Time out, so Painter who finished 25-5 and 1st in the Missouri Valley his first year at Southern Illinois, then went to PU where he finished 11th, then went:
4th
2nd
2nd
1st
6th
7th
12th
3rd
3rd
1st
2nd
1st
10th
4th
3rd
1st
and is currently the likely team to finish 1st again.....that is comparable to Crean? He will have 16 tournament appearances in 19 seasons as a HC. But specific to your point, He had 6 tournaments, w/4 top 2 finishes in the B1G in his first 7 seasons.
Crean started 0-3......already the comparison is over. He had 1 top 4 finish (just 2 top 6 finishes) in that same period. Purdue lost Hummel to an injury his last year while Crean had all of his dice for 2 years and matched what Painter did. The comparisons here are as invalid as can be.