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VOLUME 26, ISSUE 2 33 back, a lot of times you're not able to do that because you get fired. You're always two bad seasons away from getting fired. "(In 2012-13), we were 8-10 in the Big Ten and two teams that were 8-10, too, went to the NCAA Tour- nament and one of them won a game in the NCAA Tournament. And the next year we weren't as bad in non-conference — we were 10-3, won the ACC/Big Ten Challenge (game), won at West Virginia — and then we had a bad conference season. So if you put those two good parts from each year together, you're on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament, but that's not how things work. But it wasn't as bad as it looked. "Our culture wasn't good. We didn't have guys playing well together. We didn't have guys sharing the basketball like they should. We didn't have guys putting in energy on the defensive end, giving ev- erything that they had or focusing on that end of the court. "Last season, with the five freshmen we had and the improvements that Raphael (Davis) and A.J. (Hammons) made and being able to get (Jon) Oc- teus, which was pure luck, we were able to change things. When you go through those (struggles) and guys stay and don't run from their problems, you can really improve as a team. That's what we did. We put ourselves in a good position and didn't get too down when we had a couple of bad losses in non-confer- ence. We still felt like we had a team that could com- pete. We still had to make some strides, and we did. We had to make some adjustments, and we did. We got better defensively and we showed some tough- ness. We were pretty resilient and now we have to build on that. "We have to be better than we were, but we have to do it from Day 1. That would be a sign of maturity for this team. I don't think we have anyone on our team walking into this season where I'm thinking that I'm fighting him. That's the first time in four years that I can say that. It's not like some of the guys I was fighting were bad guys, it was just hard for them to understand what was needed in organized basketball. That's what it comes down to. Some guys have talent, but they struggle in organized basket- ball, and that's not their fault. It's my fault. I have to do a better job of evaluating. Just because someone's athletic and talented doesn't mean they're going to be a great player in the Big Ten and be a productive player, because there are other things that go with being productive." Gold and Black: You brought up "always being two bad seasons away from getting fired." Was that running through your mind last December when you were 8-5? Painter: "No, but it's just a known fact when you struggle in college basketball two straight years. You go to those (Big Ten) meetings and there are 14 col- leges there and I'm only looking at three faces that were there 10 years ago when I got the job. It's not hard to figure out. We were last place in our league, you know, and it's a business. It's a very competitive business, so if you can't handle that then you proba- bly aren't going to be very successful. "You have to be able to handle adversity and be able to get things back on track and I think we've been able to do that. It's not like we've arrived or any- When I say "good," you say "neighbor." P097313.1 State Farm, Home Office, Bloomington, IL Call me for your insurance needs and see how it feels to be on a #1 team. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. ® CALL ME TODAY. Now that's teamwork. Trent B Johnson, Agent 249 E State Street West Lafayette, IN 47906 Bus: 765-743-9595 trentismyagent.com