Indiana basketball’s head coaching search is likely still weeks away from a resolution, which means IU’s job opening will continue to be among college basketball’s hot topics. That was once again the case Sunday afternoon at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall as Purdue coach Matt Painter offered his thoughts on the Indiana job and all that it entails.
Painter has seen six Indiana head coaches — both interim and full-time — come and go since he took over the Boilermakers program in 2005. If there’s an outsider who is most equipped and familiar with the IU job to speak on it, it’s probably Painter, the former Purdue player and Muncie, Ind., native who has battled the Hoosiers on the court and on the recruiting trail for two decades.
When asked about Mike Woodson’s impending retirement and IU’s head coach opening, Painter delivered a candid, two-minute monologue which later made the rounds on social media. Below is Painter’s full excerpt from his postgame press conference.
“I don’t really have a thought on the job. Obviously, we compete against them and they’re our rivals. The guy that’s the coach here is a peer of mine. Even though you compete and want to beat someone, you want to see other people be successful and keep their job. Just like any of you guys (the media) would think the same thing about the people sitting to your left and right.
“It’s like anything: you gotta get a good person, you gotta get a good coach, and you gotta get a guy to understand. [Indiana has] had a lot of [coaching] turnover, obviously. I think you’ve got to look at the common denominators here more than anything.
“I think that’s an important piece right here, like, don’t beat yourself. Don’t beat yourself. Let’s support somebody. Try that out for once every now and then. When s— goes wrong — like, you think Purdue fans are happy about what just happened [after IU’s 73-58 win]?
“A fanbase isn’t the people who tweet. A fanbase is the people when you’re bleeding, they support you. They jump on and off things here way too much. Support your coach, man. Support your players. Don’t tweet negative things about them. Be supportive. See how that works for you.
“They build them up and they overdo things. Like, quit overdoing s—. Just accurately talk about what’s actually happened. Don’t get recruits and be like, ‘that’s Michael Jordan, that’s Scottie Pippen,’ then they come here and they’re not like Michael Jordan or Scottie Pippen, they’re good college players. They build it up and then go, ‘oh, what’s wrong?’ Well, they’re part of it.
Matt Painter with a very candid answer when asked about Mike Woodson’s impending departure, what IU should be looking for in a new head coach
“But it’s not their total fanbase; it’s just that everyone has a bad percentage of their fanbase now because of Twitter, and then we think that’s their fanbase. It’s not our fanbase, and it’s not their real fanbase either. And so I think that’s an important piece.
“But it’s hard for young people to hear all that and then go out and collectively play. Like, ‘hey, man, we’re playing for you, but you dog us when we lose and then we’re the best when we win.’ Well, we’re somewhere in between, right?
“So I think they need to learn from some of those things, and support [Indiana Athletic Director] Scott Dolson and support the staff. But also, kind of be grounded with everything, and I think they’ll be able to have success.
“It’s just a different world now. We have 18 teams in [in the Big Ten]. We’re go into the name, image and likeness, and some changes are going to be here in April. So it’ll be real interesting to see the landscape here.”