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Arizona Basketball may have interest in Purdue’s Matt Haarms

By Eric Townsend

BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA - FEBRUARY 08: Matt Haarms #32 of the Purdue Boilermakers in action in the game against the Indiana Hoosiers at Assembly Hall on February 08, 2020 in Bloomington, Indiana. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)
BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA - FEBRUARY 08: Matt Haarms #32 of the Purdue Boilermakers in action in the game against the Indiana Hoosiers at Assembly Hall on February 08, 2020 in Bloomington, Indiana. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images) /
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With news breaking regarding Purdue Center Matt Haarms’ intent to transfer, the Arizona Basketball team could have interest in pursuing him.

As the Wildcats added Terrell Brown to the squad for 2020-21, the Arizona Basketball may have their eyes on another transfer, this time Purdue’s Matt Haarms.

On Monday, it was released via social media, that then Junior center will be hitting the transfer market, and already he’s receiving plenty of attention.

Arizona Wildcats
Arizona Wildcats /

Arizona Wildcats

One of those teams reportedly interested in Haarms is Arizona.

Standing 7-feet-3-inches, Haarms is that prototypical center that clogs the lane, creates disruption and can help in a number of ways.

This past season with the Boilermakers, Matt averaged 8.6 points and 4.6 rebounds in roughly 20.5 minutes per game.

While he’s not the biggest offensive threat, he can extend to outside, having a career shooting percentage of 28.1 percent from three, including a 31.3 percent average from beyond the arc this past year. Haarms converted on 10 of 32 attempts.

However, his biggest contributions would likely come on the defensive end.

The tall and lanky Dutch-born player is an absolute monster when it comes to shot blocking as he has averaged roughly two per game in each of the last three seasons. In the 102 games he’s appeared in with the Boilermakers, Matt has 210 career blocks!

I know that in basketball, the game is trending more towards small ball, so the art is lost in having traditional bigs, but considering Miller typically favors defense over offense, this could be a nice filler until Christian Koloko develops even further.

It would also allow Arizona in continuing to try and spread the floor using a myriad of guards, and stretching incoming Jordan Brown into playing out towards the perimeter.

To me, the interest makes sense and will be interesting to see if Arizona pursues this more intently.

More. On Arizona Basketball Recruiting. light

At Zona Zealots, we’re interested in seeing what develops in this recruitment and whether Matt will be a major priority for the Cats. As always, Bear Down, Arizona!

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