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Isaac Haas said he wasn’t even focusing on offense.
With Rutgers touting the Big Ten’s top offensive rebounding unit, Haas was locked in on keeping his man boxed out and not allowing second-chance points Tuesday night.
For the most part, Purdue’s 7-foot-2 junior did that, grabbing six of his season-high 11 rebounds on the defensive glass and helping the Boilermakers limit Rutgers to only nine offensive rebounds.
But a crazy thing happened: With his focus elsewhere, Haas started to get hot on offense. And that produced a game unlike maybe he’s had in his career to this point.
Coach Matt Painter left Haas on the floor for nearly a 13-minute consecutive stretch in the second half, rewarding Haas’ effort, and Haas countered with production: Scoring 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting and four of eight free throws to help spark No. 16 Purdue’s 74-55 victory at Mackey Arena.
Haas finished with 24 points, two off his career high, on 9-of-11 shooting and, with those 11 rebounds, he had his first double-double in Big Ten play and first since Nov. 21.
“With him, we try to keep him fresh,” Painter said, “but when he plays like that, you don’t want to take him out. That’s the key. When you have guys and they play well, that’s what you always tell your players, you want the coaches to say, ‘Who should we play? What rotation should we do? We know he’s a part of it.’ You want that to be your name.”
It was Haas on Tuesday, largely because of that key second-half stretch.
Haas entered the game in the second half at the 14:44 mark with Purdue clinging to a 43-35 lead. By the time he left with 2:20 to play, the Boilermakers were in control, 71-48.
Haas used a string of plays to spur the widened margin.
He had back-to-back three-point play opportunities on back-to-back possessions — the first coming off a catch-and-shoot offensive rebound, the second after finishing over the middle on an awkward across-his-body shot with contact. After his five points there — plus a one-of-two free throw chance previously — Purdue was up 54-41.
When Rutgers pulled within 11, it finally opted to double Haas in the post. The approach the entire game had been to pressure Purdue’s perimeter players and try to take away three-pointers. The change-up on that possession was quickly recognized by the junior center, and he quickly kicked the ball out to the top of the key to a waiting Dakota Mathias. Mathias drained the three, forcing a timeout.
“Isaac got on a roll there, and that was huge for us at that time,” Mathias said. “They were still hanging around. It’s a 12-, 14-point game. It was definitely a big emphasis (to get it inside), and we had to keep doing that.”
So Purdue did.
After the timeout, Haas scored eight consecutive points and 10 of Purdue’s next 12, blowing the lead to that 71-48 margin. Haas was a beast on the boards in the stretch, too, grabbing an offensive one that he converted into a free throw and then finishing Vincent Edwards’ miss with a tip dunk.
By the time he left the game with 2:20 to play, the crowd was roaring.
“When you get left in in games — I think it goes for every player — even if you make mistakes, if you get left in, it’s a chance to make up for your mistakes. Obviously when you have stuff go for you like that, you get more in a flow and you get more in a rhythm and that’s kind of what happened for me (Tuesday),” said Haas, who actually played more minutes in the first half, 14, than he did the second.”
Haas mentioned more than once after the game the importance of him accepting his role. Essentially, that means scoring when he is guarded one-on-one, passing it out when he’s not, fighting for rebounds and communicating well on defense, especially in ball screens.
When Haas does that, he’s a weapon everywhere on the floor.
“I thought he just kept it simple,” Painter said. “For him, it’s getting deep position and keeping it simple and going to his post moves and not trying to get away from that. He wasn’t spinning. He was just getting them deep, making his post move and obviously he was able to get fouled and go to the free throw line and steal some points. He was the difference for us in the second half. The fact we didn’t turn it over (in the second half) until the very end, the (plus-17) rebounding (differential) and then Isaac played well.”
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