Purdue brings back Lusk as Painter's assistant

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) — Purdue coach Matt Painter is bringing back a familiar face to his staff, rehiring Paul Lusk on Monday to fill one of two openings.

Lusk served as an assistant/associate coach with Painter from 2005-11. He spent the next seven seasons as head coach at Missouri State, where he went 106-121. After he was fired in March 2018, Lusk landed at Creighton, where he worked for the past three seasons under coach Greg McDermott.

“Purdue is a place of consistency and with consistency comes success," Lusk said in a statement. “There have been two coaches here in the last 40 years and I have been fortunate enough to work with and learn from both of them.”

He is expected to help replace new Penn State head coach Micah Shrewsberry, the former Butler assistant who helped run the Boilermakers' defense for the past two seasons.

Painter also is trying to plug the hole left by Steve Lutz, who was in charge of Purdue's offense. Lutz is now the head coach at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

Lusk's return could help provide some consistency on a staff in transition.

“He obviously has experience in our program and was very instrumental in our success during his previous stint," Painter said. “Paul is very detail-oriented and has excellent knowledge about the game both as a player and coach and will be a very beneficial addition to our staff.”

Lusk spent one season on Painter's staff at Southern Illinois before moving to Purdue. He started his college playing career at Iowa and finished it with the Salukis.

___

More AP college basketball: http://apnews.com/Collegebasketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25