Takeaways: Purdue's fan day scrimmages
Saturday afternoon in Mackey Arena, Purdue held its annual fan day scrimmages, three 10-minute, split-squad games.
Here are some thoughts from the day's games.
Matt Haarms is an eye-opener: The 7-foot-3, 250-pound redshirt freshman center was arguably the star of the day, on a day on which somebody else scored 30.
Haarms finished the day with 18 points on 9-of-10 shooting, with eight rebounds, and won all three of the games he was in.
How he was productive was the most impressive part.
Haarms took five face-up jump shots and made four of them, obviously a difficult element for any defense to deal with, considering his dimensions.
But Haarms also scored on a post-up, on the move diving to the basket off a screen and on at least one drop-off around the basket for a dunk.
All fall, Haarms has been lauded for his work ethic, both on the court and off, and has improved rapidly. He's benefiting, too, from seeing the overwhelming majority of Purdue's No. 2 center minutes in practice, which amounts to No. 1-type minutes given the split-squad set-up.
Right now, Haarms doesn't just look like a promising long-range prospcect, he looks like he'll help the Boilermakers now.
Hey, Carsen Edwards can score: Breaking news.
The Boilermaker sophomore guard is never one to say anything particularly interesting about himself when he plays like this, but it's fascinating when he does.
Edwards was dominant throughout the three scrimmages, totaling 30 points on 11-of-16 shooting, with three assists and zero turnovers.
And in so many cases, as he's known to do, he made impossible shots with defenders not only in his face, but with their hand practically on the ball.
When he's in that mode, he's unstoppable, but the zero turnovers stat might be the most revealing, because he was in that mode and still took care of the ball.
Newcomer impressions: In addition to Haarms, Purdue's newcomers showed some things Saturday, largely Nojel Eastern, the freshman Swiss Army Knife who'll play important minutes at point guard for the Boilermakers this season.
Eastern totaled 18 points, four rebounds and five assists, but turned the ball over three times. He was 7-of-12 from the floor, with a number of acrobatic finishes in the paint and a pair of threes on three tries that showed a player who looks more comfortable shooting from long range than he did back in the summer. He's clearly been working on it.
Something that stood out: Eastern's ability around the basket to score. Obviously, if he is matched up on point guards and that matchup holds around the rim, Eastern's advantage will be significant. He's 6-6, 220, and has always been an effective finisher. Purdue's done some modest post-up work with him, too, intrigued by the possibilities there.
Aaron Wheeler might be Purdue's best athlete and showed it Saturday with some impressive dunks, but he also made a three-pointer (on three tries). Skill development will be a significant emphasis for him moving forward. His physical tools are all there.
Sasha Stefanovic didn't make a field goal, on only three tries, but he showed himself to be an outstanding passer and ball-mover who fits ideally into Purdue's offense, much like Dakota Mathias did a few years prior.
There may not be a role right away for Stefanovic and thus the redshirt option is very much on the table, but he has looked all summer like a keeper on every front.
Junior college transfer Eden Ewing seems more comfortable now than he did in the summer and is making plays as a result. He's been rebounding better in practice, and finished today with four to go along with three assists.
He will have to make a move, though, to carve out a niche for himself, it would appear. The other day, Matt Painter called Grady Eifert — Purdue's No. 2 power forward right now — his team's best rebounder at this point.
More: Point guard P.J. Thompson said that new assistant coach Steve Lutz has been pushing him all summer to steal more points in transition, and Thompson did that often Saturday. Thompson scored some of his 17 points on quick dashes to the basket, sucker-punching defenses before they'd set. He was also quick to let fly on his jumper in transition, reflecting an emphasis by Purdue to be aggressive from the backcourt.
Look for forward Vincent Edwards to be a featured player offensively specifically on post-up opportunities. Why? For one reason, he's very good in those situations and for another, he's an effective and savvy enough passer to make plays for others in such settings and he'll have shooters around him. If Haarms or Jacquil Tayor can get to the point where opposing bigs would have to follow them away from the basket to respect their shooting, it could in particular create opportunities for Edwards to sneak in for post-ups. With Isaac Haas in the game, spacing might not be ideal.
Edwards finished with 15 points and 11 boards in the scrimmages.
The Boilermakers shot 43.2 percent from three-point range, not skipping a beat from last season or the World University Games.
Purdue ran a bunch of zone, but solely for the purpose of simulation. It will not play zone this season.
Stats ...
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