Matt Painter's greatest test - Can loyalty and honestly compete with NIL?
John Fanta is a happy guy. The sports media personality and Field of 68 host, doesn't appear to ever have a bad day.
Still, you can see the excitement turn up when Matt Painter steps away from the podium at the NCAA Tournament and Fanta asks Purdue's SID if he can steal Painter away for a few minutes.
We, the local media, try not to take it for granted, having Matt Painter around all season, but it's clear when national media gets around Painter, they're excited for a chance to talk with a head coach that has become a national sports media darling, a type of college basketball Godfather prone to viral clips of idealism, truthisms, and basketball breakdowns.
If Matt Painter ever retires and doesn't decide to disappear into a sea of Cubs fans at Wrigley Field, the media outlets will be lining up to throw him money to get him on their studio shows.
But there's something more to Painter than quippy homerisms, a nostalgic, idealistic quality where Painter and Purdue has become one of the last vestibules of college basketball where old school ideals can live with new age sensibilities. Purdue is credited with doing things the right way and Painter is a coach that rival fans wish they had, who they can't help but respect.
But what does the right way mean when money, like an avalanche, continues to surge towards every dark corner of college basketball?
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