This week, in advance of Purdue opening preseason practice Friday, GoldandBlack.com is taking a detailed look at each of Purdue's scholarship players for the 2015-16 season.
We are going in descending order by height for order, so starting off with … well, you know.
(Isaac Haas.)
Where things stand: By the sounds of things, massive center Isaac Haas' off-season was a productive one, as he trimmed down his body some, improved his conditioning and presumably benefited in some way from his try-out for USA Basketball's Pan-Am Games team.
Projected role: A player who'd start for 80 percent of the programs in college basketball, if not more, remains Purdue's No. 2 center and our guess as of Sept. 28 is that starter A.J. Hammons won't require a move to the bench like he did during last year's non-conference schedule.
Keys to success: The single biggest thing that comes to mind is co-existing better with the officials. That might not be properly phrased. Don't want to sound like he has an adversarial relationship with the officials, but he learned last year some things about elbow use, for one thing, that he should have a better handle on as a more experienced player.
Additionally, Haas is probably going to get fouled about a dozen times per 25-minute outing. He will not draw a dozen whistles, however. Dealing with those frustrations has been an emphasis and will continue to be.
And that brings us to … free throws.
Haas is never going to be an 80-percent foul shooter, in all likelihood, though who are we to say he can't be. Just doesn't seem likely at this stage of his career. There are just certain mechanical limitations that come with being gargantuan.
But if he can get to the point where opponents have to understand that fouling him will come at a price beyond the physical toll incurred by actually hitting the behemoth, then that would be a good start.
Purdue left a lot of points on the floor last season on one-and-ones alone, and Haas has the potential to get rich on those very sorts of scoring opportunities, because of the sheer volume of non-shooting fouls he'll draw haggling over position on the interior.
Additionally, Haas may never be Marc Gasol as a passer and decision-maker, but that's another area he can make modest gains. We'd expect him to fare better this season than the nine assists he doled out in nearly 500 minutes last season.
Haas can stand to improve defensively, both one-on-one and in team defense, but there comes a point where you just have to look at the advantages Haas creates as trumping those things that any 7-foot-2, 285-pound human being is just going to be hard-pressed to ever be. He is always going to be vulnerable in ball-screen defense, for example, because of his size.
We're talking a lot here about what Haas isn't solely for the context of improvement.
What he is, obviously, is a virtually unmatched physical presence who can change a game simply by standing there. There may not be a player in college basketball like him, when you consider the combination of size and functionality.
What the future may hold: Obviously Purdue is in the rare position to have a starter- or even potentially All-Big Ten-caliber center coming off the bench, but Haas will hold starter-type importance for the Boilermakers this season, because Hammons likely won't be a 30-minute player for Purdue. What a great situation for Purdue to have such options to rotate.
Haas should have a great chance to play professional basketball one day. His physical gifts alone make him a prime candidate.
Here's a video interview with Haas from July ...
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