A Basketball Season In Review - Centers: Matt Haarms
After giving a brief overview of what happened with the 2019-20 Purdue Basketball Season, let’s take a bit of a deeper dive into the different position groups and the individual players’ performance for the year. This isn’t going to be a game by game breakdown but more of a holistic view of each player and if applicable, what they need to work on moving into next year.
We move on to the biggest position group on the team, both literally and figuratively. The center position at Purdue has always been very important and this hasn’t changed in the modern game. This also means we move on to our final 3 players on the roster as we wrap up our look back at the odd 2019-20 season. We will cover Matt Haarms, Trevion Williams, and Emmanuel Dowuona over the next couple of weeks. The center position was one of strength this year, as it is always, as these players set the foundation on offense and defense. We saw growth in some players and regression in others as well as potential. As of the writing of this article, this position is more up in the air and we will touch on that as well.
Matt Haarms
As we move to the big men there aren’t much bigger than the 7’3 man from Amsterdam. Matt Haarms came to Purdue because they have a reputation for featuring big men and developing them over time in the program. He spent 3.5 seasons in West Lafayette after joining the team midway through the 2016-17 season. He decided after the 2019-20 season to transfer away from West LaLa before eventually landing at BYU for his final season as a grad transfer. It came as a shock to many fans, myself included, but we have to remember that these are really still young adults and even if we don’t agree with their decisions, it is still their decision in the end. With that being said, Matt still gave his all to the Boilermakers and he deserves the respect that it brings.
Preseason
Coming into the season, many fans were looking towards the combination of Matt Haarms and Nojel Eastern to take up the role of upperclassmen mentors and leaders on the team. It was expected that they would take a step forward and be the steady hand to help right the ship since the roster still erred on the younger side. There were some uncertainties to Haarms’ role on the team though with the emergence of Trevion Williams as a freshman in 2018-19. Many thought it would work as a one-two punch with the size and physicality of Williams, and the length/shot-blocking of Haarms. There was also the idea that the two could play side-by-side with Haarms playing more of a 4 with his shooting to create more mismatches on offense. I was excited to see how the 7’3 big man had expanded his game to become an even bigger scoring threat to go along with his already great rim protection.
In-Season Results
I’m going to get this out of the way early. I believe that Matt Haarms played a lot of this year injured. He dealt with some issues with his hip and was concussed in the Nebraska game that held him out of the rest of that contest as well as the @Ohio game that came next. I don’t think he ever got back to 100% healthy and that contributed to his performance this season.
With the completion I believe we saw Matt Haarms finally play the game that he was going to bring to the team as an upperclassman. He was a shot-blocking rim protector on defense, and a stretch the floor center. Since Matt made his name at Purdue on the defensive side of the ball we will start there. Once again we saw him protecting the paint better than anyone else on the team as he tallied 57 blocks on the season as well as routinely altering the shots of the opposing players with his length. That being said, for every shot he blocked or altered, he also had a habit of chasing blocks getting out of position creating easy rebound put-backs for others. Too often he would chase just too far and that created issues because he was now out of position and with no help close that could rotate over to help.
Looking at the offensive side of the ball, we saw a lot of the same things Matt brought to the table in 2018-19. He still excelled in the high ball screen/slip whenever defenders hedged too far over the top. This was invaluable as it forced the defense to stay home making the screen more effective more often than not. He also seemed more willing to at least attempt to go back to the basket more this season finding moderate success with it ultimately coming down to the individual match-up.
Then there was the outside shooting. Or at least the mid-range to an occasional three-pointer. Going into the season all I wanted to be was for Haarms to at least become some form of threat to score from outside of 5 feet from the basket. He did that very well routinely shooting a nice 15 footer as well as putting in the occasional three. This is where I wanted to see him exploit some offensive match-ups when he was being guarded by someone who was a little sturdier/slower than him. This would force the opposing center further from the basket has to at least respect Matt’s ability to shoot from the outside.
