Matt Haarms gives Purdue another great option in Isaac Haas' place

DETROIT — Normally one of the most engaging, almost bubbly personalities on Purdue's team, Matt Haarms' tone took a decidedly serious turn Saturday when surrounded by reporters and TV cameras and questions about Isaac Haas' loss.

The redshirt freshman is now Purdue's primary option at center after Haas, an All-Big Ten player and one of the most influential presences in college basketball, fractured his elbow Friday vs. Cal State Fullerton.

"It’s not like I haven’t been playing," Haarms said. "You’re just going to see more of me and what I’ve been doing all year.”

The undercurrent to Haarms' tone seemed to basically be this: Hey, I'm good, too.

“Isaac is, in my opinion, the best center in the country, and playing against him has prepared me for this," Haarms said. "I'm ready to step up."

The matter at hand might not be drop-off as much as it might be difference.

And Haarms is far from an unknown, having logged 582 minutes this season, averaging 4.7 points, 3.1 rebounds and blocking a team-high (by a mile) 75 shots.

“(Haas) only plays half the game for us anyway, and in our last game (vs. Butler), Matt Haarms played 27 minutes," Coach Matt Painter said. "We’re used to playing half the game without him anyway, so it doesn’t change much.”

Haas is 7-foot-2, 300 pounds, a largely stationary sort of player whose size comes with certain inevitable trade-offs from a mobility perspective. But he's been as uncommon an offensive weapon as there is in college basketball.

Haarms is 7-3, significantly more narrow — the polar-opposite body type — but longer and exponentially more mobile. The young center moves like a player a foot shorter, whether it be north-south running the floor or more importantly east-west in his lateral movement defensively.

Purdue will inevitably miss Haas in some significant way, but there are some upshots in Haarms moving into a more prominent role.

Offensively, the Boilermakers will probably get Haarms some post touches, but they'll need to move and screen him into his post-ups, as opposed to Haas simply plowing his way into his.

But the bigger difference lies away from the rim, where Haarms is a more dynamic screener, both in setting the initial pick, then with all that comes off of it. So much of his scoring this season has come from him slipping screens in pick-and-roll, accounting largely for his 60-percent shooting. He's made some mid-range jumpers this season — he hasn't taken many lately — and even a three-pointer, though he's 1-of-7 on the season.

“He moves well, he sets good ball screens, he’s a good diver and he catch the ball and reverse for dribble handoffs," said assistant coach Greg Gary, who oversees Purdue's offense. "He can play out on the perimeter and being able to bring the other team’s big out to the perimeter helps as well.

“We’ve played with Matt at the 5 spot, so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We have some packages we put together with him, because he does play, and that’s not something we have to change.”

Dakota Mathias called Haarms' mobility and all that can come with it from an offensive perspective "an added dimension."

Defensively, there might actually be advantages for Purdue.

Haas' size has regularly been a strength opponents have sought to turn against the Boilermakers by putting the mammoth post in ball-screen situations. In effect, Haas' loss costs opponents their offensive focal point too, you might say.

All season, Painter has freely subbed on an offense-defense basis in second halves to get Haarms' mobility on the floor for defensive purposes, which says a lot about the contrast between the two.

“We’ll still defend pretty much the same way, but Matt gives us more flexibility and Jacquil (Taylor) gives us more flexibility in terms of switching ball screens and that sort of stuff," said assistant coach Steve Lutz, who coordinates Purdue's defense. "It depends on the opponent. You might have to double the post some down the road, double with a guard or double with a big, but you just have to see how the game is going, and that’s nothing we wouldn’t have done with Isaac before, because we’ve obviously tried to protect him in games to keep him out of foul trouble.”

Haarms now becomes a presence Purdue will need to keep free of whistles.

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His backup figures to be upperclassman Jacquil Taylor, whose season seems to have been derailed by spending October idle due to health concerns, then the unexpectedly sudden emergence of Haarms.

Taylor was very good at the World University Games and is a proven rebounder, and another more mobile option at the 5, but he's played just 93 minutes this season, almost all of them in one-sided situations.

“I still feel like I can play to that (level)," Taylor said of his showings at the World University Games in the summer. "I don’t feel like anything’s really changed. I just had a setback. That’s all I really look at it as."

Assuming Haas, who'll be in uniform Sunday, can't give Purdue minutes in a pinch against Butler — Painter all but ruled it out — then forward Grady Eifert would seem like Purdue's No. 3 center, obviously undersized, but the likely middle man of a small lineup. Painter mentioned Vincent Edwards and even guard Nojel Eastern as bigger players who could be used a variety of ways, too.

Haas has been a significant, almost foundational, piece all season — and even longer — for a team that has been defined by pairing overwhelming size and pinpoint offensive skill to create what's been a highly potent offensive combination, while managing sparkling defensive metrics as well. The Boilermakers have clearly benefited profoundly from the clear chemistry that's come from four key seniors playing four full seasons together.

That being said, Purdue wasn't about to give the impression Saturday that it's sunk, nor should it. Its roster is still loaded with All-Big Ten-level players and budding standouts, with or without Haas.

"Nothing changes," Vincent Edwards said. "We just have to go out and play. It takes away a little bit of low-post scoring, but I think we'll be OK."

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