LINCOLN, Neb. — Some quick analysis from No. 15 Purdue's 75-72 win at Nebraska.

Earlier in the season, a move to a reserve role seemed to bring something out of Matt Haarms.

It's endured, however, now that Haarms is back in the starting five, courtesy of Trevion Williams' illness.

Haarms is playing outstanding basketball right now, and he was probably Purdue's best — and most influential — player. Obviously his offensive success is so dependent on Purdue's guards, and how they're being guarded, but his defense and rebounding are all him.

All phases were exceptional at Nebraska, in a 17-point, nine-rebound, four-block.

Oh, and he made 7-of-7 at the foul line, the importance of which team-wide really can't be overstated.

Williams transformed Purdue mid-season, making the Boilermakers something even better than they were prior. He's not been as productive when healthy lately, though.

Now, though, it's Haarms transforming Purdue, or at least keeping it at the same level.

The plus/minus is a flawed statistic, for sure, but at a position at center, where it's one player or the other, and defensive dynamics change the way they do for Purdue dependent on personnel, it can matter.

Today, Purdue was +17 with Haarms on the floor, -10 with Williams. That's more a credit to Haarms than an indictment of Williams.

Purdue obviously deserves credit for winding ways to win these 50/50-type outcomes every time lately, but the reality is it's been in some of these binds and eventually things will probably turn out differently.

The Boilermakers are so tied to Carsen Edwards' play that when things aren't turning out well for him, it's a lot to overcome.

By no objective measure are things turning out well right now for Edwards beyond the fact that his team is winning, which, after all, is the whole point.

He's struggling to make shots. It looked like he'd come out of it at Nebraska when he made his first two, and three of his first four, but then he missed his last dozen, compounded by five turnovers.

Look, players will go through struggles at times, but Edwards struggling is something very different than it would be for any other player, because of his usage, which generally doesn't change when he's not connecting.

Throw in the fact that he can be inconsistent defensively and it's a dangerous mix for Purdue when Edwards isn't making shots and one it's been able to overcome a few times lately, albeit by the slimmest of margins, against teams aren't exactly elite this season. At Michigan State and Maryland, things turned out very different.

Edwards is a very good player, an All-American for a reason last season and a player who produces for others simply by being on the floor because of the attention paid to him.

But his struggles lately, and the flat-out good fortune Purdue has needed to overcome them, remind how vulnerable this team might be come the postseason, in elimination games, because so much usage is occupied by one player, and a streaky one at that.

Jordan Bohannon perhaps aside, there can't be many players who've made more big plays for their teams in big moments than Grady Eifert, a remarkable development considering the narrow nature of his niche.

But all Big Ten season, from the free throws at Wisconsin, to the three at Ohio State, to the various other game-closing sorts of shots he's made, to today's hustle plays, there's no telling where Purdue would be without him.

They certainly wouldn't be atop the Big Ten, we can all agree.

It also brings to mind a question: Can an All-Big Ten vote be justified? When taking into account a player's value to his team — and Eifert has been an excellent defender this season, too — you can make a case.

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