Haas Withdraws from NBA Draft; Will Return to Purdue
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue rising senior Isaac Haas has withdrawn his name from the NBA Draft and will return to Purdue for the 2017-18 season.
“We are excited that Isaac will be returning for his senior season here at Purdue. He received feedback from his workouts and we hope he can take what he learned in those workouts and translate it to the court. He has the potential to be the most-dominant big man in the conference and we are looking forward to getting him back this summer,” head coach Matt Painter said.
Haas, a 7-foot, 2-inch center from Hokes Bluff, Alabama, averaged 12.6 points and 5.0 rebounds while shooting 58.7 percent from the field a year ago. Haas currently ranks sixth on the Purdue career field goal percentage list (.576) and has shot over 71.0 percent from the free throw line in each of the last two seasons. Haas has scored 1,041 points in 1,678 minutes, averaging 24.8 points / 40 minutes for his career.
He tallied his 1,000th career point in the Big Ten Tournament against Michigan and ranks 46th on the school’s career scoring list entering his senior season.
“After going through the NBA evaluations and workouts with multiple teams, I have had many long discussions with my family and the Purdue coaching staff. We came to the decision that it’s best that I come back to Purdue and help bring Purdue to a better place than last year for my senior year,” Haas said. “I learned so much from the NBA experience and I want to thank all the organizations that managed to bring me in and allowed me to showcase my talents while improving certain aspects of my game and learning what I need to work on. It’s time to focus on next year and to bring another conference championship and a national title to Purdue.”
Purdue is coming off a 27-8 season, a Big Ten regular-season conference championship and an appearance in the Sweet 16. Rising senior Vincent Edwards and rising junior Caleb Swanigan are continuing to weigh their NBA decisions with a May 24 deadline. Should Edwards and Swanigan return, the Boilermakers would return all five starters from this year’s team.
