As for months in the NCAA, Zach Edey will have reigned over the championship final. But the Canadian will remain like a king without a crown. The Purdue pivot was sparkling Monday against Connecticut, with 37 points and 10 rebounds. But lonely, he was unable to allow his team to win the title of this Final Four, for his last match before switching to the professional world.
However, it was not for lack of having tried everything he could to offer the Boilermakers the first title in their history. Zach Edey started the match with a bang, proving unstoppable in the low post with his XXL physique (2m24) and his touch near the circle.
With 16 points after the first 15 minutes, the best player of the season in 2023 and 2024 was launched into a monstrous project, capable of carrying his entire team. But the Huskies' plan – letting Zach Edey pile up the points but keeping the rest of the team from weighing in – ultimately got the better of those hopes.
Biggest offensive card in NCAA final since 1978
The interior was exhausted, and experienced a slump by not scoring a single basket for almost ten minutes, between the end of the first period and the start of the second, during which UConn built a first mattress around ten points ahead.
“ When you play a team like Connecticut, you have to be perfect for 40 minutes, and there were stretches where I wasn't. » summed up Zach Edey after the match.
The best team won, not the best player. With his 37 units, he signed the biggest offensive card in the NCAA final in 46 years, for example equaling the mark of a certain Lew Alcindor, future Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, for his last university match at UCLA.
With 29.5 points, 14.5 rebounds and 1.8 blocks on average throughout March Madness, Zach Edey could hardly do more. Enough to climb the hierarchy of the future Draft?
On Monday, the Canadian clearly dominated his opposite number Donovan Clingan, despite being announced more and more highly in recent weeks in the “Mock Draft”, to the point of becoming a candidate for the podium with the French Zaccharie Risacher and Alexandre Sarr. However, it is very likely at this stage that the Husky will be called by Adam Silver before his tormentor on Monday. Because he is almost two years older, Zach Edey leaves with a lack of consideration from which any senior showing up for the draft.
An anachronistic profile in the current NBA?
One of the most dominant players of recent decades at the NCAA level, his style still makes some recruiters and specialists doubt. “ Zach Edey's problem is that he was born in the wrong era » estimates for example the Bleacher Report. If March Madness 2024 was marked by the strong return of the “big men”, they are not as favored in the NBA, especially with the profile of the Canadian.
Very technical with an increasingly wide range of shots near the hoop, Zach Edey is on the other hand the antithesis of the pivot shooters who have flourished in recent years. And if he has made real progress regarding his mobility, particularly on lateral movements, the Boilermaker will undoubtedly still have difficulty being able to “switch” on screens and defend smaller players.
“ He is a generational talent » proclaims his teammate at Purdue, Mason Gillis. “ I don't know if there will be another player over 2m20 who dominates like he does. ” If ESPN sees Zach Edey capable of being selected in the lottery, in 13th place, Bleacher Report consider it more at the very end of the first round. Valuable pivot like Jonas Valanciunas or joker in short sequences like Andre Drummond, or even Boban Marjanovic? Zach Edey will now have to convince recruiters of his potential in the coming weeks.
