Zach Edey is trying to become the first Canadian to win the Naismith College Player of the Year. The Purdue centre highlights a bumper crop of young Canadian basketball prospects working on their game in the NCAA. (OrenWeisfeld)
As Edey’s usage has crept up across three college seasons, his efficiency has held steady. And that is one of the many reasons that Canadian basketball fans might hear Edey’s name called early in the 2023 NBA Draft this upcoming summer. But before that, Edey has plans to bring No. 4 ranked Purdue their first national championship in program history. . “There is nobody else out there like him.
Edey sometimes looks like a man among boys the way he towers over opponents and moves them out of his way, touching the rim without needing to fully extend his arms. It makes some of what he does look easy, at least to the untrained eye. But the truth is that Edey is as fundamentally sound as they come at age 20: he does his work early, sprinting the floor after a defensive rebound and sealing his man deep under the basket for an easy post-up.
The one major knock on Edey as an NBA prospect is his defensive mobility, and whether or not he is going to be able to match the rapid pace of the NBA game, especially with centres switching out onto the perimeter more than ever these days. Edey moves well for his size, but there is not a lot of precedent for a broad, 7-foot-4 centre being able to move fast enough to effectively defend in the modern NBA, especially when guys like Steph Curry are targeting you in the pick-and-roll.
Still, Edey is moving in the right direction in that regard, improving his lateral speed and defensive positioning while seeing his foul rate decrease from 6.2 fouls per 40 minutes in his freshman season to just 2.5 fouls per 40 minutes this season. It’s just more evidence of the work he has put into his craft since coming to basketball late in life — a fact that only makes his long-term ceiling even higher. Truth is, Edey didn’t start playing organized basketball until Grade 10.
Now, Edey is not just the primary option for the 9-0 Boilermakers and the frontrunner for the Naismith College Player of the Year — he is also the youngest core member of the Canadian men’s senior national team, who recently qualified for the 2023 FIBA World Cup. As he tries to propel the Boilermakers to glory, Edey will also be focused on putting himself in a good position to be drafted into the NBA while also potentially fighting to make the 12-man roster for the upcoming World Cup team.
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