Matt Haarms (born 22 April 1997) is a Dutch professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player for

Kagoshima Rebnise Kagoshima Rebnise is a Japanese professional basketball team located in Kagoshima, Kagoshima. The team currently competes in the B.League. Some players were not paid in 2016–17. Roster Notable players * Yoshihiko Amano * Chri ...

of the

B.League The B.League is a men's professional basketball league in Japan. The league is operated by the Japan Professional Basketball League and was formed as a result of a merger between the National Basketball League that was operated by the FIBA-affi ...

. He played

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

for the

Purdue Boilermakers The Purdue Boilermakers are the official college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletics teams representing Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana. As is common with athletic nicknames, the Boilermakers nickname ...

and the

BYU Cougars The BYU Cougars are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Brigham Young University (BYU), located in Provo, Utah. BYU fields 21 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) varsity athletic teams. They are a member of the Big 12 C ...

. Haarms also plays for the

Netherlands men's national basketball team The Netherlands men's national basketball team () represents the Netherlands in international basketball matches. The national team is governed by Basketball Nederland. The Dutch have reached the European Basketball Championship on 16 occasio ...

Early life

Haarms is the son of Martine van Hoorn and Peter Haarms. He was born and grew up in Amsterdam. He initially played soccer and judo before taking up basketball. Haarms purchased an outdoor hoop at the age of 14 so he could practice more. Haarms joined a club team, the Harlemlakers, and admittedly was very poor at first but soon developed into one of the top talents in the country. Haarms then moved to Spain and played for

Joventut Badalona Club Joventut Badalona, S.A.D. () is a Spanish professional basketball club based in Badalona, Catalonia, Spain, playing in the Liga ACB and the EuroCup. Known to their fans as ''La Penya'' (in English, ''The Club''), it is one of only two team ...

's junior team. He helped the team reach the championship game of the tournament and hit 5-of-7 three-point shots in the semifinal against Real Madrid. He was offered a professional contract in Spain but declined the invitation. Instead, Haarms moved to the United States to complete a

postgraduate year A postgraduate (PG) year is an extra year of secondary coursework at a boarding school following high school graduation, but before entering college. It is a gap year option intended for students who either have not applied or were not admitt ...

at Sunrise Christian Academy in

Bel Aire, Kansas Bel Aire is a city in Sedgwick County, Kansas, United States, and a suburb of Wichita. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 8,262. History Bel Aire was founded in January 1955 when a group of local residents petitioned th ...

. He started to receive collegiate attention when he joined the Chauncey Billups AAU Elite team. Haarms committed to playing college basketball for

Purdue Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donat ...

over offers from

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, Vanderbilt and

Washington State Washington, officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is often referred to as Washington State to distinguish it from the national capital, both named after George Washington ...

, becoming the Boilermakers' sixth international player since 1952. He chose Purdue because he liked coach

Matt Painter Matthew Curtis Painter (born August 27, 1970) is an American basketball coach and former player, who is the current and 19th head coach of the Purdue Boilermakers men's basketball, Purdue Boilermakers, serving in that role since 2005. He played ...

and the program's record of developing big men.

College career

Purdue

Haarms enrolled at Purdue a semester early and

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

the second half of the 2016–17 season because the NCAA ruled he would have lost a season of eligibility had he stayed at Sunrise Christian. As a redshirt freshman he averaged 4.8 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game in 37 games. His 79 blocked shots were the second-most by a Purdue freshman. Haarms started against

Butler A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments, with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantries, pantr ...

and

Texas Tech Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the flagship institution of the five- ...

in the NCAA Tournament after

Isaac Haas Isaac Haas (born October 2, 1995) is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Beijing Royal Fighters of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). He played college basketball for the Purdue Boilermakers. High school care ...

injured his elbow and had a combined 11 points and nine rebounds in the two games. He averaged 9.4 points, 5.4 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 2.1 blocks per game as a redshirt sophomore. On 19 February 2019 Haarms hit a last-second shot to defeat

