Matt Haarms cuts list and will decide this week

The recruitment of Matt Haarms is winding down, as the former Purdue center will reportedly make his transfer decision very soon.

According to Evan Daniels, Haarms will decide on his next school sometime this week and has trimmed his list to Kentucky, Texas Tech and BYU. An earlier report from Jeff Goodman suggested Kentucky and Texas Tech were the frontrunners with BYU seen as a darkhorse.

Gonzaga and Arizona, who made Haarms’ initial list of 10, were viewed as two of the biggest challengers for Haarms, so seeing them not make the final cut is surprising.

This past season, Haarms, who is ranked as the No. 2 grad transfer by ESPN, averaged 8.6 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game. He shot 52.4% from the field, 31.3% from deep (attempted 32 triples) and 63.4% from the free-throw line. He ranks fourth in program history with 210 career blocks.

if he picks Kentucky, Haarms would almost certainly be the starting center next season, as the only other frontcourt pieces Kentucky has are Isaiah Jackson, Keion Brooks Jr. and Lance Ware, none of whom are ready to be a starting 5 in a Power 5 league like the SEC.

If Kentucky misses on Haarms, VCU transfer Marcus Santos-Silva looks like the next-best big man on the grad transfer market.

A Sea of Blue comes loaded with the best Kentucky Wildcats links, news, analysis, and some other fun stuff, so be sure to go ‘like’ our Facebook page and then go follow us on Twitter.