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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — One of the longstanding storylines over the course of the past several years has been the back and forth and mutual respect between former Michigan coach John Beilein and Purdue’s Matt Painter. But, with Beilein’s escape to the NBA, the Wolverines have a new sheriff in town in former Fab Five basketball star Juwan Howard.
Painter and Howard squared off for the first time on Thursday night, and while the Boilermakers aren’t quite as dominant this year as they’ve been in recent memory, it became a thrilling game, with Michigan ultimately pulling it out in double overtime, 84-78.
So what was Painter’s first impressions of Howard? He gave a lengthy response discussing the state of the game and why he feels Howard will ultimately succeed in Ann Arbor.
“He’s a good basketball guy,” Painter said. “He’s been around basketball — so have I. Obviously, coming from Chicago and playing here, playing in the NBA 18 years and the people he’s been around with the Miami Heat — they’ve got one of the best organizations in the NBA. Being around Pat Riley and Erik Spoelstra. So he’s worked hard. Good for him.
“If I didn’t play basketball at Purdue, I wouldn’t be sitting here. If he didn’t play basketball at Michigan, he wouldn’t be coming up here after me. You gotta work hard and you’ve gotta be in the right spot in the right time. I got the job at Southern Illinois because we worked hard and we won and I was in the right spot at the right time and then Purdue came open a year later and I was fortunate. I was very fortunate.
“There’s a lot of guys that can coach that don’t get the opportunities that we’ve gotten. So you’ve gotta be grateful for it and make the most of it. It’s hard. It’s hard when you got 14 teams, 14 team presidents, 14 athletic directors and 14 boards of trustees that think we all should go to the NCAA Tournament, that we all should win the league and it doesn’t work that way. It gets real, real competitive and you’ve gotta make the most of it. Michigan’s a great school, it’s great academics and he understands that. I think he’ll do great.”
Painter and his Boilermakers have more than a month to think about this loss and will look to avenge Howard and the Wolverines in West Lafayette come Feb. 22.