For the second consecutive season, Purdue basketball center Zach Edey is a finalist for the John R. Wooden Award as the nation’s outstanding college basketball player.
Edey, who averages 25 points and 12.2 rebounds, was joined by Connecticut’s Tristen Newton, UNC’s R.J. Davis, Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht and Houston’s Jamal Shead as finalists.
Hunter Dickinson of Kansas, Kyle Filipowski of Duke, Tyler Kolek of Marquette, Jaedon LeDee of San Diego State and Caleb Love of Arizona were also named Tuesday to the Wooden All American team.
Edey and Purdue basketball will take on 11th seed N.C. State Saturday in the first of two Final Four games. UConn and Alabama will play in the night cap on Saturday with the winners advancing to Monday’s national championship tilt in Phoenix.
For Edey, the opportunity to play for a national title would be a solid way to end his Purdue basketball journey.
“It’s been a long journey. Obviously I’ve been outside my country for the past five, six years, starting in 11th grade. To kind of end up where I am now, it’s amazing, but we still have a lot of basketball left to play,” Edey said.
For Purdue basketball coach Matt Painter, seeing Edey help guide the Boilermakers to the Final Four is “fabulous.”
“It is fabulous. To be all time leading scorer and rebounder at a school like Purdue with great basketball tradition is unbelievable. For him to be able to do that and be humble — he is a good teammate, selfless, he’s competitive. He’s everything that you want in a player. I’ve never seen somebody so good get so much shit for no reason. It blows my mind. People his size are normally not good at basketball. He’s really good, so he gets a lot of attention but he stayed grounded. He keeps his composure. We’re proud of him for everything he has accomplished,” Painter said.
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