FEINSTEIN: Matt Painter can finish what Gene Keady helped start at Purdue

In 1988, sportswriter Mark Monteith published a book called “Passion Play,” in which he chronicled a season with Purdue University’s men’s basketball team and its then-coach, Gene Keady.

The title was perfect, and the cover summed it up: Keady on his feet, fists clenched, mouth wide open. Directing vitriol at someone.

Unfortunately for Monteith, Purdue—a No. 1 seed that season—was upset in the round of 16 by Kansas State.

Keady coached at Purdue for 25 years, going head-to-head with intrastate rival Bob Knight at Indiana University for 20 of those seasons. To say that Purdue’s games with Indiana were intense would be a vast understatement. But while Knight won three titles at IU, Keady never reached a Final Four.

In 2004, Keady decided to coach one more season and Purdue hired one of his former players, Matt Painter, as its coach-in-waiting. Painter had just gone 25-5 at Southern Illinois during his first season as a head coach. He was 35 when he took over for Keady. He hadn’t been a great player at Purdue—he averaged a career-high 8.6 points a game as a senior—but was a glue guy who always knew what Keady wanted and rarely made mental mistakes.

He was a born coach, but not a Keady clone by any means. Painter is the ultimate “never let ‘em see you sweat” guy. If someone wrote a book about a season with Painter, it might be called “Passionless Play.”

That would, of course, be inaccurate. No one wins 471 games or makes the NCAA tournament 16 times in 19 years without a good deal of passion. Painter just doesn’t show it very often.

It was there for a moment Sunday when center Zach Edey rushed over to him right after the final buzzer of Purdue’s 72-66 victory over Tennessee in the Midwest Region final, sending the Boilermakers to the Final Four. The joy on Painter’s face was apparent, especially after enduring so many difficult losses in March.

In 2019, the Boilermakers came within a moment of reaching the Final Four only to lose in overtime to Virginia after the Cavaliers’ Kihei Clark tracked down a back-tapped rebound in the backcourt and somehow found Mamadi Diakite, who hit a jumper with less than a second to play.

There was no shame in that heartbreaking loss, especially after Virginia went on to win the national championship.

But things got worse before they got better. In 2021, Purdue lost in the first round to No. 13 seed North Texas. A year later, as a No. 3 seed, the Boilermakers were stunned in the Sweet 16 by a Cinderella St. Peter’s team that had shocked Kentucky in the first round. A year ago came the lowest moment of all, a first-round loss as a No. 1 seed to 16th-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson.

The Knights were only the second 16th seed in 38 seasons to beat a No. 1 seed. The first had been UMBC, which of course toppled Virginia in the 2018 tournament. It’s worth noting that a year after that embarrassing loss, Virginia came back to win the national title after its Elite Eight win over Purdue. The Boilermakers might not match that feat, but a year after their nadir, they are finally in the Final Four.

Through all the horrific defeats, Painter remained the same. In postgame news conferences he never made an excuse, never whined about officiating and always credited the opponents and the opposing coach. Perhaps he let his emotions show in private, but never in public.

On Sunday, when he was asked the clichéd question about how he had done it, he shrugged and said “well, Zach [Edey] coming back certainly helped a lot.”

No kidding. Edey is now a two-time national player of the year, but he might have played his best game Sunday when he scored 40 points and added 16 rebounds.

Tennessee Coach Rick Barnes, who was gracious in defeat, mentioned that Painter hadn’t given up on his players or his system after the Fairleigh Dickinson defeat. Painter, he said, “has done a great job with continuing to build this team and grow them in areas to give them a chance now to be part of the Final Four.”

Purdue, in fact, hadn’t been to a Final Four since 1980, when its coach was Lee Rose and the center was future NBA all-star Joe Barry Carroll. Edey is, in many ways, a throwback to that era. Carroll was a low-post center who was the No. 1 pick in that year’s draft, after the Boston Celtics traded it to the Golden State Warriors. Although he had a very solid NBA career, he’s best known for what the Celtics netted in that trade: Robert Parrish and Kevin McHale.

Edey is a low-post player, which is why NBA evaluators think he will be drafted late in the first round or early in the second, since the low-post center is considered a thing of the past in the modern NBA.

Painter is still only 53 and has a chance to follow Keady, his mentor, to the Basketball Hall of Fame someday. Keady is 87 and often travels with Purdue late in the season and during the NCAA tournament. Naturally, CBS showed him on camera Sunday just about as much as it showed the actual game, but the shots of him with tears in his eyes at game’s end were certainly worthwhile. Plus, it was Edey who brought him a snip of the net.

Painter got a piece of nylon too—but not because he wanted it. In the past, when Purdue has won Big Ten championships, he has refused to cut down the net. “It’s kind of not my deal,” he said. “But they said I had to do it.”

He isn’t the only coach who feels that way. In 1982, after winning his first national championship at North Carolina, Dean Smith was asked to cut down the final snippet of net. “Let Jimmy Black do it,” Smith said, referring to the team’s only senior starter. I happened to be standing there, and asked Smith why he didn’t want to cut down the net when everyone around wanted him to do it.

“Because I hope I’ll have more chances to do it,” he said. “Jimmy won’t.”

Painter might have a chance to cut down another net as soon as Monday night. No doubt he would do it happily—if reluctantly.

Whether his next trip up a ladder comes next week or in the future, Painter will have earned it. He has certainly paid his dues.

John Feinstein is the author of 42 books, 23 of them New York Times bestsellers. He is a Post contributor who also writes for Golf Digest, Golf World and does TV color on college basketball games.