Purdue’s Matt Painter critical of NCAA’s scheduling sessions

While Purdue enjoyed the benefit of playing in Indianapolis in front of its home crowd, the NCAA Tournament’s scheduling caused some frustration. Overlapping game sessions meant fans were still arriving well after the Boilermakers’ matchup with Grambling State had begun.

Yes, they came into Friday as heavy 27-point favorites, but Purdue was looking to avoid becoming the second consecutive No. 1 seed to fall to a No. 16 seed. Vowing to exorcise the demons that was its upset loss to Farleigh Dickinson the year before, Purdue dominated Grambling State with a comfortable 78-50 first-round victory.

Still, even with that, the team’s fans and head coach, Matt Painter, expressed concerns about the scheduling format.

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“It was great, especially when they got into the stands,” Painter said in response to a question about essentially playing in front of a home crowd. “You’re starting the game, and people are filling in; it’s surreal, right? You would think you’d start a game and everyone’s going to be there. It’s like a major city crowd, like going to L.A. for an event, or people show up by the fourth inning.

“I always say that because we’ve had 72 sellouts in a row; I don’t know the actual number. But I always talk about it, like we have great fans, but we have to give them something to cheer about. Being in Indianapolis, you can have all your fans that you want, but if we don’t give them something to cheer about, they can’t help you.”

Purdue gave its fans something to cheer about on Friday. But that was well after tip-off. And it wasn’t just Painter who shared those sentiments.

Fans’ frustration mounted on social media, with Laura Kelsey (@labaker0 on Twitter/X) echoing those complaints. The Florida-Colorado game went late, pushing the end time to around 7:00 p.m. E.T. This ultimately caused a delay in entry for the following game, as fans weren’t allowed in until the venue cleared from the previous matchup. Kelsey stated that, among others, several Purdue fans waited outside for over an hour and only entered after the 16-minute timeout of the next game.

Several fans echoed the same sequence of events:

The scene 15 min before tipoff pic.twitter.com/xNzLSzokfC

— Old and Unwisely (@DocBurris) March 23, 2024

Despite keeping tip-off times the same, cramming games too close together leads to delays as crowds shuffle between sessions. This resulted in a near-empty arena at the start of Purdue’s first-round matchup against a lower-seeded opponent. While Purdue ultimately prevailed, most of their fanbase missed a good bit of the first half, which wouldn’t be ideal for any team, let alone the high-stakes environment of the NCAA Tournament.

[Paul Branham on Twitter/X]