More: Purdue 2019-20 roster | Prospectus
It was in early February in Mackey Arena that Purdue turned a 13-point second-half deficit into a 10-point win against Minnesota, one of those games that illustrated what made the Boilermakers' improbable Big Ten title possible: Their survival instinct in the face of would-be eliminator-type losses.
On this day, they won an exhausting outcome despite their best player and All-American, Carsen Edwards, missing 14 of the 20 shots he took, and all but one of his nine threes.
It wasn't his finest hour, and Matt Haarms knew it while he spoke at the post-game press conference, or rather spoke up, interjecting into a question fielded by classmate Nojel Eastern about Purdue's guards' struggles to crow-bar in a positive sentiment about Edwards' "maturity" amidst his shooting struggles.
It was Haarms speaking to the media — or rather everyone, by way of the media — but he was probably speaking as much to an audience of one back in Purdue's locker room.
“It’s just making sure I was defending my guy because I knew what people were going to be saying about him," Haarms says now. "He had one bad game, it was bad enough that he had two in a row. The whole world was coming for him. So I wanted make sure he, and everyone, knew I was still behind him. He was our best player. He was the guy. I wanted my voice to be the voice of everybody. We were all still standing behind him.
“I just wanted him to hear that we were all behind him and I said the exact same thing to him in the locker room: 'Hey, not your best game of shooting the basketball but he’s still out there, he still seemed (engaged). … It’s gonna be like that this year as well. You know guys are gonna have lesser games and I’m going to be right there talking to them about the things that were going wrong, the things that they can improve for next time.”
That whole anecdote puts a face on Purdue's new generation of leadership.
The Boilermakers, on paper, are young this season, but particularly in Haarms and Nojel Eastern, their two juniors, they should not wont for productively influential and strong personalities.
It was right after the season-ending loss to Texas Tech in the Sweet 16 last season in Boston, a game in which Purdue was dealt a debilitating stroke of circumstance when Isaac Haas was injured toward the end of a school-record 30-win season, that Eastern — then a freshman — promised to become a leader for the team that would follow.
And though Ryan Cline and Grady Eifert, Purdue's two seniors, were widely credited for their leadership, and deservedly so, Eastern lived up to his promise, as well.
"I’ve tried to be a leader ever since I was growing up," Eastern said. "I've just always been vocal. Always been vocal positively, always talking to my teammates, always trying to encourage, always trying to make each other better.”
Purdue has three seniors this season in Tommy Luce, Evan Boudreaux and newcomer Jahaad Proctor, but it's its two juniors who figure to loom largest in the leadership column, in addition to both potentially enjoying their breakout seasons as Boilermakers, even though both played at All-Big Ten-consideration-worthy levels as a sophomores.
"Matt is great at leading by example. Nojel is more of, I think, a vocal leader," sophomore Aaron Wheeler said. "So it’s just having that little contrast is great for us just because Nojel is gonna get on you in practice if you’re not doing something and Matt is more about talking you through things so it’s just kind of a contrast. I think it’s going to be good for us.”
Eastern is known as a talker; Haarms has lived it, too.
Their voices shouldn't stand alone this season, however.
“Coach Paint actually just literally just said it," Haarms said following last Wednesday's Purdue practice. "He said, 'You know, older guys have got to speak, but everyone has to speak.' Everyone has to talk to each other. New guys have to talk to each other, we have to talk to the new guys, new guys have to talk to us about stuff. That’s just going to be a continuous dialogue on the court between all of us. You know talking about what we can do better, talking about stuff we can improve. You know we’re obviously losing three great leaders, so guys have to step up.”
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