"Personally, I didn't think I did a great job. I felt like when stuff happened, I just tried to keep quiet and keep my cool, but at the end of the day, I think what this team needs most is for me to communicate and help."
"I was just trying to process and think - What could I do? What could I say? What actions I could try to help and I just couldn't think of anything during those times we were losing. So I didn't really know what to say. So just understanding that. Maybe how I looked, it looked negatively. I look back at that and I understand. I'm not someone that's dumb. Like, okay, I didn't do anything wrong. I'm gonna admit when I did something wrong. I did something wrong, and I think that was wrong for me and I've gotta do a better job. Especially as a leader of this team."
Those are quotes of someone who has done a lot of things in his career, but he's never done this: lose, and then lose again, and again, and again.
Braden Smith, unquestioned leader of Purdue on the court, wasn't the only Purdue player baffled, uncertain of what to do or how to react to Purdue's four game losing skid. A losing streak that is foreign to every player on the roster. Purdue has never lost four games in a row since any of Purdue's roster came to Purdue.
But Purdue's power hierarchy is a triumverate and as Smith struggled to find his voice, the usually quiet one, Trey Kaufman-Renn, was making sure his voice, and the entire team's voice would get a say.
It's one of sports most pure cliches, a story that requires a team to find itself in the dark, and search for a way out within itself.
And so you get the story of Purdue's players' meeting.
But that's a story hoping for redemption. Before redemption, you have to admit failure. Something that Purdue hasn't shied away from.
"Where is our leadership? How are we dealing with adversary?" Assistant Coach Paul Lusk asked on Thursday. Then he offers the honesty that Matt Painter says is necessary to get better, "And to this point, it hasn't been very good, so that needs to get corrected.”
