Edey and Purdue steamrolled through the first two games of the tournament, setting a school tournament record with 106 points against Utah State on Sunday, with Edey turning in 23 points and 14 rebounds in just 26 minutes. He had 30 points and 21 rebounds against Grambling in the first round, continuing his historically dominant run as Purdue aims to erase the memory of last year's first-round loss.
It's all par for the course for Edey at this point. It's evident how dominant he is at the college level, not only with his size, but with his motor and competitive nature. NBA teams are trying to solve for what it means in terms of projecting him into the right role within a winning framework. Purdue will play No. 5-seed Gonzaga in the Sweet 16, with the winner of Creighton and Tennessee awaiting after that -- a reasonable pathway to a potential Final Four berth. A possible Elite Eight matchup against Creighton's star rim-protector, 7-1 Ryan Kalkbrenner, would give scouts something new from a matchup perspective.
It's hard to get overly nitpicky about Edey's remarkable season at this point. But the deeper Purdue can go in the tournament, the longer NBA teams have to consider the ways in which his unique mix of size, strength and production might break the current conventional mold for big men at their level, no matter what he may give up defensively. --
Woo