Purdue has been a national title contender for several years now, and the wins continue to pile up for head coach Matt Painter. He reached a milestone on Sunday when the Boilermakers beat Akron 97-79 at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Ind. It was his 500th career win.

He's now the 15th active coach to reach that mileston. 

Painter was presented a game ball in the postgame locker room, and then doused with water by his players. It's a nice honor, Painter said, but these kind of milestones are things he'll reflect on later. There's another game on Thursday against Memphis in the Bahamas, and that's on the forefront of his mind.

"I think in time it does. Right now, we have a really good team, and I'm trying to take in this win, not really the number of the win, but just take in the win. Wake up tomorrow and get ready for Memphis," said Painter, a former Purdue player himself.

"I would think it's a big deal if it wasn't me, but it is me, so I don't think it's a big deal. I'm yet to see a really good coach with bad players. It's a player's game."

Painter played for Gene Keady at Purdue, and went into coaching after his playing career ended. He was the head coach at Southern Illinois for one year, and went 25-5 in his first year. He returned to Purdue as a coach-in-waiting and took over from Keady in the 2005-06 season.

He's won five Big Ten titles and took Purdue to the Final Four in 2024, losing to Connecticut in the championship game.

Matt Painter postgame press conference

Here is the complete postgame press conference with Purdue coach Matt Painter.

NCAA all-time wins among active coaches

Here is the list of all active coaches with 500 Division I wins or more, with their current school, according to sports-reference.com:

1. Rick Pitino, St. John's — 887
2. John Calipari, Arkansas —880
3. Rick Barnes, Tennessee — 839
4. Bill Self, Kansas — 834
5. Dana Altman, Oregon — 783

6. Mark Few, Gonzaga — 746
7. Tom Izzo, Michigan State — 740
8. Kelvin Sampson, Houston — 728
9. Steve Alford, Nevada — 625
10. Herb Sendek, Santa Clara — 578

11. Fran McCaffery, Penn — 549
12. Mick Cronin, UCLA — 506
13. Jamie Dixon, TCU — 506
14. Greg McDermott, Creighton — 501
15. Matt Painter, Purdue — 500