painter after the game. He was mighty proud, even in defeat, because what Smith, Loyer and Kaufman-Renn did transcended Purdue basketball and Big Ten basketball.
Two years ago, Purdue climbed all the way to the national title game, losing to UConn. It almost gave itself another shot in 2026, with the 3 senior stars leading the way, but the second half got away from the Boilermakers.
“Really proud of these three guys sitting right here and everything they’ve done for our program. Really set a standard of how to go about their business,” Painter said to reporters in an emotional postgame press conference. “It’s going to be hard to emulate that. In today’s game, having three guys come and stick it out and fight through adversity and just keep making our program better.”
A thankful Painter went through the trio’s accomplishments as Purdue players, paying tribute to what they stood for.
“They got the most wins in school history. They got the most tournament wins in school history. They got two Big Ten championships. They got two Big Ten Tournament titles. You know, they showed up every day and worked. That’s what you want,” Painter said.
All the coach wanted was to say thank you to Smith, Loyer and Kaufman-Renn. He was a very proud head coach late Saturday night in San Jose, even if the Boilermakers weren’t moving on to Indianapolis for at least another game.
With Purdue’s Final Four dreams dashed after another memorable NCAA Tournament run, here is what the Kalshi market is currently seeing regarding the 6 teams still in the mix to cut down the nets on April 6 in Indianapolis:
