Breakdown: What Zach Edey’s return to Purdue means next season
Zach Edey‘s back for another season at Purdue, meaning the Boilermakers now could again be one of college basketball’s elite teams, buoyed by the reigning Consensus Player of the Year. Obviously, having great players is better than not having them, so the impact of Wednesday’s news kind of goes without saying, but here, GoldandBlack.com digs a bit deeper on what Edey’s return means for the Boilermakers.
PURDUE’S TIME WASN’T THIS PAST SEASON. IT’S NOW.
Long before Purdue was stunned in the NCAA Tournament by a 16 seed, Purdue stunned everyone but maybe themselves by ascending to No. 1 nationally, winning the Big Ten in a runaway and earning a 1 seed to the NCAA Tournament.
That wasn’t the Boilermakers’ moment.
As unexpectedly unbelievable as Edey was all season, there was youth and relative inexperience around him and that made for a top-heavy team whose vulnerabilities (youth at guard, spotty three-point shooting, etc.) were laid bare when it mattered most.
Now, Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer are richly experienced in the backcourt, joined by a need-filling and proven veteran in transfer Lance Jones, whose quickness, experience and defensive mindset were plucked off the transfer wire like groceries off a shelf. Seems like Purdue got exactly what it needed there.
Meanwhile the frontcourt remains as loaded as it was last season and the Boilermakers transform on the wing with the athleticism of youngsters Camden Heide and Myles Colvin.
Does Edey’s return guarantee better three-point shooting, Purdue’s death knell against FDU? Not really, but it sure helps schematically.
Defensive improvement should be expected with the return of Edey — an All-Big Ten Defense team pick last season — plus the addition of Jones and the aggregation of experience among last year’s young guys.
Long story short, Purdue should be better now than last season’s 29-win, Big Ten-winning team. It may not be preseason No. 1 — Kansas is absurdly loaded – but a program that’s topped the AP poll each of the past seasons at one time or another could be in that mix again, as well as joining Michigan State — swept by Purdue last season — as preseason league favorite.
What this will also bring is an expectation level not for the faint of heart. Generally speaking, some of Purdue’s finest moments in recent years have come when it could sneak up on people like the 2019 Elite Eight team, the freshman-heavy COVID-bubble team and last year’s squad did. The Boilermakers have had their ups and downs as favorites, and this year’s group had better have thick skin for as often as it will be reminded of how much the NCAA Tournament will define this season. That’s just the reality of it, the college basketball world we all live in.
PURDUE WILL WANT TO MIX IT UP ON OFFENSE
Again, Purdue’s reliance on Edey last season at the offensive end may not have been conducive to balance and made its approach a bit predictable, but when in November the junior turned into Superman all of a sudden and showed he could easily play 30-plus minutes per game, the game plans were written for them. It would have been malpractice to not give him the ball with obnoxious frequency.
It did also make Purdue a bit static on offense. Matt Painter talks often about the importance of being ‘set’ on defense. So often last season — short of a great deal of ball-screen success early in the season — Purdue set itself on offense and essentially allowed the defense to set itself as well, regularly dedicating multiple bodies to Edey and making him and his team, again, especially vulnerable to flawed (or easily influenced) officiating and junk defenses from physically overmatched teams.
Now, with an off-season to prepare to have the elite version of Zach Edey and other, different assets in tow, Purdue will want to/need to be more dynamic on offense. It will ask for/demand more from Smith as a scorer. He will be featured. Not as much as Edey, but more than last season. Loyer, too.
Purdue will move Edey away from the basket more, to use him more as a screener, handoff guy and just more connector than finisher at times. If he and Smith can build on their pick-and-roll success from last season and Purdue can open up the floor by making threes at a higher clip, things won’t be as, well, predictable, though that’s sort of the cost of doing business sometimes playing through the post.
Additionally, though Edey’s presence is sort of the antithesis of up-tempo offense, Purdue will want to get it and go. Every team says that, but Colvin and Heide may give Purdue two more throw-ahead-finisher types than it had last season.
Edey should have more help this season, but Purdue has to make shots. If that happens, there’s a world where the All-American’s scoring and usage dip a bit, but his team is better off for it.
BREAKING THE GLASS
Lost sometimes in all the talk of Edey’s NBA fit — what he can and can’t do — is the fact he may have been the best rebounder in college basketball last season. He was unreal on the glass, more active and omnipresent than you’d ever expect from a player his size, and so good on the offensive boards that oftentimes, the Boilermakers’ best shot was any shot.
Expect no different this season, as Edey is again joined by strong rebounders Mason Gillis, Caleb Furst and Trey Kaufman-Renn, who Purdue is going to to try to get more from in terms of minutes and offensive productivity even with Edey back.
PURDUE LOOMS LARGE, AGAIN
Dominant as Edey was last season in the Big Ten, keep in mind who he did it against.
The two other All-America-level bigs from the conference are gone. Hunter Dickinson and Trayce Jackson-Davis. So is the under-rated Derrick Walker of Nebraska.
The next-best returning big men in the league: Maryland’s Julian Reese and Rutgers’ Cliff Omoruyi, who also pulled out of the draft on Wednesday. Nice players, but the drop from 1 to 2 this season in the Big Ten will be far steeper now.
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