Purdue's Edey leading college basketball's big man renaissance

Thousands of fans piled into the Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto on Dec. 9 to watch 7-foot-4 superstar big man Zach Edey make his long-awaited return to his hometown in the Naismith Hall of Fame Series.

Edey is a year removed from becoming the first-ever Canadian-born Naismith College Player of the Year, leading Purdue to a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament while averaging 22.3 points and 12.9 rebounds per game.

He was dominant once more in Toronto before a partisan crowd, dropping 35 points on 12-of-20 shooting paired with a perfect 11-for-11 clip from the charity stripe in a 92-86 win over Alabama.

Twenty years ago, Edey’s homecoming would have likely been with an NBA team traveling north to take on the Toronto Raptors after his sure-fire selection as a lottery pick.

But Edey has remained in college longer than initially anticipated, with the senior averaging more points on even better efficiency than he posted across his award-winning junior campaign.

Edey isn’t the only one in this position. With the NBA’s continued shift away from post-up big men in favor of shooting and defensive versatility, top centers are staying in school far longer than traditionally expected. The NCAA’s best players are creating a big-man renaissance.

A giant among mortals

Just 15 players in NBA history have stood at 7-foot-4 or taller. Since Yao Ming retired in 2011, only Boban Marjanovic has played over 40 games in the Association at that height. Victor Wembanyama is set to lap the field in this regard, but he’s the ultimate exception to the rule with his unique guard skill set.

Teams have made a concerted effort to roster as many capable shooters as possible since the Golden State Warriors’ dynasty in the mid-2010s led to the rise of the 3-point shooting movement. That also means signing players who can defend those shooters.

As a result, elite college big men, like All-Americans Jahlil Okafor and Drew Timme or National Player of the Year Luka Garza, have struggled to carve out a role when jumping to the next level.

Edey tested the NBA draft process in the offseason but returned to Purdue. Boilermakers head coach Matt Painter laid out Edey’s NBA prospects matter-of-factly.

“He was going to get drafted in the second round. He was probably going to get a minimum contract. And he was probably going to play a lot of games in the G League,” Painter told theScore. “He’s trying to upset the apple cart and get people to look at him because he’s a winner.

“People think he doesn’t fit into a bucket at the professional level. But if you come watch our games, you walk away impressed at how hard he plays, what a good teammate he is, and just how he affects the game,” Painter added. “And I know the game is different, but I’m proud of him.”

Edey has some work to do. His huge frame lacks quickness, and opponents look to exploit the weakness. That was apparent last season when Purdue fell to Fairleigh Dickinson, the shortest Division I team, to become the second No. 1 seed to lose to a No. 16 squad in NCAA Tournament history.

“It’s something I’ve really worked on,” Edey said. “Being able to really guard on the perimeter is something I take pride in. People sometimes try to hunt me, but I take pride in the fact that a lot of times it ends up in a good outcome for our team.”

NBA scouts are starting to take notice of Edey’s increased mobility. ESPN’s Jonathan Givony vaulted the big man up his 2024 draft prospect list, citing his improved defense on the perimeter as a large reason.

With Edey returning to Purdue this summer, the NBA’s loss was college basketball’s gain. And although he may not fit into a professional role quite yet, he’s literally and figuratively standing head and shoulders above the rest of the field in his giant-sized bucket in the NCAA.

Edey’s rise from a beanpole Toronto teenager playing baseball and hockey has greatly impacted his success in becoming a powerful post-up player on the hardwood. Many oversized big men struggle mightily with footwork and hand-eye coordination, but those are two of Edey’s biggest strengths.

His large frame allows him to earn excellent position on the block. However, it’s his coordination that enables him to stay balanced, make a clean catch with a defender in his grill, pivot into the paint where multiple help defenders await, and still finish through contact.

Alabama head coach Nate Oats had the unenviable task of scheming to defend Edey in his homecoming game and came away shell-shocked from the experience.

“I’ve never seen anything like him,” Oats told theScore. “When I was at Buffalo, we played against (2018 No. 1 pick) Deandre Ayton, and he was big and strong. But we were going to do a better job on Ayton by a long shot than we were going to do on Zach.”

A clash of the titans

Edey’s dominance was tested a week after his onslaught on Alabama, squaring off against No. 1 Arizona last Saturday.

Though Edey is college basketball’s ultimate center, the Wildcats have been arguably the country’s top big-man program since head coach Tommy Lloyd came to Tucson with a plethora of international post players in 2021.

Lloyd rostered Christian Koloko in his first season on the bench, a fantastic rim-protector and lob threat from Cameroon whom the Raptors drafted in 2022. In Year 2, Lloyd had hyper-skilled Lithuanian Azuolas Tubelis, a consensus All-American in 2023.

