Some quick analysis from Purdue's impressive 73-62 win over Belmont in the Boilermakers' non-conference finale.
MATT HAARMS ASSERTS HIMSELF
In his second game this season coming off the bench, Matt Haarms was excellent, maybe this game's most influential player.
Purdue made special effort to get the ball inside to its posts, it seemed, and Haarms was the biggest part of that. He produced, and did so against a mid-major, but one with legitimate size. This wasn't the 7-foot-3 guy dominating against hopelessly overmatched low-major non-conference riff-raff. Belmont has size, and size that can play. Nick Muszynski is a solid player and is going to be a really good one, it looks like. Seth Adelsperger is legitimately big, and functional, too.
But on defense, Haarms was one of the biggest pieces of a defensive breakthrough for Purdue, against a very good offensive team.