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Tomorrow is a big day for Purdue basketball. If Carsen Edwards returns we can be in contention for a Big Ten title again. He’ll be the preseason Conference Player of the year and a contender for National Player of the Year. If he doesn’t return... well, we’ll be extremely young.
Purdue lost Caleb Swanigan a year ago and recovered to have a solid season thanks to four returning seniors. Now we’re offering a different look. It is hard to say how Purdue will look with so many new parts and players playing larger roles, but there is no doubt Carsen is a large part of that.
Tomorrow is the deadline though. We haven’t said much about it here because there hasn’t been much to say. Even now, 24 hours before the deadline, even Carsen himself doesn’t know:
Carsen Edwards of Purdue said that he had not reached a decision yet in advance of tomorrow's withdrawal deadline.
— KL Chouinard (@KLChouinard) May 29, 2018
Said that he had 7 workouts + NBA combine, and he likes the way @Dame_Lillard plays and tries to incorporate bits of his game.
As much as I abhor mock drafts, they can be useful in this instance. None of the ones I can find have Carsen as a first rounder. SEC Country has Vince Edwards going 30th, which is a surprise to me, but NBADraft.net does not have any Purdue player getting drafted.
If I had to guess, i would say he returns. There is just not enough certainty out there for him to jump, and a year as “The Guy” can do wonders. We’ve seen what can happen tot he guard that absolutely blows up. If he wins Big Ten Player of the Year and has a huge NCAA Tournament he can be a huge commodity in next year’s draft.
But we just don’t know, so we will wait until tomorrow.