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CROSSROADS CLASSIC: PURDUE VS NOTRE DAME


December 15, 2018


Matt Painter

Ryan Cline

Carsen Edwards

Trevion Williams


Indianapolis, Indiana

Notre Dame 88, Purdue 80

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the players.

Q. (No microphone.)
RYAN CLINE: Just ball screen defense. They just ran a basic motion ball screen offense. It was just on our lapses. They got up good shots, knocked them down early.

Q. (No microphone.)
RYAN CLINE: Yeah, I mean, I guess you would say that. Like I said, it was our lapses. They got open shots.

Q. (No microphone.)
TREVION WILLIAMS: Just putting in extra time in the gym. Like usually never your name's going to be called. I haven't done many minutes. Just always staying in the gym, that stuff pays off.

Q. (No microphone.)
TREVION WILLIAMS: Getting in extra running, whether it's after practice, before practice. Extra conditioning, elliptical, stuff like that with our trainer. It's been helping a lot.

It seems little, but it pays off when games come.

Q. (No microphone.)
RYAN CLINE: I think for us it's just knowing that we can't play through our offense, we got to get stops. Got to make consecutive stops instead of one. We just got to put it together.

Q. (No microphone.)
CARSEN EDWARDS: Just kind of agree with what Ryan said. Just going to continue to work.

Q. (No microphone.)
RYAN CLINE: Just being able to go into practice the next couple days before our next game, just have energy, just play the way we know we can play.

Q. (No microphone.)
RYAN CLINE: I mean, it was fine. The confidence is always there, so it was nice obviously.

Q. (No microphone.)
CARSEN EDWARDS: Learn anything about our team? I mean, I feel like I know my guys now. I mean, I depend on them. I feel like I know what I'm going to get from them. We're going to continue to work.

I don't think this is going to make me think differently or feel something differently. I have guys around me that can play the game. We got to clean some things up and we'll be okay.

Q. (No microphone.)
CARSEN EDWARDS: Yeah, I mean, what about it? Spark?

Q. (No microphone.)
CARSEN EDWARDS: Yeah, I mean, honestly to me that's not surprising. I know Tre can play. He plays well, competes at practice, does all the things he needs to do. When his name is called, he's ready. Not surprising at all to me.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for coach.

Q. (No microphone.)
MATT PAINTER: Well, I thought today we just started the game off wrong. That's what we really talked about, what we were able to do last year in this game against Butler, being ready to play. We jumped on them early. Then we also talked about the game two years ago against Notre Dame, where they jumped on us early, then we had a great second half.

Just not trying to put ourselves back in that position. I thought defensively we had too many breakdowns early. Sometimes your breakdowns can get camouflaged when you play well offensively. We didn't make enough shots there in that stretch.

I thought our defense was pretty good the last six, seven minutes of the first half. But we just weren't consistent enough. We had some breakdowns where we left some guys we didn't want to leave. When you get into that, you go back and forth, now you're trying to outscore somebody, you're not going to win a lot of basketball games that way.

We have to do a better job on the defensive end of things.

Q. (No microphone.)
MATT PAINTER: Yeah, we have to do a better job of keeping the ball in front of us. I think when we do a good job with that, we stay out of rotations, and it really helps us. So I think that's where it really starts.

I'm just trying to be detailed in that so they can't move the ball quick on you. Then you get in those rotations, have bad closeouts. Have to do a good job when you get in those situations, but you have to limit them.

Q. (No microphone.)
MATT PAINTER: It's hard to tell. I think people's offense is a little bit ahead of their defense at time, and vice versa. You're projecting. You have to be able to lean on people and I think that starts with everybody's experienced players. You have to be good on both ends.

We just have to do a better job of finding those guys. Right now we're just not consistent when it comes to defense at all. We're playing three games on a neutral court, know where you're going to be in three weeks. You just try to get better each day.

When we don't shoot the ball very well, you have those breakdowns, you're going to get beat.

