Aside from my fandom, Purdue basketball and the Minnesota Twins have something in common: winning in the regular season, failure in the post season. It's a tough way to go through life, undoubtedly. Other fans of both teams are justifiably frustrated and losing patience. Factions of both squads are calling for changes to the coaching staffs.
For different reasons for both team, those are reactionary positions, and don't really represent solutions that would solve problems. In Purdue's case, in particular, it would certainly hurt more than it helps, the firing of long time head coach Matt Painter. Painter took over for venerated coach Gene Keady, who lead the Boilermakers through the 80s, 90s and into the early 2000s. Under his direction, the Boilers made the tournament 18 times, without a single Final Four appearance.
The criticism of Painter is that he is likewise unable to reach the Final Four. Sure, he makes it to the Big Dance on an almost annual basis, but he's only reached one Elite 8, and the Sweet 16 on 7 occasions. Keady, for what it's worth, reached the sweet 16 5 times in his venerable career, which was 25 years in West Lafayette.
Keady was a technician who excelled at getting the most out of the players he had. Painter, on the other hand is an excellent recruiter. Part of the criticism of Painter is that he hasn't gotten the best out of his exemplary recruiting classes. While fair, I would also argue that it takes a special coach to get such persistently talented classes to come to a school that hasn't been to the Final Four in 42 years, is located adjacent to some Indiana cornfields and doesn't have an extensive track record of NBA talent. If there was a way to combine Keady's technical prowess and Painter's eye for talent, you would really be on to something, but it's pretty special that Purdue was able to hit on one or the other in back to back coaching hires.
Put another way, who are you hiring to replace Painter? What would they bring to the table? A different voice? College classes turn over every 4 years, at most. That the Boilermakers are in the discussion year over year is a credit to what Painter has built at Purdue.
The Twins sit in first place, have acquired and developed talent in a cost effective manner, and have a pipeline of pitching prospects that were promised when the current leadership was hired. I know that I have wondered just what the heck the Twins were doing at certain points, with Byron Buxton, Royce Lewis, this offseason, but it's hard to argue with results.
The Twins are famously amid a historic postseason losing streak, but this is the third front office and third manager to helm the team through this drought. It's not entirely on them, and contrary to previous administrations, they've been aggressive on the trade and free agent market, willing to trade away prospects and spend money where it suited the team.
It's been working, and it's worked so far this year. Why would you want to change direction now, when the Twins so recently made a hard change shortly before a pandemic interrupted everything, and success is being realized? Because Tyler Duffey had a couple of bad outings? This was the direction so many fans clamored for when Terry Ryan was in charge. We have it. Did you want to go back?
Matt Painter's process warrants a much longer career, and Derek Falvey and Thad Levine's results likewise do the same.
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