Zach Edey Picks Up the Naismith ‘National Player of the Year’ Award

Another day, another award for the Purdue Boilermaker big man and this time Zach Edey walks away with the Naismith ‘National Player of the Year’ award. Edey becomes just the second Boilermaker to be named the Naismith Player of the Year following Glenn Robinson in the 1993-1994 season. Edey’s dominance has been well documented throughout the season with as good of a season from start to finish as the country has seen over the last 15-20 years. Edey consistently played his best ball on the biggest stages where he averaged over 26 points per game and 13 rebounds per game against Marquette, Duke, Gonzaga, West Virginia, Indiana (x2), Ohio State (B1G Tourney Semifinal), and Penn State (B1G Tourney Final).

Winning this award marks the fifth National Player of the Year award for Edey and just now needs to wait until April 7th when the Wooden Award is announced. If Edey takes that award, he would be considered a ‘consensus’ National Player of the Year making him the 29th to be a consensus winner since that consideration went to six awards in 1976-1977. Edey was also awarded the ‘Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award’ as the best center in college basketball and that makes Edey the 5th winner of the award in the nine years they have awarded that honor joining Frank Kaminsky (Wisconsin), Ethan Happ (Wisconsin), and Luka Garza (Iowa-2x).