Q. (No microphone.)
MATT PAINTER: He's a good player. Half of the shots he made were threes. He went 3-3, 8-18 coming into the game. One of them our guys did what they were supposed to. The other two were breakdowns. So we had to limit him.

He made some of those points obviously at the end. We fouled for a long time. There's some inflated stats there. But I thought he was very efficient. Any time you can score 21 points, only take eight shots, it's a pretty good night.

Q. (No microphone.)
MATT PAINTER: We're trying to stay into the basketball, ball screen defense, to make it hard for them to pass. I think when you see some of those cross-court passes, the guy on the basketball, the guy hedging, has to do a good job of limiting their vision. You guys ask to get a general answer, and there's a lot of different possessions and types of possessions.

I thought we had times where we did a good job, we had other times where it was a complete breakdown.

Q. (No microphone.)
MATT PAINTER: He's a good player. He got in there, he's been wanting to play. The other guys are in front of him. I think once you get an opportunity and guys aren't productive -- and he was productive, that's definitely going to help his cause.

When you got two guys that are there that are fully capable, you know, it's hard because you don't get much of an opportunity. Then when you do get one, he played well. He definitely helped his case.

Q. (No microphone.)
MATT PAINTER: When you lose 40 pounds, you're going to move better. But I wasn't with him before. I recruited him, but I wasn't with him every single day.

It's hard to pick up everything when you're trying to transform your body. You're not a very good listener when you're fatigued. I think for him, it was just a lot at the same time. Then we run a lot of stuff. Being able to know what's going on at all times is pretty difficult.

Q. (No microphone.)
MATT PAINTER: Good hands, got long arms. He's got a good touch. The best thing he does is rebound. He's a very good rebounder. He's going to have a good career at our place.

Q. Four seniors last year, all leaders. They finished games. Who is filling that void in the leadership this year?
MATT PAINTER: Well, I think those guys did a really good job in terms of kind of all around play. They took care of the basketball. They made threes. They had that experience. So right now, with the guys that are playing and doing those things, it's a different type of team for us. We still had somebody where we could go get a basket in Isaac Haas. You had other guys that have great assist-turnover ratios. But they had growing pains when they were younger. Trying to get leadership, you want leadership by action, by everybody. Sometimes when you're searching to get the right group, you're searching to get some of that, anybody who can do their job and play hard and do the little things, you embrace.

Obviously right now we're not at that place with this group.

Q. (No microphone.)
MATT PAINTER: I thought we did all right. There are some areas of the game, you out-rebound somebody by 10, have two fewer turnovers. You take 70 freaking shots. You have 40 misses is your issue. We got to be able to convert things. We had some hustle, got some offensive rebounds. I think there were some looks out there, some shots we took that you'd like to have back. I don't think there was an abundance of them.

We got to be able to convert. We had the ball in the paint at times when we didn't continue, a layup, a transition play, a runner. You got to be able to convert.

I thought we did an all right job. I don't have the numbers in front of me. I think that's a hard thing for us at times, is when you do those things, is now being able to finish it.

Q. (No microphone.)
MATT PAINTER: Not really just because we came off of a 30-win season. We really leaned on those guys. But the people that we play a lot are the people that have been in our program. I think when you want and you've earned some of those roles, but you also have to be able to keep everything together. It's a fine line.

Today it didn't come down to a possession game at the end. We've been in three possession games that we could have finished out and we didn't. Our defense wasn't as good in those games in the end as it was during stretches of those games.

Sometimes it's hard to assess. The one thing you got to be able to do as a coach is just keep working. I think a lot of times when you don't win the games that you think you should win, you're just in a lull, whatever it might be. Is that growing pains or is that who you are? I don't want to admit that's who we are. I want to think that we can get better. We have other things.

