Zach Edey won’t be returning to Purdue next season after all.
The reigning national player of the year will declare for the NBA Draft after the Boilermakers’ season ends later this spring, head coach Matt Painter told CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein on Monday. Edey had one final season available to him at Purdue if he wanted it due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Matt Painter tells me that this will be Zach Edey’s final season at Purdue and he will not use his COVID year in 2024-25.
Averages 23.7 PPG and 11.8 RPG.
Will be the first player to win National Player of the Year honors in back-to-back seasons since Ralph Sampson.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) February 26, 2024
It’s unclear where the 7-foot-4 center will be selected in the draft in June. Yahoo Sports’ Krysten Peek didn’t have Edey going in the first round of her latest mock draft, though ESPN’s Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo had him going at No. 13 overall to the Sacramento Kings in their latest mock draft. At least for now, Edey’s draft stock seems to be very much so up in the air.
Edey has averaged 23.7 points per game this season, which is behind only Denver’s Tommy Bruner in the country. He’s also put up 11.8 rebounds, which is better than all but two players in the country, and he’s shooting nearly 63% from the field.
Edey dropped 35 points, which matched a season high, and 15 rebounds in Purdue’s most recent win over Michigan on Sunday. That improved the Boilermakers to 25-3 on the season and moved them up to No. 2 in the national ranking on Monday.
Edey is the favorite to win the national player of the year honors again this season, which would make him the first player to win that award consecutively since Ralph Sampson did so in 1982.
Purdue, which sits atop the Big Ten standings, will host Michigan State next on Saturday before wrapping up the regular season with games against No. 13 Illinois and Wisconsin. The Boilermakers are a likely pick to earn a top seed in the NCAA tournament next month again, too.