Mountainous Malian Oumar Ballo is Arizona’s focal point this season. He might not be as athletic as Koloko or as elite a scorer as Tubelis, but Ballo’s an excellent rebounder with great touch down low and a phenomenal motor. Lloyd applauded Ballo’s strength on the block and told theScore he has “endless trust” in his starting center.

But there’s no Lloyd frontcourt without an understudy. Tubelis played alongside Koloko before breaking out, and Ballo shared the paint with Tubelis prior to taking the reins in 2023-24. Lithuanian Motiejus Krivas is still raw, but Lloyd doesn’t think the Wildcats will have to wait long for the 7-foot-2 center to make an impact.

“Big Mo Krivas, I think he’s really going to help us down the stretch,” Lloyd said. “He’s been awesome; these guys know how good he is for a freshman.”

With the bulky Ballo and towering Krivas, Arizona was seemingly custom-built to defend Edey and the Boilermakers and produce one of college hoops’ games of the year.

And despite Ballo and Krivas holding Edey to his lowest scoring output in any contest he’s played over 25 minutes this season, it still wasn’t enough to slow down the game’s most unstoppable force. Edey’s 22 points, nine rebounds, and career-high five assists helped Purdue take down the nation’s No. 1 team by a score of 92-84 in Indianapolis.

The victory is just another chapter of one of the more impressive two-year runs in college basketball history. Purdue is now gaining the inside track on a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and the Torontonian sits as the odds-on favorite to win back-to-back Player of the Year awards.

A super senior’s time to shine

Outside of Edey, the highest-scoring big man in college basketball is San Diego State’s Jaedon LeDee. The pair play a very different style but are as valuable to their squads as anybody in the sport.

Compared to Edey’s hulking frame, LeDee stands at a modest 6-foot-9 and 240 lbs. He uses his chiseled upper body to overpower defenders on the block and has the foot speed and elusiveness to blow by larger opponents at the high post.

Though LeDee is listed as a forward and leads the Aztecs in rebounds and blocks, head coach Brian Dutcher sees his star as more than your typical big man.

“He’s big and strong, but he’s super skilled. You see him off the dribble and shooting mid-range jump shots. But he’s great inside, too,” Dutcher told theScore. “He’s hard to guard because he’s versatile. He can do a lot of things.”

While Edey’s path to basketball has been unconventional, he’s followed a steady upward trajectory of growth over his four collegiate years. The same can’t be said about LeDee.

LeDee garnered endless power conference offers as a four-star, top-100 prospect in the 2018 class, a recruiting cycle that featured players like Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett, and Darius Garland.

LeDee committed to Ohio State but played only 6.6 minutes per game as a freshman. He transferred to TCU but never averaged more than 15.2 minutes in either of his two seasons. He moved again, this time to San Diego State, and had to sit out the 2021-22 campaign due to two-time transfer rules.

LeDee played behind career starter Nathan Mensah last season on a fantastic Aztecs team that advanced to the national championship game. But he only averaged 18.1 minutes and scored under eight points per game.

Thanks to the NCAA allowing an extra fifth year of eligibility for student-athletes who were in school during the COVID-19 pandemic, LeDee was granted a final season to play as a “super senior.” And with San Diego State’s entire frontcourt rotation moving on, the 24-year-old was finally slated for a starring role after starting just four games in his first four campaigns.

LeDee has taken his opportunity and ran with it in the early season, nearly doubling his minutes (34.8) and almost tripling his scoring (22.8) from 2022-23. Dutcher is far from surprised that LeDee has taken a leap.

“He was capable of doing this last year, and I told everybody he was,” Dutcher said. “I’m the one that held him back because I had other good players last year, but he stepped up into his current role. … Jaedon’s a monster.”

Monster is a fitting word for LeDee’s play. The same goes for Edey, Ballo, and even Krivas. Some of college basketball’s biggest men are also its biggest talents.

At a time when pace and space rule the NBA and perimeter scorers take up an overwhelming portion of the spotlight, more traditional big men have been pushed aside.

But there’s also no denying how much better off college basketball is by having these ostracized bigs stay in school far longer than in previous eras. Should Edey or LeDee take home the Player of the Year award, it would be the fourth straight season a post player won the hardware. It happened just twice in the 11 years prior to the run.

NCAA basketball is amid a big man boom. And though the NBA will eventually come knocking for the services of Edey, Ballo, and LeDee, the path they’ve continued to pave for imposing big men in college will span far beyond their tenure as student-athletes.