Purdue Basketball's future's wheels might already be in motion

This topic remains years away, with any number of variables at play, but succession has worked at Purdue before and may conceivably be in the works again.

Matt Painter is not going anywhere any time soon. He’s 55 years old with a roll-over contract and no apparent desire to do anything other than coach his alma mater.

“I think here in four or five years, that’s when you start to have those discussions,” Painter said. “I think that’s an important piece, to be able to start discussing around that time which way you want to go.”

This is not a short-term matter. Painter is still young both in age and spirit. He’d likely agree he has the healthiest work-life balance of his career. He’s adapted well to every change that’s come to college basketball to this point. And his program is faring well, seemingly in a sustainable manner.

But P.J. Thompson’s assumption of the associate head coach title as part of this spring’s staff changes is notable. The title has normally gone to those standing at the precipice of head coaching jobs. Cuonzo Martin, Paul Lusk and Micah Shrewsberry all held the title before getting head coaching jobs.

They all had to leave for their shots.

Thompson may not.

The 30-year-old former Purdue guard has turned down opportunities that at the time would have represented golden opportunities for any up-and-comer. While no new post-promotion contract has been filed yet with the university, it is well-known that the program has made every effort to keep Thompson right where he is, including a salary — at last check, pre-promotion, $400,000 annually — on par with coaches much older, with much more experience.

Painter brought the 2018 graduate back to his staff following a short stint playing professionally in Denmark. Thompson held a few different entry-level sort of roles before assuming a prominent role in 2023, then taking the reins of Purdue’s offense the following season. That was Zach Edey’s senior season and the Boilermakers’ first Final Four appearance in a generation.

Thompson has presided over one of the nation’s most effective offenses ever since, loomed large in the career of all-time NCAA assists king Braden Smith and taken a central role in recruiting, notably as the primary recruiter on Omer Mayer, Caden Pierce and Isaiah Hill, among others.

“Everything P.J. has gotten in our program, he’s earned,” Painter said.

“He’s put himself in a great position. He’s very knowledgeable. He does a good job of teaching the game. You look at the backbone of what we’ve done offensively, it’s our personnel. But you’ve got to have somebody who can grow what you’re doing. He’s done a really good job of growing what we’re doing, but also growing what we’re doing around our personnel.”

It was Painter back in 2004 who was brought in to be Gene Keady’s pre-appointed successor. It wasn’t the smoothest hand-off but hit big in the long run at a school where there have only been 18 coaches since 1896 and only two since 1980.

Thompson might line up to be the third … eventually.

It’s a distant thought, though: Purdue is embarking on a presidential search as we speak as Mung Chiang departs for Northwestern. There’s no telling who the athletic director will be — or what the Board of Trustees might look like — by the time Painter’s Hall of Fame career in West Lafayette concludes.

Barring a level of drop-off that would seem highly unlikely, Painter will leave Purdue as its all-time-winningest coach, one of the most successful in Big Ten history and one of the most iconic figures in the school’s athletic existence.

Suffice to say, he should wield some influence when the time comes to choose his successor.

“When we get down the road, I’m not making that decision,” Painter said. “The one thing as a head coach you have to do is keep putting your people in position to be successful. We’re putting him in a position to be successful, whether he’s the next coach at Purdue or he’s a head coach somewhere else.

“I’ve never wanted to be someone where I just want to be the head coach at Purdue and have more power than the Board of Trustees or a president. That’s not how that works. That just does not work. Sure, I’m going to try to help him out, whether that’s here or somewhere else, but at the end of the day, that’s just going to be a suggestion. I could make an adamant suggestion, but at the end of the day, that’s all.”