Purdue Basketball: Coach Painter Says No to UCLA

Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY SportsCoach Painter gave UCLA a hard pass.

Coach Painter stays true to his Alma Mater. There were rumblings during the season that he would be one of the coaches of interest. UCLA, a program that always gets top tier talent and does little to nothing with those players had a long list of Coaches they wanted to go after.

Coach Painter was a “Tier II” coach for them. Whatever the hell that means. The 2019 National Coach of the Year is not a Tier II coach.

Instead, UCLA got Cronin from Cincinnati, who was probably a Tier III coach for them. Coach Painter proved himself this past season. With 4 seniors leaving and losing Jacquil Taylor as a grad transfer, he put together one…