If I had to express one disappointment from Matt, it’s that he never developed into the rebounder that I thought he would be. Not to say he never got rebounds, but being 7’3 and fairly athletic, I thought this would be the year that he took a step further towards becoming a better rebounder. I think this partially has to do with his propensity to go after blocks, which forced him out of position to the ensuing rebound, which is fair; but it would have been nice to see him use his length a bit more to pull down some extra possessions for the Boilers.
MH: Outside Shooting
This is what I meant when I said that I wanted to see Matt stretch the defenses with his outside shooting. The pick and pop with someone as big as him would create a lot of openings for others in the long run. Against Virginia he put in 2 threes against the Cavaliers.
MH: Shot Blocking
This entire game is an advertisement for the ability of Haarms to change the game with his defense. Even though it was against Green Bay, it’s impressive to record 7 blocks against any team.
I don’t believe we got to see the best of Matt Haarms this year because of some nagging injuries that kept him from his best. That being said, it was expected that he would take a leap forward and lead the team. We never saw that out of the Dutchman. He was still a good and important piece of this Boilermaker squad that will be missed going into 2020-21.
Season Stats/Averages: [PurdueSports.com]
GP/GS/Avg Mins/FGM/FGA/FG%/3PT/3PtA/3Pt%/FTM/FTA/FT%/PPG/AvgReb/TotalAST/TotalTO/TotalSTL/Blocks
29/15/20.5 /97/185/52.4% /10/32/31.3% /45/71/63.4% /8.6 /4.6 /26 /35 /6/57
Takeaways
As with others on the team, the games started number isn’t what you would expect as Coach Matt Painter spent a lot of the season trying to find a starting lineup that worked.
His field goal percentage was also something that could have been better considering his size. Matt routinely struggled to score on the block often getting bumped off balance forcing the miss. This was one area I saw as a problem and it never seemed to be addressed in Matt’s game. When he first arrived on campus he was practicing with Isaac Haas and Caleb Swanigan, both of whom were very physical back-to-the-basket players. So it wasn’t as if he was never shown how it was done to be a physical presence inside. Maybe he doesn’t want that to be his game, but it was also a liability as well.
His three-point percentage was exactly where it needed to be this year. No he didn’t burn up the nets from deep, but he shot well enough that it would have to be a bullet point on opposing teams’ scouting reports. That pulls big men away from the basket and can create an opening down low for others. I was happy to see Matt expand his game in this way.
Then as always, there are the 57 blocks on the season, which was the lowest season total of his Boilermaker career. He had 79 in 17-18 and 74 in 18-19. But even so, this will always be his calling card for his game. He has the length to alter shots or just outright deny them, as well as enough athleticism for his size to get into the right position to make the play.
Best Game
The home double-overtime win over Minnesota was easily the best game we saw Matt Haarms play this year. He put up 26 points on 11-16/1-3 shooting, grabbed 9 rebounds, 3 assists, and tallied 1 block while altering many more. This is a game where Purdue struggled as a whole and Matt Haarms stepped up like the team needed him to. This was the version of Haarms that Purdue fans wanted to see this year, he finished at the rim through contact, was a threat from beyond the arc, played good defense and used his size to rebound the ball. If the Boilers had gotten this Matt Haarms this season, it may have sparked some better results this year.
Final Thoughts
For final thoughts, Matt Haarms made a decision that he thought was best for him, and that is all you can do in life. Whether that was the best decision in the long run? We will all have to wait for that answer for now. Regardless, Matt spent 3.5 seasons in the Old Gold and Black providing passion and energy to the team however he could. Sadly, we won’t get to see him finish his career in West Lafayette as we fans imagined.
But, I hope I can speak for all Purdue fans in saying, good luck at BYU and I hope you find what you’re looking for there.
As Always, Boiler Up, Hammer Down, Hail Purdue!