We do have players. The guys that are playing the majority of our minutes are people that played for us before. To me, when I look at that, we got to be better together. I think we can all look at a box score, try to pull things out. We have to get some of the same efforts we're getting on the glass. We didn't do a good job of taking care of the basketball three, four games ago. We really made a conscious effort to do that. The last two games, we've had six and seven turnovers, and we still lose the game. Still only one aspect of the game. There's a lot of other aspects. Just because you cover one hole up, you have another hole coming, you still got to be able to do those things well.

We just need more consistency, need to keep working. We've tried to do more as the whole in practice, do things, so we cover what somebody is going to do. I think that's important at times. But you also got to teach them the part where you're having discipline, you're detailed in whatever you're doing, whether ball screen defense, post defense, what have you.

I like our guys. I think we got good guys. I don't like our fight right now. We have to have more of a fight to us.

Q. (No microphone.)
MATT PAINTER: No question. Boy, when it happens back-to-back, you got to look at yourself. It's not like we're giving it to them, but you play the percentages. You don't give somebody anything. We talked about that. I don't even know what his numbers are. They weren't great.

We talked about Gibbs. He had shot 34% going into this game. We talked about, he's better than that. He's not a 34% shooter. We talked about that with Matt Coleman. Matt Coleman from Texas is 33%, ended up scoring two against us.

D.J. Harvey was good, Mooney was efficient. Look at their bench. Dane made a couple good pull-ups, he's 4-5. He's solid. Durham comes in, he's 3-5. We got some consistent play from a lot of people.

Q. (No microphone.)
MATT PAINTER: I think we have it. I talked to our guys about it. You have to get over yourself. It's a real hard thing to do. I don't know how many people we have here that played high school basketball, then played college basketball. In high school basketball, like you know how many points you have in your head. It's a real selfish thing, but it's a very natural thing because your whole life, you've equated playing well to scoring. As you grow in college, and you can get there, you have to normally play a role before you can be a major guy. Sometimes you never get out of that role, you're always a role player.

You have to be able to give yourself to the team but get over, you know, those type of things, those kind of... You're not going to get on this team if you can just shoot well and that's it, be able to help us. We need everybody to be able to defend. We need everybody to be able to do other things. Right now we're not very good at that. When we sub young guys in, they play off the looks that they get. You can see it in their body language, and older guys. It's not just those guys. It's kind of everybody.

Each guy is different. Everything can't be the same for each guy. You're going to have different people taking different shots, taking more volume of shots. But you got to be able to get over yourself and sacrifice. When you look over there and you see guys cheering, giving energy, you're normally going to go in the game and play better. Those guys sitting there, being duds, not cheering for the team. When you get the opportunity, you don't play well.

It's really a maturation process. You always are going to have a guy or two on your team that way. You just are. That doesn't change when you deal with 19- to 22-year-olds. We have a lot of good guys on our team, but too many people are searching for answers through their jumpers. You got to compete and scrap.

Q. (No microphone.)
MATT PAINTER: There's urgency always. Whether we won or lost this game, we're still going to practice, try to get better, beat our next opponent.

We're very fortunate that we're in a good league and we're going to have a lot of opportunities. You don't like to see opportunities go past because you want to get wins and keep building your résumé, so there's definitely a sense of urgency. But there would be anyways.

Q. (No microphone.)
MATT PAINTER: No, not at all. Not at all. He can score all day long. He should be able to play another game right now. Think about it. If you want to play in the NBA, they play 82 games. We're playing 30. There's no comparison. When those guys want to go from 20 to 21 or 21 to 22, make that jump, if you can't handle playing in a basketball game twice a week, boy, I don't know what the next one is going to look for.

That's the world he lives in. He's talented. He can play at the next level. He should be able to lace it up right now and play another game. He's that explosive, he's that athletic, he's in shape. He takes care of himself.

I'm not worried about that. It's good to get him a couple minutes in each half. He seems to be better when you do that coming down the stretch.

Why when we lose you want to talk forever. When we win, you guys don't say shit. Explain that (smiling). Unbelievable. You're better than that.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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