Zach Edey’s colossal impact on Purdue, the Big Ten and College Basketball will be felt forever. Relive the journey of recruit no. 436 to be a two-time National Player of the Year.
by Jordan Beckley
Zach Edey stares unblinkingly ahead.
The whistle blows. He walks to the line and his focus is unbroken. From players crossing the free throw lines in front of him to the ref passing him the ball for each shot. His eyes never leave the back of the rim.
Edey took that same unbothered fixation seen at the Free Throw line and channeled it this offseason.
The Boilermakers made history by losing to no.16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson in Columbus last year after earning the program’s first no.1 seed since 1996.
Zach Edey went on to win the National Player of the Year and had to accept it after suffering that soul-crushing loss in Purdue’s first game.
It is a weird post-mortem awards moment that reminds me of when Dirk Nowitzki lost in the 1st round to the no.8 seed Warriors. Nowitzki accepted his only MVP award on Live TV during halftime of the Warriors second round game instead of in front of his fans in their own 2nd round home game as was custom back then.
The Boilers and their star center had suffered a loss so demoralizing and rare we had seen it only once before. Purdue had been embarrassed. A collective stereotype of the hardworking and potentially overachieving team had been confirmed in the worst way possible.
But as Matt Painter has said over and over again, these Boilers “had to sit in that” pain all offseason. Their goal never wavered. Zach Edey’s fixation never altered.
Zach Edey was a nobody. A recruit who was basically only “ranked” because of his height and his school’s stature as a basketball academy. However, the 7 footer was on the B team at IMG Academy and in all seriousness did anyone know that these ranking sites went up to no. 436 before Edey came around?
Nobody believed in him. He was what every tall player was stereotyped to be. “Oh, how tall are you? Wow. Do you play basketball?”
But where everyone else saw one unteachable skill. Matt Painter saw a big with soft hands, good mechanics and a piece of clay he could mold.
Purdue and Painter were only one of two high major programs to even offer Edey. He debated the other offer from Scott Drew and Baylor before deciding on going to West Lafayette.
He came to the state of Indiana a tall long haired fish out of water joining higher rated recruits Jaden Ivey from La Lumiere and Mr. Basketball in the state of Pennsylvania, Ethan Morton. Those three and redshirt Freshmen Mason Gillis and Brandon Newman formed a 5 person class that would transform Purdue over the next few seasons.
Zach Edey’s legend began right away. In his first collegiate game the Big Maple came off the bench and scored 19 points on 9-10 shooting in just 16 minutes played in a 77-64 win over Liberty. He followed that up with 17 points on 6-8 shooting and 5 of 7 from the line in a loss to Clemson. A player who many thought would redshirt played 37 minutes in his first two games and scored 36 points.
Edey would win Big Ten Freshman of the Week in his first week of play. He immediately proved his ranking was too low and was just beginning to shatter expectations.
That year’s Purdue team would have three different players (Edey, Newman and Ivey) earn Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors multiple times and a youth movement lead to the Boilers winning 11 of their last 14 Big Ten games. The potential Baby Boilers 2.0 were quickly overseeded as a no.4 seed and lost to no.13 seed North Texas in overtime in the Round of 64.
Still, Edey and Ivey were named to the All-Big Ten Freshman team. Edey once considered an afterthought had averaged 8.7 ppg, 4.4 rpg, and 1.1 bpg in just 14 mpg posting an implausible 28.9 PER doing so. Nobody would have guessed how much those numbers would balloon up in the years to come.
After a summer spent representing Team USA and Team Canada, Jaden Ivey came back with lottery expectations and Zach Edey earned the starting job over All-Big Ten Center Trevion Williams.
The move was a surprise announcement that would be the first of three consecutive offseason start/sit decisions from Coach Matt Painter that would stump fans. This was the most difficult decision for Painter as he had a senior and All-American candidate in Williams, but as a profound believer in analytics the numbers said that he should start Edey.
It wasn’t an easy decision. Painter started with Edey, then switched to Trevion, then went back to Edey eventually sticking with Edey as the starter for 33 of the 37 games. The starting role was mainly as a title as both ended up splitting the 40 minutes almost dead even at 20 a piece. Still it was a difficult decision balancing the fact that two of Purdue’s three best players couldn’t share the floor.
What were the results? Well, Purdue started 8-0 including wins over a Top-10 North Carolina and Villanova. Jaden Ivey shot up to the top of draft boards and Purdue earned their first ever number 1 ranking in the AP Poll. Edey also stuck the dagger into no.5 ranked Villanova with a whirling out of control dunk (and-1) on his way to 21 points and 6 rebounds in just 20 minutes.
