The Purdue Boilermakers are the top-ranked college basketball team in the AP-poll, and they continued their strong start following their 80-71 win against the Memphis Tigers in the opening game of the Baha Mar Hoops tournament. With the win, Purdue improved to 5-0 on the season, but head coach Matt Painter gave a ton of credit to Memphis and head coach Penny Hardaway following the win, as per Parth Upadhyaya of The Daily Memphian.
“I thought Coach [Penny] Hardaway had his team ready to play,” Painter said. “He started the game with a lot of length [on the floor], and we missed some shots.”
Matt Painter also said that the game against Memphis was a hard-fought game. And sure enough, Memphis put up a fight against Purdue, especially in the first half of the game. The Tigers got off to an early 16-8 lead, and trailed by only one, 36-35 at halftime.
In the second half, Memphis led, 64-61, with just over seven minutes to go in the game, but Purdue would go on a run to seize control, and ultimately win the game.
Purdue’s next game is on Friday in the championship game of the Baha Mar Hoops tournament against the winner of the Texas Tech and Wake Forest game.
This season is Painter’s 21st as head coach, and during that time he’s complied an overall record of 476-215 and has led the Boilermakers to 16 NCAA Tournament appearances, including an appearance in the national championship game in 2023-24.
Painter’s squad is led by a strong senior trio of Trey Kaufman-Renn, Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer, all of whom are the Boilermakers’ top-three leading scorers this season.
