Unable to practice, Haas not a viable option for Purdue; NCAA notebook

BOSTON — Wearing a new brace on his fractured right elbow, Isaac Haas trotted down the floor and attempted a couple right-handed layups during Purdue’s 15-minute open portion of practice Thursday.

But the senior center who was injured in the NCAA Tournament's first round isn’t expected to play Friday.

Unless there’s a miracle.

Coach Matt Painter said Haas didn’t practice Tuesday or Wednesday, and Haas certainly didn’t look up for more than just jogging and clearly painful layup attempts Thursday. After each of those layup attempts, he was shaking his arm, appearing to be unable to feel his fingers, and grimaced considerably. At one point, he told a teammate it hurt to extend the arm even slightly — like he did on those layups, even though he still largely had the elbow bent.

And during that drill, he also couldn’t hold the ball after it slipped through the net — not exactly the kind of “rebound” he’d need to get during a game with bodies banging into him.

As much as fans may want it to happen, it’s unlikely Haas plays any significant minutes against Texas Tech. Or again this year.

“I would think he’s done,” Coach Matt Painter said Thursday. “To me, it’s the eye test. It’s going out and watching him. … If it was on his non-shooting hand, maybe you could think some things through. If you could still make a free throw. (If) he could still go to his jump hook, which is his best move. Now with this (injury), he can’t go to his best move. Can he catch the basketball? Can he make a free throw? Can he get a two-handed rebound? Those answers have been ‘no’ from what I’ve seen.

“It’s very difficult in those situations, but you also have to be a truth-teller. That’s your job as a coach. You’ve got to be diplomatic about it because it’s really hard. You play 130 games to get to your senior year for this moment, but you also have to do — as a coach — you’ve got to do what’s best for you team.”

Haas continues to insist how badly he'd like to play, but he also knows the reality of the situation.

And it's not good.

He has a fractured elbow, one that he can't straighten because, as he said late last week, "that’s when the fragment actually pokes out."

But Purdue doctors and athletic trainers still worked to find a brace that would be cleared by the NCAA, and Haas thinks they've found one. But, even if he's cleared, which he'll find out before Friday's game, the expectations aren't high.

"My goal is to just be an option. That’s it," Haas said. "It is tough. Because I’m not going to be what I was before. All four years, I’ve always been the same. I’ve always been that dominant force down low. I’ve always been an option offensively and defensively to step up. But, at the same time, it’s also really tough to just admit I’m not going to be like that anymore.

"I’m going to be that one-, two-minute guy if the opportunity arises in an extreme circumstance, then I would need to go in. It’s tough, but you accept it and do what you can to help."

As of Thursday early afternoon, Jacquil Taylor’s ticket count was at 17. He couldn’t squeeze any more out of his teammates, and he’d heard Purdue’s Sweet 16 matchup with Texas Tech was sold out for Friday night at TDGarden.

So what about the rest of the Cambridge, Mass., native’s family and friends who want to see Taylor play in his homecoming?

“Whoever can come, can come,” Taylor said Thursday, clearly leaving it up to others to fend for themselves. “I’m greatly looking forward to it. I haven’t played in the Boston Garden ever. I’ve been here. It’ll be good to play in front of my family, too, because they haven’t seen me play in who knows how long, so it’ll be good to play here.”

It’s the playing part that’s exciting for Taylor, who will graduate this spring but is a junior eligibility-wise.

With Haas out, Matt Haarms is Purdue’s starting center, but Taylor is in the rotation now, too, for the first time during his Boilermaker career. Against Butler in the second round last week, Taylor played seven minutes. He made a basket, got a rebound and didn’t have a turnover.

It was only the third time he’d entered a game in the last two months.

And now he’s playing at the arena he grew up nearby and watched his favorite player, Kevin Garnett, win games.

“The mindset for me is just to not to get too high, not get too low. Overall mindset is just play within yourself, play for the team,” he said. “It’s kind of hard playing in front of your family, you want to do so well. But you’ve got to remember you’re here to win and that you’ve got to play for your team and do every little thing for your team to win.”

P.J. Thompson is used to this in March, being the underrated, less-talked-about point guard.

Last year, there were expectations Iowa State’s Monte Morris was going to excel against Purdue’s point guard. All Thompson did was dominate the matchup, rising to the challenge and limiting Morris to 7-of-15 shooting, including only one-of-seven three-pointers.

This time, Thompson is the general afterthought against Texas Tech’s super senior Keenan Evans, who recently was named to the USBWA All-America second team. Evans, 6-foot-3, scored 45 points in Texas Tech’s first two victories in the NCAAs on 58-percent shooting from the field. And that’s despite playing with a toe injury Coach Chris Beard said “a lot of guys wouldn’t even be playing on.”

Not that Thompson cares much about Evans’ health. He just sees production — and an athletic, savvy veteran he needs to stop.

And the challenge of doing so is exactly what gets Thompson’s juices flowing.

“I love it,” Thompson said Thursday in a packed Purdue open locker room. “It’s part of our sport, the competition of it. Someone is supposed to be better than you, and you get a chance to play them and prove how good you are as well. Obviously, it’s not a personal matchup between us — I’m going to do my job for my team, and he’s going to do his, too — but the good part about basketball is the competition of it. When you’re playing against high-level players, you’ve just got to love it.”

Thompson, too, always has used slights to fuel him.

Whether they’re real or perceived.

But it’s part of his process: Building a chip so strong, so deep.

“I felt like I was under-recruited and under-valued my whole life, so when you get these opportunities, you’ve got to love it,” he said. “You’ve got to accept the challenge. You don’t want to make it personal, but you’ve got to take it personal in a sense of ‘I’m going to stop him and I’m going to help my team win.’ And that’s always how I’ve thought, and it doesn’t change this year for him.”

Thompson is quick to point out Texas Tech needs to guard Purdue, too. And, at least in Thompson’s case, Evans — or whoever gets the matchup — could have his hands full as Thompson’s aggressiveness has been at an uptick in the tournament.

Thompson specifically worked with graduate assistant Joey Brooks leading into the first-round game to be more prepared to shoot, and that promptly helped him sink three three-pointers against Cal State. Against Butler in the second round, Thompson made two more three-pointers but also took his defender off the dribble and sank a pair of floaters in the lane and scored 14 points, his highest total since Jan. 25.

“You’ve got to be ready to play and flip it on them, too,” Thompson said of the matchup.

• Carsen Edwards already has played against Tech’s Evans, though it’s not a matchup Evans seemed all too excited to talk about.

“He put me out of the playoffs my senior year,” Evans said, succinctly, in the press conference when asked about the players’ history.

Edwards was a sophomore on varsity at Atascocita, north of Houston, and Evans played for Berkner High school, outside of Dallas.

Evans scored 22 points, but Berkner lost, 71-49, in the Region II-5A semifinals.

“I remember that going into that game, that’s all we talked about was how we had to stop him,” Carsen Edwards said Thursday. “That’s all I really remember, that was our main intention to stop him. We were able to come out with a victory and win.

“I played OK. I remember in the playoffs my sophomore year, I played well, especially with the minutes I got my sophomore year.”

• The 9:57 p.m. scheduled tipoff could be a challenge, but Painter said he’s adjusting Purdue’s schedule and the team will “do some things (Thursday) night, stay up.”

“The team that makes plays at midnight is the team that’s going to win,” Painter said. “Some guys are better at midnight than others. But some guys are better at noon than others. We’ve had noon games this year, and sometimes that’s difficult for guys to play that early in the day. But when it comes down to it, it’s pretty important and both teams will be ready to go.”

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