Despite the talent on that team things never quite worked out in Edey’s sophomore campaign. Half court buzzer beaters in New Jersey, performances that players never replicated (see Johnny Davis, Rob Phinisee), and somehow 6 of Purdue’s 8 losses came by 5 points or less.
The Boilers fell a game short of winning the Big Ten regular season, lost in the Big Ten Tournament Championship and when the bracket broke right for them to make the Final Four they lost to no.15 seed St. Peters in the Sweet 16 when they were the highest seed remaining in their bracket.
Jaden Ivey went pro and was selected 5th by the Detroit Pistons in the 2022 NBA draft. Purdue lost a trio of contributors in Sasha Stefanovic, Isaiah Thompson and Trevion Williams. Painter was left with a whole new roster and one for sure starter.
Edey averaged 14.4p/7.7r/1.2b in just 19 minutes on 65% shooting. With him splitting time with Trevion, he didn’t breakout breakout, but there was clearly something there as he was extremely effective in his minutes at a whopping 40.9 PER. And still, not even the most optimistic Purdue fan could see what came next for Edey.
In the preseason poll for the 2022-23 season, Edey was tabbed as a 1st team All-Big Ten player but was firmly behind Hunter Dickinson and Trayce Jackson-Davis as a leader for Big Ten Player of the Year. Purdue was tabbed as 4th or 5th place by pretty much every writer. Somehow, both were overlooked.
This offseason’s surprise roster decision was Painter deciding to start not just one true Freshman guard but two in Fletcher Loyer and Braden Smith. Smith was the real surprise being a late add to the recruiting class after Jameel Brown left to join Micah Shrewsberry at Penn State. The even bigger surprise was that Braden Smith was pretty quickly the Boilermakers’ second best player behind Edey.
In what was supposed to be a rebuilding year, Purdue quickly announced themselves nationally with another November feat beating no.6 Gonzaga and no.8 Duke in the same weekend to win the Phil Knight Invitational.
Zach Edey dominated both games too. First he defeated National Player of the Year frontrunner Drew Timme logging 23 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocks in an 18 point win. Then Edey took on Top-5 overall recruits Kyle Filipowski and Dereck Lively II. Edey fouled BOTH of them out on the way to scoring 21 points, grabbing 12 boards and distributing 3 assists in a 19 point win. He also played 30+ minutes in both.
The weekend cemented himself as the leading candidate for National Player of the Year and put Purdue on the path of earning the no.1 ranking once again.
Edey’s gigantic production never stopped. In a year dubbed “the Year of the Big” in College Basketball by the media with players like Oscar Tsheibwe, Armando Bacot, Dickinson, Jackson-Davis and Timme … Edey stood above them all.
Zach Edey would average 22 points a game while owning the glass with 12.9 rpg, controlling the paint with 2.1 blocks per game and scoring on an insanely efficient rate at 60.7% FG and 73.4% on 7.1 FT attempts.
His stats were punctuated by performances like his 33pts/18rb/3bl against Trayce Jackson-Davis in Bloomington, his 32pts/17rb/2bl demolition of the Spartans in East Lansing (one of many huge games vs MSU) and back to back 30+pts and 13+ reb games to win the Big Ten Tournament.
Edey left no doubt about who was the best player sweeping the awards. He was nearly unanimously 1st Team All-Big Ten, All-Big Ten Defensive Team, Big Ten Player of the Year, Consensus All American, Wooden Award National Player of the Year, Naismith National Player of the Year, and any other hardware you could win.
At the same time Edey dominated the individual trophies, Purdue dominated the Team Trophies. Purdue won the Big Ten Title by 3 games one year after falling a game short. The Boilers won the Big Ten Tournament for just the second time in their history one year after falling a game short. Purdue earned it’s first no.1 seed in Zach Edey’s entire lifetime.
The 400th ranked recruit had officially become the best player in College Basketball.
In a season where everyone was excited about other Big men, he dropped buckets on basically all of them. Most player development stories like this end with a memorable tournament and a special draft night. Zach Edey’s would not.
Fairleigh Dickinson Head Coach Tobin Anderson had a brilliant idea when his literally overmatched squad had to guard the NPOY. What if we triple team him?
