Purdue can rebuild Isaac Haas, they have the technology

Isaac Haas want to play with a brace on his fractured elbow, and Purdue engineering students are trying to help him.

Despite suffering a fractured right elbow in Purdue’s first round win over Cal State-Fullerton, Isaac Haas tried to play Sunday against Butler. But apart from actually being medically cleared by doctors, the NCAA did not approve the bulky brace he had.

Haas wants to play with the injury, even on a limited basis, despite coach Matt Painter consistently saying playing with one arm is not an option. The Boilermakers will play Texas Tech in the Sweet 16 on Friday night, and some work is being done to help Haas be able to play.

According to Nathan Baird of the Lafayette Journal and Courier, Purdue’s sports medicine program has reached out to a group of mechanical engineers on campus to see about designing an NCAA-approved brace for Haas.

Painter hinted at the idea when asked about engineering students taking up the task of designing a brace for Haas on Monday, saying he heard “they might be trying to do that.”

Here’s a look at the brace Haas wore during warmups before Sunday’s game.

Something far more streamline will be necessary for there to be any chance the NCAA will approve Haas’ brace. But as keeps coming up, Painter has continually said Haas is out and he’ll have to be cleared by doctors. He was unable to shoot right-handed before tip-off on Sunday, and rebounding will obviously require being able to lift his right arm. To say nothing of the elbow being a subtle target for Texas Tech players.

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Purdue is an engineering school. So if anyone can actually come up with something workable for Haas to wear, those mechanical engineers would have to be high on the list. Maybe if all else fails they can build him a complete new elbow joint this week, Iron Man-style.