Purdue Basketball: 2017-18 grades for the Boilermakers
By Shane Skeary
Isaac Haas (A) – 14.7 points, 5.7 rebounds, 1.3 blocks
Ah yes, the big fella.
I’m actually kind of happy to see Haas leave because we now won’t have to hear the national TV announcers make jokes about his shoe size (although they’ll now we replaced by Haarms hair jokes). Kidding aside, the 7’3 senior had a heck of a year to cap off his career.
Haas finished with career-highs in points (14.7), rebounds (5.7), blocks (1.3) and free throw percentage (75.8). He led the Big Ten in field goal percentage (61.7), effective field goal percentage (61.7) and win shares per 40 minutes (.246). Not too shabby for the biggest engineer you’ll ever see, right?
Unfortunately, for the Boilermakers and us fans, our national title aspirations went out the window with a giant thud, a broken elbow and a vine that I still think is funny:
Though the talented mechanical engineers in West Lafayette tried to rebuild him, it appears your shooting elbow is critical to your performance on the court and thus, Haas’ career ended in Detroit.
His loss proved vital to the Boilermakers chances as the tournament wore on. So much about how Purdue operated on offense revolved around Haas’ dominance. Without him, they were much easier to guard as opposing defenses were able to key in on the perimeter play of both Edwards and Mathias.
Haas finally made a much-deserved All-Big Ten team this year and NBA team can always use a talented 7-footer, so here’s hoping that the elbow heals quickly. Purdue basketball fans will be eager to watch one of the more offensively dominant centers they’ve seen move on to the pros.