Painter leaves SIU for job at Purdue

Matt Painter resigned Thursday as Southern Illinois University Carbondale's head basketball coach to take an assistant coaching job at Purdue, SIU athletic director Paul Kowalczyk announced.\nPainter will be an associate coach under Gene Keady next season before taking over when the longtime Boilermakers coach retires. The 67-year-old Keady has one year left on his contract.\nA Purdue spokesman said the school was planning a Friday press conference. Officials at SIU in Carbondale also scheduled a Friday news conference to announce a new coach and officials wouldn't say Thursday who it is.\nPainter has said the transition from head coach to temporary assistant won't be a problem.\n"Working with Gene Keady would be great. He's been like a father to me," Painter said earlier this week.\nPainter, 33, played for Keady from 1989 to '93 and was hired as an assistant at Southern Illinois in 1998 by Bruce Weber, who spent 18 years as an assistant coach under Keady at Purdue.\nPainter was hired to replace Weber in the offseason, becoming the second-youngest men's basketball coach in school history.