I don't think Painter belongs on this list by any means but peoples opinions of Painter show both really overweighting tournament games and also really overweighting the talent level at Purdue (and underrating how hard it is to recruit here.) I get that the tournament is the time for hot takes but acting like one game somehow should be counted more than a season is first take level stupid.

Painter took in a class in the baby boilers which is pretty standard for a lot of schools and turned it into five years of solid sucess with a few extra pieces. He turned two borderline top 25 classes and one top recruit into another three years + of a borderline top 15 team. Its not spectacular results but its definitely above the norm for a power 5 coach.

The most ridiculous part of these comments is when people mention all the talent Purdue has had. Like a lot of the guys that have or had prominent roles were not ranked highly getting here yet Painter doesn't get any credit for developing them? Guys like Mathias, PJ, Lewis Jackson were only borderline power 5 recruits. Hammons, Hummel, Davis, Vince etc were back end of the top 100, or 100-150 guys.

Painter isn't a perfect coach but he's coaching at a place thats in the second tier of Big Ten jobs and performing above the norm.