Purdue spent week talking out its recent recent struggles amidst surprising losing streak

Enduring a losing streak unlike anything any of these players have experienced at this level, or in some cases, any level, Purdue used its discretionary time this week prior to Friday night’s game against UCLA to talk it all out.

Following losses to Michigan, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Indiana — all of which Purdue led by a meaningful amount at one point or another — knocked the Boilermakers out of contention for their third Big Ten regular season title in a row, this was an inflection point for Purdue that Trey Kaufman-Renn took hold off, gathering his teammates for a players meeting in the team’s locker room on Wednesday.

“As players and even as a staff, we’re probably the lowest we’ve been in a long time and needing a win as much as ever,” Kaufman-Renn said.

The meeting was meant as a measure to ensure players remain on the “same page.”

Meanwhile, Coach Matt Painter met with players individually — as he’ll do in-season periodically, though office time is largely the purview of assistant coaches — to both reinforce expectations and to, well, catch up.

“Just sitting down, I think sometimes other things can bother players that are outside the game,” Painter said. “You just have to make sure nobody’s kind of fighting themselves.”

Kaufman-Renn said he believed Painter’s intent was to encourage, but with the reality that “the film doesn’t lie.” Painter’s approach has long been to be “demanding without being demeaning,” and that was the tack he says he took with his players this week.

“I think the coaches’ message is just when we do our job, we’re successful,” Kaufman-Renn said, “and we don’t, we’re not.”

That’s where things have gone sideways for Purdue during this rarely seen losing streak. Its detail- and cohesiveness-driven defensive success of January has largely crumbled of late, not totally, but second halves in particular have been ugly. The Boilermakers’ ultimate cardinal sin, turnovers, have kneecapped Purdue the past two games.

It has looked bad, as well. In the players meeting, it was freshman Gicarri Harris who spoke up about “body language.” Frustrations with officiating or adversity snowballing have been pretty observable.

“That’s something us, as older guys, we have to work on,” Kaufman said. “We have to get better at that. Just hearing everybody’s perspective was really helpful.”

Optics were a hot-button subject.

“We’re expected to win and part of it is about carrying that on your shoulders and understanding you’re one of the elite programs and you have to carry yourself like that,” Kaufman-Renn said.

Among those who took the issue to heart, though he may have come to the realization himself: Braden Smith. The point guard has been plagued by turnovers the past two games and hasn’t steadied Purdue the way it needs him to when these games have turned against it. He’s been visibly frustrated at times, but sullen at others, belying the spirit and competitive edge that have made him one of this program’s greatest guards ever.

“At the end of the day I think what this team needs is for me to communicate and help,” said Smith, who’ll almost certainly become Purdue’s career assists leader Friday and is bound for All-America honors following the season. “Just how I am, I think I was just trying to process things and think about what I could say or what action I could take to help.”

But he needs to be more overt, he said. He’s come to realize his demeanor at times might have “looked negative.”

“I think I gotta do a better job, especially as a leader of this team,” Smith said, “and I want to win, so to do that, I got to do better for these guys.”

With just three games left in the regular season, leadership now gets tested, just weeks before the postseason.

“Coaches-led teams are not better than player-led teams,” Painter said. “When you get experience and have players who are leading, it’s what gets said when the coaches aren’t around that’s most important.”