The actual defensive scheme was a little more complicated than that but the barebones description was FDU used multiple swarming bodies, speed and length to bother Edey and force the other Purdue players to make plays. A lethal concoction of youth, tired legs, tournament nerves, and a record bad shooting performance (5-26 from 3pt) doomed the other Boilermakers to a miniscule 58 point performance. Edey scored 21 of those points and only could get 11 shots up.
Purdue lost to a no.16 seed in what was supposed to be “their year”. A Titanic ending to an amazing season saw Edey staring at a 2nd round NBA Draft evaluation and that game being his last game in a Purdue uniform … or a shot at redemption.
It’s fair to say everything changed for Zach Edey, Braden Smith, Matt Painter and Purdue after the FDU loss.
Matt Painter quickly acknowledged where he had made a mistake not playing or recruiting guys who were faster and more athletic. But before the season, Painter caused a stir when he said on Jon Rothstein’s Podcast that Purdue was getting the best shots possible and that they weren’t going to change anything.
A lot of the general public conflated the idea that you can’t win with a back-to-the-basket big in modern Basketball with Purdue’s tournament struggles. Still, the advanced numbers told Painter that the shots were the right shots and they were open, but they just weren’t going in.
Purdue didn’t change their offense; they changed the way they prepared for that offense.
Multiple shooters got better. Mason Gillis jumped from 35.6% to 46.8% from 3. Fletcher Loyer went from 32.6% to 44.4%. Braden Smith spent the summer working on his midrange shot and also jumped 7% from deep.
Painter added more speed and athleticism with bigger roles for Camden Heide and eventually 4-Star Freshman Myles Colvin. Transfer guard Lance Jones was a seamless fit on defense, as a streaky shooter and secondary ballhandler. Diminished roles for other less dynamic players helped mitigate the exposed weaknesses from the FDU loss.
All of that and the ascendant traditional big in Zach Edey came back even better.
In his senior season, Zach was even more devastatingly effective on offense. Somehow Edey was getting even better at post positioning than he was before. Which lead to his hook shot being even more unstoppable and the last-gasp fouls to be more frequent.
Edey improved his FG% by 2% (sounds small but he made even more total field goals on fewer shots this year) and upgraded the defense’s desperation by going to the line 11 times a game (compared to 7 times the year prior). The already ever looming defensive presence of the 7’4″ behemoth was even more impactful this year too.
The Big Maple had mastered the principles of the drop coverage and verticality to be a fearsome rim protector without endangering minutes by fouling. Players would trip themselves up before challenging the big who impacted an impossible number of shots beyond the 84 blocks he had this season.
Zach Edey was a complete mismatch that was ready to empower Purdue to a special run.
Purdue’s 2023-24 campaign tipped off against Samford with a planned stunt from the Bulldogs. In what Samford marketed as “The Tip Heard Round the World”, Head Coach Bucky McMillan sent 5’9″ G Dallas Graziani up against the 19-inches-taller Edey for the opening tip.
It was a comedic, self-deprecating moment from Samford sacrificing a pretty worthless battle for first possession, but it also symbolized something larger about the Boilermakers and Edey.
Everyone was outmatched going up against the giant. Nobody could compete with Edey’s stature. Purdue was a freight train and the National Player of the Year was the scorchingly powerful combustion engine that propelled them forward.
Zach would go on to have 24 games of 25+ points including 11 games of 30 or more. The Big Maple also owned the glass with 30 double doubles in Purdue’s 39 competitions. He ended the season with an insane 983 points (nearly a 1000 points in just one season) and 474 rebounds. Edey regularly made colossal stat lines the norm to a point where the general public was numb to it. His averages of 25.2p/12.2r/2.0a/2.2blk were yawned at like he wasn’t putting up MVP Shaq-like numbers in a 40 minute basketball game.
As much as fans got used to seeing the dominance in the box scores, Purdue’s opponents felt that force on the court. The Boilermakers would dominate their regular season slate. Against ranked foes, Purdue went 7-0 with wins against Gonzaga, Tennessee, Marquette and sweeping Wisconsin and Illinois. Coach Painter would also breeze to another Big Ten Championship going 17-3 in Conference games and winning the league over Illinois by 3 games. Purdue finished the regular season with a regular season school-record 28 wins.
Purdue would bow out of the Big Ten Tournament (early) in the Semifinals to Wisconsin (who went onto celebrate like Pat Beverley winning the Play-In Tournament), but there was a larger point to this season for the Boilermakers and Edey.
