Matt Painter's Go-To Practice Drills! Daily Practice Drills That Build Winning Offensive & Defensive Team Concepts

with Matt Painter,
Purdue University Head Men's Coach;
2024 Big Ten Regular Season Champions;
2x AP Big Ten Coach of the Year (2023, 2024);
2023 Big Ten Tournament Champions;
2023 AP Co-Big Ten Coach of the Year;
2022 Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame;
2019 NABC National Coach of the Year;
2019 Elite Eight;
4x Big Ten Coach of the Year (2008, 2010, 2011, 2019);
5x Big Ten Regular Season Champions (2010, 2017, 2019, 2023, 2024);
2009 Big Ten Tournament Champions;
2009 US U19 National Team Assistant Coach (Gold medal);
Purdue University Associate Head Coach from 2004 to 2005;
Southern Illinois Head Coach from 2003 to 2004;
2004 MVC Regular Season Champions;
2004 MVC Coach of the Year;
Southern Illinois Assistant Coach from 1998 to 2003;
Eastern Illinois Assistant Coach from 1995 to 1998;
Barton College Assistant Coach from 1994 to 1995;
Washington & Jefferson Assistant Coach from 1993 to 1994;
played college basketball for Purdue from 1989 to 1993 (guard)

In this highly valuable instructional video, you will get a first-hand look at an early season team practice led by Purdue’s Head Basketball Coach Matt Painter. 

From an in-depth examination of a variety of drills that Coach Painter uses in his practices, to detailed explanations about each component of a practice – you will enjoy this highly competitive practice that help prepare his team from both an offensive and defensive standpoint. 

Coach Painter communicates what he is looking for in each practice drill he demonstrates, including key coaching points, how to best teach each drill and the purpose the drill serves during his practice.

Key Drills That Emphasize Key Concepts

Coach Matt Painter points out how the drills he uses every day in practice reflect not only the tenets critical to his team’s success, but also how every drill serves as a means to emphasize both in-game strategy and acts as a key tool for the implementation of a scouting report for upcoming opponents. Painter stresses how his practices are competitive by design and how the work done in drills helps to establish a foundation of building up the team from an offensive and defensive standpoint. 

Coach Painter takes to the court to show different drills that help illustrate these ideas – beginning with a variety of defensive close-out and help-defense drills which teach and stress the importance of these actions during a game. 

Because passing is done in all practice segments and drills, Coach Painter points out a fascinating and thought-provoking idea - ‘everything you do in practice could be labeled a passing drill!’ 

Coach Painter also explains how his players are also taught to dribble in every situation on the court and covers the key concepts that players need to learn and think about while dribbling. He showcases several valuable breakdown drills that help players improve drive-and-kick situations in games, while providing good screening angles to free up offensive players.

The drills portion of this video is important because it sets the foundation for the offensive and defensive points of emphasis that Coach Painter wants to teach his players. 

Matt Painter’s ‘Go-To’ Drills

Coach Painter talks about drills that he has his players perform regularly and how they’ve been an important aspect to his teams’ consistent successes.

Drills covered in this section include: ‘Transition Shooting Drill’ (3-on-3 and 5-on-5 versions), ‘Box-Out, Rebounding Drills’ and ‘Georgetown Close-Out Drills.’ Coach Painter also covers some highly effective half-court drills – including one that places his players in a disadvantageous situation with his ‘Minus-1 Drill.’ He also highlights the ‘Circle Rush Transition Drill’ which helps train players to look for secondary break opportunities. 

These drills help teams at all levels with skill-development and small-sided breakdowns. Painter talks about using drills to break the game down and then having those learned-skills transfer to live-game, 5-on-5 situations.

Offensive Breakdown Drills

Coach Painter flows into the last section of the video to highlight the way he teaches and prepares his players in practice for offensive breakdowns and explains the importance of being prepared for different defensive coverages that opponents will throw at his team. 

In Coach Painter’s offense, a wide-array of half-court sets with many different actions can be run depending on the opponent’s defense. Painter shares a variety of different actions that his team runs and uses in the half court. These breakdowns are extremely valuable to demonstrate examples of different actions that Painter wants to run and how these strategies are effective in getting good scoring opportunities.

This video is a must-see, instructional blueprint for coaches at all levels who want to see how Matt Painter runs his daily practices. You will get a taste of the intensity present at every practice and an appreciation for the attention to detail from Painter and the level that his team competes at every minute of each practice. 

The coaching concepts and practice drills shown in this video will help all coaches regardless of the offense and defense he or she may use. Coach Painter does a great job explaining each drill, breaking the drill down and then explaining the importance of each drill to the larger picture in the scheme of the team’s strategies.

125 minutes. 2023.