Probably an agent trying to get a raise for his client.
Most likely.
When I first heard about Painter I dismissed it as impossible but now I'm not so sure. From what I understate Painter and his AD don't have the best relationship and even though Painter's contract was renegotiated last year his guaranteed salary is only 1.3 million. That's pretty low for a coach as accomplished as Painter. Missouri was willing to offer Anderson 2 million a year guaranteed base salary and would be willing to offer the same to Painter. Also Matt Painter is familiar with the St. Louis area from his time at SIUC.
I still think he will end up just getting a raise and staying at Purdue. He is from Indiana, Purdue is his alma mater, and Keady brought him back from SIUC to be the head coach there. But you never know. He would be a home run hire.
If Painter says no I hope we turn to Cuonzo Martin. He is currently the head coach at Missouri State. He is from the St. Louis area, was an assistant for 8 years under Gene Keady and Matt Painter, Keady's coaching tree so far has produced Bruce Weber, Steve Lavin, Kevin Stallings, and Matt Painter, he is supposedly well liked by the AAU coaches, known as a good recruiter, Missouri State has improved each year under him, he's young, and his teams play good defense. On the downside he has only been a head coach for three years and hasn't yet gotten his team to the NCAA tournament.