Express Thoughts: Men’s BB Coaching Staff Changes

Tuesday, Purdue announced significant changes to Matt Painter’s coaching staff.

Former Boilermaker player and Painter staffer Kenneth Lowe will return to his alma mater, replacing veteran assistant coach Terry Johnson. P.J. Thompson will take on the associate head coach title that hasn’t been held since Micah Shrewsberry left for Penn State. And former Purdue guards Lance Jones and Sterling Carter come on board as graduate assistants now that Carson Barrett’s and Isaiah Thompson’s two-year terms are up.

PAINTER DOESN’T CHANGE FOR THE SAKE OF CHANGE

Matt Painter must believe pretty strongly in this being an upgrade, because he has never been one to make changes for the sake of making changes, preferring continuity over the alternative. Lowe’s return to his alma mater has been at least two years in the making, and Painter has long valued him and wanted to bring him back into the program. Lowe has always wanted to come back.

As for Terry Johnson, this is sort of the rough part of the business. The extremely accomplished assistant coach has been part of multiple national runner-up teams but has never gotten a chance to become a head coach. When he came to Purdue from Ohio State, it was to gain experience coaching offense in order to help him move up to a head coaching position, but PJ Thompson sitting right behind him was clearly the more streamlined communicator to call offense. So the initial plan changed after just a season, and Thompson eventually replaced Johnson as a fully privileged recruiter and has already established himself as a really high-level performer in that area.

Johnson is a solid coach and a beyond-reproach person but as he was re-assigned to sharing defensive responsibilities with Paul Lusk, there was some redundancy there.

What Lowe’s responsibilities will be, we don’t know, but chances are, it will involve defense.

Lowe and Jones, in particular, represent a real rush of energy to a veteran coaching staff.

THE WRITING IS ON THE WALL

No one has really had to say it these last couple years, but actions do speak as loudly as words, and Thompson already taking on the associate head coaching role really doesn’t change anything for him in the short term. But it is at least a nod to the reality that he is being set up to one day be Painter’s successor.

Painter has had a plan about all of this for quite some time, and bringing Thompson back as a GA years ago, it was pretty evident from day one that his intention was to make his former point guard a really central piece of the program’s future, whether it was as a longtime assistant coach or maybe even his eventual successor. Thompson has turned down jobs these last couple years in order to stay at Purdue.

There is no really compelling reason to think Painter is going anywhere anytime soon, but Purdue has had a remarkable run of continuity in its head coaching ranks, and such things are always in mind. Painter himself came in as a coach-in-waiting and most likely has the same sort of arrangement in mind.

Whether succession ever becomes a contractual matter here in the next few years, we don’t know, but Thompson has already established himself as a very fitting eventual successor to one of the great coaches in college basketball right now.

THE PROGRAM ENDURES

Painter succeeded Gene Keady. Thompson might one day succeed Painter. Lowe, Brandon Brantley, etc., are all huge parts of Purdue reaching its highest levels ever in recent years and still remain integral pieces to the coaching staff that will move toward its next era.

Jones and Carter were only at Purdue for one year each, but they are still very much part of the “family.”

If there is a “Purdue way,” it has been greatly valued and there is no intention of allowing it to fade away.

Keep in mind, too, that this comes during the spring in which every player slated to return to next year’s team did so after a four-year senior class ran out the entirety of its career at Purdue.

The attachment to this place seems to keep on keepin’ on.