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ST. LOUIS — Matt Painter did what Matt Painter does so well and so eloquently, Friday night, when he offered maybe the most measured response yet to the debate about high-major responsibility for mid-major needs. It was not just the message, but the man, that made his comments so important.
Travis Steele’s remarkable undefeated regular season this winter with Miami (Ohio) reignited what has become an annual discussion over how mid-majors are supposed to game the analytics that make or break your NCAA Tournament resume when they struggle for quality nonconference games. It reappears every year but got particularly heated this time around, because of 1) the extreme nature of Miami’s success, 2) the RedHawks’ pedestrian nonconference schedule and 3) the wider question of whether high-majors have a duty to give mid-majors the chance to beef those schedules up.
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Advocating in the weeks leading into Selection Sunday for his team — in the event it did not win the MAC’s automatic bid — Steele suggested repeatedly the RedHawks could not find high-major programs to schedule them. Yet Painter’s Purdue stands as a direct contradiction to that.
“If he was in our position,” Painter said, “he’d be doing the same thing.”
It was important for Painter to speak when and as he did. In a debate that, like so much in modern sports, became too rapidly zero sum, Purdue’s veteran coach was the perfect voice for the argument he delivered. It was not just what he said, but that he was the one who said it.
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Particularly because he’s right.
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See best of March Madness 2026, from mascots and fans to celebrities
A Texas Christian University Horned Frogs cheerleader practices before the game during a first round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Bon Secours Wellness Arena on March 19, 2026 in Greenville, SC.
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See best of March Madness 2026, from mascots and fans to celebrities
A Texas Christian University Horned Frogs cheerleader practices before the game during a first round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA…
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Publish date : 2026-03-22 00:09:00
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