Zach Edey collected his second Associated Press Player of the Year award on Friday, becoming the first back-to-back winner since Ralph Sampson won three in a row at Virginia from 1981-83.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The child who wanted Zach Edey's autograph during his Purdue recruiting trip apparently saw something others missed.While many college coaches passed on the unpolished Canadian prospect as the basketball world became enamored with perimeter play and 3-point shooting, Purdue coach Matt Painter took a swing on his third center in the recruiting class and found a gem who led the Boilermakers to their first Final Four since 1980.
“I get to pay him back. There were so many coaches that looked over me, like you could -- name a program - I could name a coach that looked over me,” Edey said. “Tennessee, Rick Barnes is a great coach, but he was at our practice, looked over me. It's kind of been the story of my life. People have doubted me. People looked past me. Can't do that anymore.”
Edey outplayed them all, becoming the first national scoring leader to take his team to the Final Four since Oscar Robertson in 1960. “Zach and I were standing in the tunnel and we said, `That kid just got a signature from a nobody,”' Julia Edey recounted, drawing laughter from Edey, his parents and Purdue's sellout crowd on Senior Day.He broke Rick Mount's 54-year-old school scoring record and now has surpassed 2,400 points. He broke Joe Barry Carroll's 44-year-old career rebounding mark.
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