Despite the loss, Purdue earned yet another no.1 seed and Purdue had to once again stare at the face of failure from last season as a date with a no.16 seed loomed. Ever since losing to FDU, Purdue was on a path to redemption and they knew none of the wins, the accolades, the records, etc. from the regular season would matter if they didn’t make a run in March.
After Grambling beat Montana State in the First Four, the Tigers were set to meet the Boilermakers in a game that brought a ton of nervous energy to the Purdue fans.
Donte Jackson and Grambling kept it close in the first half, but David was not slaying Goliath this year. Edey dispatched the SWAC champion with 30 points, 21 rebounds and 3 blocks as Purdue outscored the Tigers by 19 in the 2nd half on their way to a 28 point win.
Purdue advanced to play another conference Champion in Mountain West Conqueror Utah State. The Aggies boasted Mountain West Player of the Year Great Osobor and were coached by Mountain West COY Danny Sprinkle. Painter has a history of losing to future big time coaches at mid-majors (Chris Beard, Grant McCasland, Shaheen Holloway) and Sprinkle fit that bill. Osobor had the size (6’8″ 250lb) and perimeter skills to be a potential foil to Edey. That wasn’t the case.
After another strong start from their opponent, Purdue was down 23 to 24 with 9 minutes left in the half and shortly after that the Boiler’s All-Big Ten point guard Braden Smith would go to the bench for the remainder of the half with two fouls. It didn’t matter. Edey, Lance Jones and Purdue went on an authoritative 26-9 run to end the half and leave the Aggies in the dust.
The Boilermakers dismantled Utah State winning 106-67 in one of the more impressive Tournament performances in recent memory. Edey finished with a ho-hum 23 points, 14 rebounds, 3 assists and 5 stocks. Osobor finished with 14 points, 6 rebounds, 0 blocks and 3 fouls.
Purdue was thru to the Sweet 16 and the second weekend of the Tournament. The Boilers escaped embarrassment but had not reached their goal.
The Sweet 16 offered a rematch and a familiar foe in Gonzaga. It also offered a familiar result.
Zach Edey beat the Zags for the third time in 16 months as Purdue advanced in a 80-68 victory. Mark Few couldn’t crack the code on how to stop Edey in three attempts with two different roster constructions. I could write a dissertation on how unstoppable Edey was just based on their three meetings and how Mark Few attempted every kind of scheme (on offense and defense) to try to win. Instead, I will let Edey’s averages of 25ppg and 11.3rpg and Purdue’s +40 scoring margin in the three meetings do the talking.
Next up, was Purdue vs. Tennessee for a spot in the Final Four.
In another Maui Rematch, Purdue faced the no.2 seed Tennessee in the Elite Eight. The SEC champions had the SEC DPOY in Zakai Zeigler, a colloquially March deficient coach in Rick Barnes and the 2nd best player in the sport, Dalton Knecht, trying to prove he was the best.
Purdue and Tennessee had history going back to the Ryan Cline game in the 2019 Sweet Sixteen, a loss to the Vols in 2017 in non-conference, an epic high-scoring clash in a football bowl game, and of course a 4-point ugly win at Maui earlier in the season.
Knecht came prepared to prove a point and was unconscious for much of the game with 37 points and 6 made threes. Tennessee followed the gameplan and forced Purdue into turnovers in the second half, but it didn’t matter because Purdue had Zach Edey.
The favorite to win the National Player of the Year over Knecht recorded his best night ever with 40 points and 16 boards. Edey’s forceful block over Knecht in the waning moments will certainly be a defining image for the program and for the Canadian’s incredible career.
For a moment, Zach Edey finally released his gaze on the prize. As the buzzer sounded and Purdue was headed to its first Final Four since 1980, Edey soared over to his Coach and embraced Matt Painter in a split second hug before Paint could even shake Rick Barnes’ hand in a moment that will last forever.
In the postgame interviews, the emotions buried inside finally erupted to the surface as he yelled, “We’re F**king Winners!” on live television. It was an emphatic moment of catharsis for both Edey and the Purdue fans who had been too afraid to say that truth out loud.
A consistent winning program in Purdue had enjoyed their most successful stretch of play under Edey and that elusive trip to the third weekend of March Madness had finally forced everyone to recognize the undeniable fact that both the Boilers and Edey were winners.
What followed was an odyssey of Boilermakers to Arizona to witness what they hadn’t seen in 4 decades.
In what will be a forgotten game, Edey would dethrone the people’s champion DJ Burns of NC State in the National Semifinal. Edey, the unpopular foul baiter, vs Burns, the naturally funny Michelin Man shaped big, wasn’t quite the heavyweight bout it was supposed to be.
