Yearly in faculty basketball, there may be one participant who stands out over the remainder. Previously, it has been Buddy Hield, Josh Hart, Trae Younger, Zion Williamson, Luka Garza, Oscar Tshiebwe and Zach Edey. This season, Edey, for the second consecutive yr, is the perfect participant in faculty basketball.
One of the best participant doesn’t imply the identical as the perfect NBA Draft prospect (though Williamson and Younger had been nice prospects). It additionally doesn’t imply the participant is simply placing up stats, even when that is part of it. For somebody to be generally known as the perfect participant in faculty basketball, they’ve to really stand out above the remainder and be an integral a part of their workforce’s success.
Pre-2023-2024 Zach Edey
Edey was a three-star recruit within the 2020 class. He selected to play for Purdue after additionally having affords from Baylor and Western Kentucky.
In his freshman season, Edey performed 14.7 minutes per sport. He averaged 8.7 factors, 4.4 blocks and 1.1 blocks per sport. He helped Purdue make the NCAA Event, however they misplaced within the first spherical to North Texas.
In the course of the 2021-2022 season, Edey began, averaging 14.4 factors, 7.7 rebounds and a couple of.1 blocks per sport. His play led the workforce to the Candy 16 earlier than they had been bounced out of the NCAA Event by St. Peter’s. He was named to the All-Massive Ten Second Staff.
Edey made the Canadian Nationwide Staff and competed with them within the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers.
Final season, Edey averaged 22.3 factors, 12.9 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per sport. He was voted the Participant of the Yr. Unfortunatley, the season didn’t finish as Edey would’ve hoped. The Boilermakers had been a no. 1 seed and had been upset by the no. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson.
Purdue’s 2023-2024 Season
Purdue stored most of their core collectively from the 2022-2023 season. Freshman guards Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer returned to the beginning lineup. Mason Gillis, Trey Kaufman-Renn, Caleb Furst and Ethan Morton all resumed roles as complementary gamers. Lance Jones transferred in from Southern Illinois and has supplied a pleasant glue man. With a lot expertise, Purdue was ranked extremely earlier than the season started.
The Boilermakers went undefeated in nonconference play, ending with an 11-0 file. They challenged themselves and got here up with victories towards high quality competitors. A few of their notable wins in nonconference play had been over Tennessee, Marquette, Gonzaga, Xavier and Arizona.
Throughout Massive Ten play, Purdue has began out with a 12-3 file. They sit atop the Massive Ten standings and have a one-game lead over Illinois. After the Preventing Illini, all groups have at the least six losses. The Boilermakers simply suffered a loss to Ohio State, who’s close to the underside of the convention, however they’re nonetheless in play for a no. 1 seed within the NCAA Event.
The Numbers
Edey has maintained good numbers this season. He’s averaging 23.2 factors, 11.9 rebounds and a couple of.3 blocks per sport. To go together with his spectacular conventional stats, Edey has a PER (Participant Effectivity Ranking) of 37.1. which ranks fifth all-time for the reason that stat was tracked in 2009-2010 (Edey ranks second all-time for his play final season).
There are another notable issues Edey has accomplished this season. He has 19 double-doubles in 26 video games performed. He ranks third within the nation in factors per sport, third in rebounds and sixteenth in blocks.
He has proven up in some large video games as properly. Edey had 25 factors towards Gonzaga, 23 towards Tennessee and 28 towards Marquette within the Maui Invitational. Edey additionally scored 22 factors towards Arizona.
The Competitors
Edey stands out above the remainder when it comes to the race for Nationwide Participant of the Yr.
R.J. Davis is scoring 21.3 factors per sport for North Carolina and has the Tar Heels in place for the NCAA Event. Dalton Knecht is scoring 20.1 factors for Tennessee and has been on a tear throughout convention play.
These are the opposite favorites for the award, however they’re far behind Edey based mostly on the percentages. Edey impacts the sport in additional methods than they’ve this season.
Conclusion
There are higher draft prospects in faculty basketball than Zach Edey. However Edey has put up each numbers and the workforce success to earn the spot as the perfect participant in faculty basketball heading into the final a number of weeks of the season.
Go to our faculty basketball web page for extra tales like Zach Edey: The Greatest Participant in School Basketball Pt. 2!
You’ll be able to like The Recreation Haus on Fb and observe us on Twitter for extra sports activities and esports articles from nice TGH writers!
