DETROIT — Purdue has lost center Isaac Haas for the remainder of the NCAA Tournament due to a fractured elbow, the program announced shortly after departing Little Caesars Arena following its win over Cal State Fullerton.
Haas went to the floor hard with less than nine minutes to play. He returned to the game and appeared fine. Teammates joked about how often Haas goes to the floor hard and Haas himself suggested he'd be fine.
But an X-ray soon after revealed a fracture. The senior will undergo college-career-ending surgery.
The third-team All-Big Ten is the Boilermakers' second-leading scorer and one of the top centers, and most influential players, in college basketball.
Haas, frequently subject to extremely physical encounters with opponents struggling to counter his 7-foot-2, 300-pound frame, often has taken hard spills to the floor, to the point teammates quipped about it in the locker room after this latest episode.
Haas himself suggested he'd be fine for Sunday, though he admitted to some irregularities in his elbow.
"It was kind of clicking and doing some weird stuff," he said.
Haas did not know of the severity of the injury until the X-ray was taken following Purdue's open locker room session.
More to come ...
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