“It changes my whole career”: When Matt Painter revealed how Bruce Weber’s career changed Purdue HC’s destiny

On the “Field of 68” in February 2021, Purdue coach Matt Painter narrated how a decision made by former Kansas coach Bruce Weber changed the trajectory of his career.

“I always felt like at Purdue, like, Bruce Weber would be the next coach, but he got the Illinois job,” Painter said. “If they wait one more year, Bruce Weber's head coach at Purdue. “If that doesn't fall and that happens, and a lot of people don't realize how I got my opportunity at Southern Illinois is really just off of Roy Williams going from Kansas to North Carolina, and then Bill going to Kansas, and then Bruce Weber going from Southern Illinois to Illinois. “If Roy doesn't leave Kansas, then that changes my whole career, changes Bruce Weber's career. Bruce Weber becomes the coach at Purdue. Not that year, but probably the next year, because they talked to him that year. "Before that, they said, '(Purdue) Coach (Gene) Keady has two years left on his contract; would you come back and be an assistant for two years?' And that was right after we went to the Sweet 16. And he says, 'I wouldn't do it for two years; I do it for a year.' And then the next year came around, and that's when he got Illinois. “So, when that proposition came back up, like, the following year after that, like, that's when I was like, 'Man, I was kind of floored. Like, I was in the mix, like, when they offered me.”

Painter has been a coach at Purdue since 2005, first as the associate head coach for the 2004-05 season under the retiring head coach Gene Keady.

He took over from Keady, becoming the second former Purdue player to occupy that role since Ray Eddy.

He has been named Big Ten Coach of the Year five times, AP Big 10 Coach of the Year twice and NABC Coach of the Year once.

Matt Painter narrated how he got the Purdue job

On the “Field of 68” in February 2021, Matt Painter talked about the day he first got offered a role at Purdue and how it played out:

“They didn’t actually offer me the Purdue job — it was weird. They kind of set it up. I was out recruiting after we got knocked out in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. We lost by one point to Alabama in Seattle. “We flew back that night, and the very next day, I was on the road recruiting in Lexington, Kentucky. I was sitting outside a school, waiting to go in and talk to someone, when their athletic director called me. He said, ‘Coach Keady has been offered the San Francisco job, and he’s thinking about taking it.’ “So, yeah, that was one scenario — him taking the San Francisco job. Another possibility was that he’d retire right then and there. Or, the third scenario was that he’d coach one more season, and they’d possibly bring me in as an assistant for a year, then have me take over after that.”

Since taking over at Purdue, Painter has won the Big Ten tournament twice, led the Boilermakers to five Big Ten regular-season championships and the 2024 Final Four.

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Edited by Joseph Schiefelbein