Burns was held to just 8 points and 1 rebound on 4-10 shooting in 27 minutes. In a game where no one played particularly well, Edey carried. He scored 20 or Purdue’s 63 points, hauled in 12 rebounds, tallied 4 assists and 2 blocks on 64% shooting with only 2 free throw attempts.
In what was a boring slog of a game, a thunderously loud Purdue crowd hung over the entire weekend dominating the other fanbases. This weekend mattered more to a vindicated fanbase than a been-there done-that UConn fanbase, a miracle-already-happened NC State fanbase, and a largely absent Alabama fanbase.
Zach Edey had brought them this moment and it was crescendoing with a showdown with the other best team in Basketball reigning champs UConn for the National Title.
Two giants of the sport meeting for all the glory. Dan Hurley vs. Matt Painter. Big East Champ vs Big Ten Champ. Donovan Clingan vs. Zach Edey.
In just the program’s second ever Title game appearance, Edey and crew had a chance to bring home Purdue’s first ever National Championship. However, seeing a repeat of the Virginia rags to riches Championship story was not in the cards.
Purdue fought hard, but Hurley’s seemingly unassailable Husky team remained indomitable. It was tight through the first half, but once again UConn pulled away for yet another double digit victory winning their 2nd straight Title 75-60 over the Boilermakers.
Even if Purdue wasn’t good enough to win, Zach Edey was undoubtedly the best player on the court. The general public considered Donovan Clingan to be a peer of Edey perhaps even a suitable foil to him. He was just as big, but quicker and a better “NBA prospect”. Another flawed perception exposed as Edey was just as unsolvable a puzzle as always with a massive 37 points (62% of Purdue’s points), 10 rebounds and 2 blocks.
Edey drew 4 fouls against Clingan and fouled out his backup Samson Johnson in just 5 minutes. The Huskies left their bigs one-on-one on Edey sacrificing points down low and shutting off their 3-point opportunities. UConn’s offense was so absurdly efficient it was the first team to be able to outscore Zach Edey in single coverage.
The best team in College Basketball triumphed over the best player in College Basketball.
So, what will be Zach Edey’s legacy?
His signature hook shot, his 942 career free throw attempts, his block over Dalton Knecht, etc. are all memorable. But Edey want’s to be remembered a different way:
Longtime big man whisperer Brandon Brantley won the 2024 award for Assistant Coach of the Year in the Big Ten with his decade of Purdue paint work culminating with Zach Edey’s hook shot. Matt Painter has received no shortage of national recognition, a contract extension, and his elusive first Final Four all in Edey’s tenure thanks in due part to the giant’s unrelenting effort.
How many bigs are defined by their inconsistent motor? How often do you see big men not run down the court in transition? Or take a possession off? How many halfhearted screens do you see set in every Basketball game?
Edey never took a possession off.
Edey was a physical anomaly. A player of his bulk and height is never able to move like he does. 7 footers don’t have his hands, his coordination, and his stamina — to be able to play all 40 minutes of high level Basketball — was unmatched.
What truly made him one of the greatest players of all time was the combination of his commanding physical gifts, his meticulously refined basketball skills and his unabated hard work.
His colossal career stats of 2500+ points, 1300+ rebounds, 232 blocks would take an afternoon to count and are a more traditional way of acknowledging his greatness. But ask Tom Izzo, Mark Few, Jon Scheyer, Brad Underwood or any of the coaches who had to lose to him the past four seasons and they’ll mention his work ethic, his size and his will power to enforce his playstyle every possession for every minute of every game.
In a season that would define his legacy as a winner, Zach Edey never broke his focus.
Edey averaged 29.5ppg, 14.5rpg, 1.8apg & 1.8 bpg on 64% shooting in six March Madness games and ended Purdue’s long awaited Final Four drought.
Arguing whether or not he or Rick Mount is the best Boilermaker ever isn’t as interesting as it sounds. Whether he belongs with Ralph Sampson and Bill Walton as the only players to win NPOY multiple times is inarguable.
People keep underestimating Zach Edey. As a recruit, as a college player, even as a pro.
When the Memphis Grizzlies drafted Zach Edey no. 9 in the 2024 NBA draft (once again surpassing people’s rankings and expectations), one draft analyst called it “one of the worst picks in draft history.”
Zach Edey still stares straight ahead. Unblinking. Completely focused. Ready to prove them wrong, again.