Purdue Head Coach Matt Painter led his Boilermakers into Evanston tonight for a match-up at Northwestern, just hours after the Purdue University was scarred by tragedy. The campus was briefly put on lock down while local police apprehended a Purdue student who shot and killed a fellow student. Classes were cancelled for Tuesday and Wednesday. Matt Painter and his team were in the Chicagoland area and not in West Lafayette when the fatal shooting occurred.
After the game, won in double overtime 63-60 by NU (no, that’s not a typo. That’s the actual final score), Matt Painter greeted the media. The Boilers certainly earned this loss tonight, as they blew numerous chances. Northwestern did not lead in the contest until the 4:37 mark of the second overtime.
Matt Painter was asked about the role of basketball today, in light of the tragic event. “I don’t think basketball is all that important when something that tragic happens,” he said.
“It’s really senseless. I don’t know all the details, but it makes no sense, and it’s tragic anytime something like that happens.”
When Painter heard about the shooting at Purdue, the first thing he did was get in touch with his daughter, a student at the University who was in class at the time. Like other Purdue students she was put into a safe room.
At Northwestern’s home court, a moment of silence was held for Purdue student Andrew Boldt, the campus murder victim. A portion of the Northwestern student section, The Wildside, also made a gesture of solidarity with the Big Ten community. This the idea of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. They bared their chests and spelled out “STAND WITH PURDUE.”
I asked Matt Painter if he saw the classy move by NU, and what he thought about it.
“I did not see that. Obviously, I heard what they did before the game, but I don’t like to talk publicly about something where I don’t the details,” he said before I then explained to him what the Northwestern kids tonight.
“That’s cool,” he said.
“I recognize that it was a real class thing for them to do.”
The shooting suspect has been ID’d by authorities as Cody Cousins. They were both Teacher Assistants for the same professor, D.G. Meyer. In addition to Matt Painter, I also got reaction from a couple Purdue players about the tragedy in WL today. Read that here.
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. A Fulbright scholar in media studies, he’s also an analyst for multiple news talk radio stations across the country; with regular weekly segments on NBC and Fox Sports Radio. President Barack Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)