Lots of bad luck has also gone into that. Let's not act like, in the last 40 years, Purdue has only had teams that are good enough to make the tourney and win a game or two. In the last 15 years alone, Robinsons back, hummels knee, hummels other knee, Virginia's lucky shot, haas's elbow. Not making excuses as to why they didn't make it further, but there has been some incredibly talented teams with some incredibly bad luck.
I do agree that 2021-2024 could be his best teams yet. Looking at the 2022 class, Purdue has a really good guard, another really good guard and forward on the verge of committing, and looks to be in good shape to land a top 30 big man. Painter is certainly trending in the right direction. Needs to capitalize though.