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Zach Edey does much of his damage near the basket.
And the big man did a ton of that against Indiana on Tuesday night, scoring 33 points and grabbing 14 rebounds in Purdue’s 87-66 win. But it was the play he made on the floor that might have been most telling about himself and the Boilermakers.
As Purdue worked the final minutes in staving off Indiana’s 2nd-half comeback attempt, Edey dived to the floor to scoop up a loose ball and shoveled it to Lance Jones, who raced in the other direction for a fast-break layup. It served as the final exclamation point in Purdue’s victory.
It’s not often you see players of that stature — Edey being a 7-foot-4, 300-plus-pound giant of a man – at all, let alone ones agile enough to lunge toward a ball, secure it, then sprawl out on his back to pass off to a teammate for an easy transition 2.
“Who the hell is diving, up 18 (points), at 7-4, 300?” coach Matt Painter asked in the postgame press conference. “It just shows you who he is.”
It is who he is, and it rubs off on his teammates. On Tuesday night, there was no backing down — physically so, but mentally, too — against the Hoosiers. And the Boilermakers faced both of those obstacles coming into the game, having been physically pushed back in a loss at Nebraska in their last road game, and having lost 5 of their past 7 Big Ten games away from Mackey Arena dating back to last season. But Edey and Co. brushed off that narrative vs. Indiana, answering the bell with their physical, aggressive play in building a 22-point halftime lead, then having the mental fortitude to fend off Indiana’s rally in the 2nd, after the Hoosiers cut the deficit to single digits a couple of times.
Edey, as he is typically, was the centerpiece. He was dominant on the interior, hitting 11-of-23 shots — he said after the game that he could have played better, had he not missed several shots that he usually makes — and 11-of-12 from the line. He owned the glass, pulling in 12 of his 14 rebounds on the defensive end. And perhaps most importantly, he got the Indiana bigs in foul trouble, notably sending IU center Kel’el Ware to the bench in the 1st half with 2 fouls. It was a game-changer, as Ware’s trip off the court coincided with Edey and the Boilermakers taking control of the game.
It sounds like a bit of nonsense, considering he was the consensus national Player of the Year last season, but Edey’s even better now. He’s more mobile in the paint on the offensive end, able to contort his body through contact for looks near the hoop. He can subtly create space for himself with a nudge against a defender, giving himself the few inches he needs to deliver a now-patented off-leg runner. He’s a better passer against the double- (or triple-) teams that he frequently faces. But it’s defensively where Edey has seen the biggest jump, able to better deal with smaller players on screen switches than a year ago. It has left the Boilermakers less vulnerable to guards who can be effective in the mid-range, like Trey Galloway and Jalen Hood-Schifino did with incredible success in Indiana wins the past couple of seasons.
“Zach’s the best,” Painter said. “There’s no way around it.”
And Edey helps make Purdue pretty damned good, which the 2nd-ranked Boilermakers showed again in the most hostile environment they’ll see all season. With March looming on the horizon — and Purdue’s recent failures there continuing to lurk — the Boilermakers are going to face a bunch of mental tests over the next couple of months. That might have started in Assembly Hall on a chilly night in Bloomington.
If so, Painter liked what he saw in his Boilermakers holding off hard-charging IU.
“The resolve,” said Painter, whose top-5 teams the past couple of years had lost at Indiana. “That isn’t easy. That’s an unbelievable environment. The fans here are amazing, they come out, they support their team. … To be able to come in here and be up 22 at the half is a huge statement for our team. The confidence. We’ve come back-to-back years and in the 1st halves been terrible, and I think a lot of that has to do with the fans and the players at Indiana — they made us play that way. But tonight, we didn’t, and we did it in this hornet’s nest, which is a great compliment to our team.”
Kyle Charters, a familiar face at Gold & Black, covers Purdue, Indiana and college basketball for Saturday Tradition.