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

after being taunted by Indiana fans all game. Haarms suffered a head injury in a loss to

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

on 15 December, and missed the following game against

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

. On 2 January 2020 Haarms scored a career-high 26 points on 11-of-16 shooting in a double-overtime win against

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

. He became the second player in Big Ten history, and first since 2007, to lead the league in field goal percentage and blocked shots in the same season. He suffered a hip injury in a double-overtime loss to

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

on 9 January. As a junior, Haarms averaged 8.6 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 2 blocks per game. Following the season, he transferred from Purdue. After his last season at Purdue, he was named to the 2021 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar award watch list.

BYU

On 23 April 2020 Haarms announced that he would transfer to BYU over offers from

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

and

, gaining immediate eligibility as a graduate transfer. He averaged 11.3 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 blocks per game. Haarms was named the

West Coast Conference The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting o ...

Defensive Player of the Year and was selected to the All-WCC second team. Following the season, he declared for the

2021 NBA draft The 2021 NBA draft, the 75th edition of the National Basketball Association's annual NBA draft, draft, was held on July 29, 2021, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. The NBA draft returned to Brooklyn after 2020 NBA draft, the pre ...

, forgoing the additional season of eligibility the NCAA granted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Professional career

On 13 July 2021, Haarms signed his first professional contract with German club

Skyliners Frankfurt The Skyliners Frankfurt, formerly known as Fraport Skyliners for sponsorship reasons, are a professional basketball club based in Frankfurt, Germany. Their home arena is Ballsporthalle. The club has played in the Basketball Bundesliga since 19 ...

of the

Basketball Bundesliga The Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) (English language: ''Federal Basketball League''), for sponsorship reasons named easyCredit BBL, is the German basketball league system, highest level Sports league, league of professional club basketball in German ...

. He signed a two-year contract. On 20 June 2024 Haarms signed with

of the

National team career

Haarms competed for the Netherlands under-19 team at the

2015 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship Division B The 2015 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship Division B was an international youth basketball competition held in Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It i ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and averaged 4.5 points and 3.5 rebounds per game. Haarms was selected for the Netherlands senior team for the first time in November 2021. On 26 November 2021 Haarms made his debut in a loss against

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

. He played at

EuroBasket 2022 The EuroBasket 2022 was the 41st edition of the EuroBasket championship organized by FIBA Europe. It was the first since it was agreed it would take place every four years, with a similar system of qualification as for the FIBA Basketball World C ...

, coming off the bench and averaging 3.3 points and 3.8 rebounds as a back-up center.

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2016–17 , style="text-align:left;",

, style="text-align:center;" colspan="11",

Redshirt , - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;",

, 37 , , 2 , , 17.1 , , .585 , , .143 , , .542 , , 3.2 , , .6 , , .3 , , 2.1 , , 4.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;",

, 36 , , 23 , , 22.8 , , .632 , , .280 , , .695 , , 5.4 , , 1.1 , , .2 , , 2.1 , , 9.4 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;",

, 29 , , 15 , , 20.5 , , .524 , , .313 , , .634 , , 4.6 , , .9 , , .2 , , 2.0 , , 8.6 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, style="text-align:left;", BYU , 25 , , 24 , , 23.0 , , .546 , , .194 , , .803 , , 5.0 , , 1.1 , , .2 , , 2.0 , , 11.3 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 127 , , 64 , , 20.7 , , .572 , , .253 , , .674 , , 4.5 , , .9 , , .2 , , 2.0 , , 8.2

References

External links

BYU Cougars bioPurdue Boilermakers bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haarms, Matt 1997 births Living people Basketball players from Amsterdam BYU Cougars men's basketball players Centers (basketball) Dutch expatriate basketball people in Germany Dutch expatriate basketball people in Spain Dutch expatriate basketball people in the United States Dutch men's basketball players Kagoshima Rebnise players Purdue Boilermakers men's basketball players Skyliners Frankfurt players Palencia Baloncesto players 21st-century Dutch sportsmen