Haas is Improving

[depthcharge623]

I'm thinking of the play yesterday where Haas got the ball just to the right of the hoop. He took a step back, hooked his left foot around the defender, and spun to the hoop, sealing off the defender, before slamming it home (sorry for the run-on sentence ha). Anyways, I thought that was pretty indicative of the improvement he's made. He's still not as versatile as Hammons was, and probably never will be, but he does a few things extremely well. And he's much stronger than Hammons, so that's at least one plus.

Another improvement I've seen is how quickly he gets rid of the ball. Turnovers are an issue when he holds the ball in the paint, but lately it seems like he is catching the entry pass and pivoting immediately to shoot.

I'm looking forward to more improvement throughout the year. If he can stay out of foul trouble, I don't see many (any?) teams being able to stop him.

 

[dumpsterFyre]

Agreed. my biggest observation is that he does go stronger to the basket this year. Less settling for fade aways hooks. More dunks in the first few games than all last year.

 

[Dan'l Boone]

Totally agree. Bad things happen when big men put the ball on the ground. Haas has learned that and is keeping the ball high and going straight to the basket. If he keeps doing that, his stock will continue to rise as will Purdue's success. Whether Painter, Brantley, or someone else on the staff, our big men are well-coached.

 

[depthcharge623]

Yeah his strength around the basket is really becoming prominent. That's something that really took Hammons until his senior year to figure out, so it's good to see Haas learning it now (credit to Hammons for leading by example and probably helping coach Haas too).

 

[depthcharge623]

Even Johnson took several years to figure that out, although his style and skill set was pretty different.

 

[Dakota Girl]

I'm thinking of the play yesterday where Haas got the ball just to the right of the hoop. He took a step back, hooked his left foot around the defender, and spun to the hoop, sealing off the defender, before slamming it home (sorry for the run-on sentence ha). Anyways, I thought that was pretty indicative of the improvement he's made. He's still not as versatile as Hammons was, and probably never will be, but he does a few things extremely well. And he's much stronger than Hammons, so that's at least one plus.

Another improvement I've seen is how quickly he gets rid of the ball. Turnovers are an issue when he holds the ball in the paint, but lately it seems like he is catching the entry pass and pivoting immediately to shoot.

I'm looking forward to more improvement throughout the year. If he can stay out of foul trouble, I don't see many (any?) teams being able to stop him.

That's a drop step and he has it down perfectly over his left shoulder. He's workin on the right.

 

[TC4THREE]

I thought his back-to-the-basket game has always been stronger than Hammons. He's starting to evolve and add some things to his repertoire though. Would love to see him improve even more on passing out of the post when the double comes but he has improved greatly at that since his freshman year. I feel like whenever he gets the ball on the block or in the paint that we have a 90% chance of scoring if he gets a shot off though.