Purdue head coach Matt Painter admitted that last night’s loss at Kentucky could have been by a bigger margin.
“This could’ve been worse,” Painter said. “They could’ve played those guys [the starters] and he [Mark Pope] was trying to get a lot of people in there.”
Check out his comments:
Here’s a transcript from UK Athletics:
On watching film before the game and the size of Kentucky…
“We do not do a lot of preparation, as you can tell, for these games. More than anything, I just
thought they embraced the physicality of the game. I liked how they use [Brandon] Garrison; I
like their five-out there. Malachi [Moreno] is a guy that we recruited, put a lot of time into; he's
got a promising future. They have a good mix of athletes and guys that can shoot. Those guys
that came off the bench…I thought Jasper Johnson could have been the difference in the game.
He made some big shots and made some big plays. I like what they do offensively. I think they
are very similar to us…the fact that we got a lot of good shots today and we didn't miss them,
that has to be a concern for them. I do not think there is a lot of defense out there. I don't think
either team is going to get compared to ‘85 Bears right now. You can not outscore people all
the time; you got to have a good balance. And I think that's going to be an issue for both teams.
I think both teams are pretty good offensively, but who can be better defensively? Who can be
better at rebounding? Tonight, it was [Kentucky], especially rebounding. I thought we did a
good job of taking care of the ball. We did a good job of getting good shots; we just didn't knock
it down. But, when we only turn it over seven times, you need to steal some possessions there.
But, they only turned it over nine [times]. We grab two possessions there, and when they kick
us by 12 [rebounds] on the glass and end up with 10 extra possessions, [that ends up] being
pretty much the game. But I thought the tougher team won, you know, and that normally
happens early in the year with this. I think they got a chance to have a good team.”
On what to use from this game…
“When people get the blow-byes, there is not a whole lot for that. Our point of attack, where
we're picking up the basketball, sometimes we can switch that up. We were up on them
crossing half court, and then they had a couple ‘turn-downs’ in the first half that exposed us a
little bit. But it was more of navigating 25 feet. [Collin] Chandler had that drive for the dunk.
Jasper Johnson is very, very twitchy—change of direction, change of pace, really keeps you off
balance with his stuff. Otega [Oweh], he's good, man, getting angles and working downhill. I
know he did not have a bunch of opportunities, did not have a bunch of minutes, but more than
anything, you have to keep the ball in the paint. And I thought Kentucky just did a better job
than us keeping the ball in paint. My thing is, it is not too much of a physical issue for me; it is
more of a mental concentration. You have to concentrate and keep the ball in front of you. And
sure, good players with quickness [and] with ball skills, are going to beat you at times, but they
cannot beat you all the time. That is what you search out. We have to get that combination of
balance on both ends.”
