NCAA Tournament: Purdue’s Isaac Haas dealing with having to sit out Sweet Sixteen because of elbow injury

BOSTON — Isaac Haas said his broken right elbow hurts more now than when he broke it last week, and that is the least of his problems. The Purdue senior center insists that the pain of not being able to play in the biggest game of his career would be worst of all.

“If I even get one minute, one last try, it’s worth it for me,” he said before practice at TD Bank Garden, his spirits buttressed by a brace that two Purdue mechanical engineering graduate students built for him while pulling an all-nighter.

Haas is likely to be disappointed, though, when the Boilermakers play Texas Tech Friday night in the NCAA Sweet 16. Coach Matt Painter said the center will not play, basically repeating his mantra since the injury occurred in a first-round game against Cal State-Fullerton: “No matter what I say or you say or he says, especially, he fractured his elbow.”

So it looks as if the 7--2 young man’s heart will be broken, too.

“It’s very difficult in those situations, but you also have to be a truth teller. That’s your job as coach,” Painter said. “You’ve got to be diplomatic about it because it’s really hard. You play 130 games to get to your senior year for this moment, but as a coach, you’ve got to do what’s best for your team.”

As far as the coach can see, Haas, a righthander, still cannot shoot free throws, still cannot go to his jump hook, “His best move,” the coach said. Plus, Painter has to worry about the chance that Haas could fall and hurt it even worse, endangering his professional career.

The player acknowledged that a spill could cause him to require “a more extensive surgery.” He is willing to take the risk. He is fine with being a backup to his freshman understudy Matt Haarms. “I’m a quick healer,” Haas said, adding that his parents and his girlfriend have been trying to lift his mood.

He was prepared to go in there against Butler last Sunday, two days after the injury, but was prohibited when the referees inspected his mostly metal brace and ruled that it was not legal. Haas understood that someone could have been injured had he hit them with it. He was thrilled that the graduate students took it upon themselves to meet with him Monday, take measurements and come up with a softer elbow appliance by Tuesday.

“It’s some sort of stuff I’ve never even heard of. This padding doesn’t even have a name yet,” he said.

Before and during the game, he will implore Painter to let him go in and at least set a few screens for the guards and forwards.

“I mean, I’ve spent four years here. I’ve been a part of the group that built this program up from nothing. Literally, nothing: last in the Big Ten,” Haas said. “You go through so much, you don’t want to go out like this.”

Others feel his pain. Phil Booth of Villanova, which will play West Virginia in the first game here Friday, found it excruciating having to sit out last year’s Big Dance with a knee injury.

“Yeah, I saw that with Haas. I know he’s a senior, he’s trying to play as much as he can,” Booth said. “I saw him struggling to shoot a free throw. He wants to be out there so bad. That’s what it’s all about.”

Texas Tech star Keenan Evans is hobbling around with a chronic toe injury because, he said, he does not want to let go of his final go-round at March Madness. His senior teammate Zach Smith has worked hard to come back from a broken foot.

“Love for the game, love for being out there,” Smith said. “And what else am I going to do?”