Matt Painter had the same reaction as everyone else to Purdue’s buzzer-beating win over Texas.
“Holy sh-t,” the Boilermakers coach said as he walked off the court Thursday following the 79-77 Sweet 16 victory, as captured on video by WTHR.
No. 2-seeded Purdue edged the No. 11 Longhorns on Trey Kaufman-Renn’s tip-in of a Braden Smith miss with 0.7 seconds left, sending the West Lafayette, Ind. school to the Elite Eight.
“Holy s**t” – Matt Painter and everyone else after Trey Kaufman-Renn tips in the game winner with fractions of a second left to propel Purdue to the Sweet 16! March. @WTHRcom pic.twitter.com/4IhCKc2I06
— Eli Gehn (@EliGehnTV) March 27, 2026
Painter, in his 21st season helming the Boilermakers, was eventually able to find more words to describe the thrilling finish.
“Our guys kept their composure,” he said in his postgame press conference. “We got a good shot there at the end. Braden, I thought he executed well, made the right read, and took the right shot. And perfect timing. That’s what you want. You want a chance to get a stick back. If you don’t, then you go to overtime.”
It’s something he preaches to his players and, thankfully, they’ve listened.
“Coach always says that it’s not — a lot of times it’s not the first shot that goes,” Kaufman-Renn said. “They’re the tip-in at the end of games. He said that my four years here, so it’s kind of cool to actually experience that.”
With wins over No. 15 Queens, No. 7 Miami and now Texas under their belt, the Boilermakers will face their toughest March Madness test yet in top-seeded Arizona on Saturday.
Painter and Co. know what lies on the other side, having made it to the national championship game in 2024, falling to UConn in the finale.
First, they have to get back to the Final Four, no small task with the Wildcats awaiting them.
“It’s something we talk about like with championships, like trying to win the Big Ten. A lot of people want to just talk about it in totality, but you got to get yourself in position to win a Big Ten Championship,” Painter said. “This year we didn’t.
“Now, you got to get yourself in position — you can say, hey, we want to go to the Final Four. Well, you better win three games to put yourself in position, so you can’t even worry about it. Just have to worry about that first opponent, and then you move on if you are fortunate enough to win. Now we’ve put ourselves in this position, so we’ll watch this next game. No matter what, we’re going to play an unbelievable college basketball team in this next game.”
Another “holy sh-t” moment could go a long way.
