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Coach Painter gave UCLA a hard pass.
Per @latimes Matt Painter declined an interview with the #Bruins https://t.co/oqB8ZGzY8X
— Charlie Clifford (@cliffWISH8) April 30, 2019
Coach Painter stays true to his Alma Mater. There were rumblings during the season that he would be one of the coaches of interest. UCLA, a program that always gets top tier talent and does little to nothing with those players had a long list of Coaches they wanted to go after.
Coach Painter was a “Tier II” coach for them. Whatever the hell that means. The 2019 National Coach of the Year is not a Tier II coach.
Instead, UCLA got Cronin from Cincinnati, who was probably a Tier III coach for them. Coach Painter proved himself this past season. With 4 seniors leaving and losing Jacquil Taylor as a grad transfer, he put together one of the best seasons of his career.
Lead by Carsen Edwards and Ryan Cline, Purdue broke the Sweet 16 barrier, making the Elite 8, before losing to Virginia in overtime. The only reason we were in overtime was due to a sequence of plays... I am not even going to go over them, as we all have PTSD from it.
Coach Painter is highly thought of across college basketball. In my opinion, he deserves another extension and raise, to make sure he stays put. He should be our head coach for the next 20 years and we need to make sure that happens.