Relatively, for sure. Purdue is certainly not seen with the bluebloods, though Painter has arguably achieved blueblood results over the course of his tenure.
I think that being at the loser’s end of the bracket could fail to tell you if a coach is outright bad. At some schools, coaches do face the fact that recruiting is hard there, the school unattractive to recruits. (See Nebraska.) But if you’re in the top group of finishers year in, year out, your coach is succeeding. And that does, probably, come down to some of those intangibles.
Has he? In what respect? He has had many good teams, but I wouldn’t say he has had blue blood results. He has 3 conference titles and 0 final four appearances in 17 years. Those are numbers of a good program, but not a blue blood. I can’t imagine Duke, UNC, Kentucky and Kansas would be thrilled with 3 conference titles and no final fours over the span of nearly two decades.
And this isn’t to rag on Painter. He is my favorite coach in the Big Ten outside of Ann Arbor.
I don’t need to Google search it, I’ve been there. Purdue is still a top 20 type of program though with their history I would say. Painter is an awesome coach, they aren’t a “blue blood” like Duke, Kentucky or Kansas but there are way worse jobs in the Big Ten. They have a great fanbase, people care about basketball, the state is loaded with talent, etc. etc.
Has he been there that long? [Edit: Yeah, pretty close.] Jeebus, I still remember Gene Keady. And maybe my sense of Purdue as kind of a lunch pail outfit harks back to those times. I guess it’s all a matter of perception. Done more with less, would kinda be my overall take, which maybe supports my thesis.
I’m definitely with Dylan–kinda where I started–in thinking that whether a coach wins it all is somewhat serendipitous.
Wisconsin doing their usual and playing another close ugly game against…(checks notes)…Lehigh? In fact, they were down quite a bit until the latest buzz cut, pale, annoying, guard hit back to back threes to take a lead. Sigh…they are so frustrating to watch.
I guess if you’re an IU fan you say that those 12 TOs are uncharacteristic and TJD shouldn’t be invisible in the second half.
If you’re me you say that they have been making bad decisions, throwing the ball all over, and haven’t made things hard on KU. Not to mention the injury to Johnson and the fact that Wilson has been quiet too.
I really want to call IU a bubble team right now but I can’t given their injury situation. I will put this take on hold and hope Mr. Johnson will come back healthy soon.
