Purdue Center Isaac Haas terrorized the Illinois Fighting Illini last night in the same manner Jaws, the villain in many James Bond movies terrorized 007. While Jaws destroyed plenty of Bond’s allies, he never got the better of Bond himself. Haas, on the other hand, ultimately had his way on the Illini and imposed his will throughout the game, showcasing the skill set and potential that will excite NBA scouts.
“It was definitely surprising that they didn’t double-team me as much as I was expecting them to, but when I’m left one-on-one on the block, coach always tells Biggie and I to score it,” said Isaac Haas of his breakout performance.
“I was just one-on-one and my mentality was just to score it every time I got the ball because they weren’t doubling and ultimately that’s what led to a good game with all the work I’ve been putting in.”
Haas scored 24 points in 22 minutes, the 11th time in his career that he has averaged at least a point per minute played, The Boilermakers 91-68 utter destruction of the Illini marked his sixth career 20-point game.
Jaws was portrayed in Moonraker and The Spy Who Loved Me by actor Richard Kiel who we unfortunately lost a couple years ago at the age of 74. Kiel’s IMDB profile sums him up thusly:
“Towering 7′ 2″ tall actor who has cornered the market on playing giants, intimidating henchman!”
Haas and Kiel are the exact same height; and both are very hard for their opposition to stop. While Haas is an intimidating giant to his opponents, he is the nicest guy in the world to talk to. While his height and size may create certain perceptions (you know like the ones we get from high-grossing, big budget action movies), he’s seriously one of the kindest, most polite and excessively approachable people that you’ll ever find.
Tonight was a phenomenal sign of his development, as Purdue Coach Matt Painter pointed out.
“I think tonight he worked hard to get as deep as he could, and at times they got him out on the court a little bit too far but he made good decisions,” Painter said.
“I just think when he gets deep position, he does his post move a couple times and he showed his foot work and step through and made a couple nice plays. Most of the time when he gets that deep he just has to be simple and shoot one of his post moves. When he gets away and starts to alter what he is trying to do that’s when he struggles a little bit.”
While he’s certainly made some strides, Isaac Haas still has some room to grow. We searched all the NBA mock drafts that we could find, and found only six or seven that include a second round. Haas did not appear in the first round of any, but did appear in the second round of one- Walter Football.
They have him slotted #53 overall to the New York Knicks. The junior should definitely not declare early entry for the draft. He is much better off staying at Purdue for his senior season.
This off-season would however, be a great time for Haas to test the waters, and therefore get invaluable feedback from the pros on what he should do in order to improve for his final go around in West Lafayette. It’s an interesting time in the NBA right now though as the Memphis Grizzlies are the only team going with a size matters most approach. The rest of the league is kind of going small ball. How the Grizz fare this season and postseason could start some trends.
If the Grizz find a way to keep winning, and do so in a manner that emphaSIZES, expect other teams to copy them moving forward.
Hence, big boys like Isaac Haas will see their NBA Draft stock shoot up.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, Bold and the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication, appears regularly as a guest on CGTN America, WGN CLTV News and KOZN 1620 The Zone.
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