By Justin Haberstroh | @JustinHaberstr1
Sports Capital Journalism Program
INDIANAPOLIS – The top-seeded Purdue Boilermakers had taken control of their first-round game against Grambling State. Zach Edey, Purdue’s 7-foot-4 center, collected a rebound, pivoted clockwise, held the ball above his head and delivered a one-hop pass that found sophomore guard Braden Smith in stride at midcourt.
Smith took two dribbles, approached the 3-point line and released a lob that found forward Camden Heide as he headed upward toward the rim.
When Heide threw down the dunk for a 21-point lead, the volume in Gainbridge Fieldhouse became deafening. Smith ran by the scorer’s table, arms fully flexed, yelling in victory in a game that appeared over, even with 12:29 to play.
Purdue’s 78-50 victory over Grambling State was its 30th of the season, matching the school record set in 2018. The Boilermakers (30-4) will meet eighth-seeded Utah State on Sunday.
The energy of playing 60 miles from the campus in West Lafayette created the frenzied atmosphere at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, even when fans arriving for the evening session were delayed by the end of the afternoon games.
“It was great, especially when they got into the stands,” Purdue head coach Matt Painter said. “Like you’re starting a game and people are filing in, it’s kind of surreal.”
Purdue had waited an entire year to get back to this spot, to be back in the position of being able to take care of business against a 16 seed. After being the second team ever to lose to a 16 seed in the first round of the NCAA tournament, Edey knew that taking care of business this year was all they wanted to do.
“We just did what we were supposed to do,” he said. “I don’t think anybody on this team wants any praise for it. We don’t expect any praise for it. We did what we were supposed to do and we’re on to the next game now.”
It’s also easy to take care of business when Edey is on your team. Edey is the second player in the last 50 years to have at least 30 points and 20 rebounds in an NCAA tournament game.
The front-runner to win his second National Player of the Year award scored 30 points and pulled in 21 rebounds. He almost single-handedly out rebounded Grambling State, which had a total of 23.
Edey recorded the 71st 20-20 game in tournament history. Armando Bacot (2022) was the most recent to do it. Edey is also the 19th person to ever have a 30-20 game in tournament history, the first since Joe Smith of Maryland in a second-round game against Texas in 1995.
Edey moved into third place in Big Ten history in career rebounds with 459, 11 behind Jerry Lucas of Ohio State, who is in second place. Edey’s total of 836 points this season passed Keegan Murray of Iowa in seventh place in league history.
Grambling State guard Kintavious Dozier had never experienced a player like Edey.
“I don’t think nobody has seen anything like Zach Edey,” Dozier said. “That’s kind of unreal, what they say he is on paper, he’s exactly that.”
The other Boilermakers did their part. Smith hit his first three 3-point shots to start the game and finished with 11 points, 10 assists with no turnovers. That puts Smith as the fourth Big Ten player to ever reach 400 assists by the end of their sophomore season, joining Magic Johnson and Cassius Winston of Michigan State and Trey Burke of Michigan.
With Smith hitting first-half 3-point shots, Purdue was able to withstand a strong first half from Grambling State and come into halftime with a nine-point lead, 27-36. Tre Kaufman-Renn held down the second half when Edey went out, having five points within two minutes. of Edey going out of the game. Heide’s eight points included the slam dunk, and Lance Jones had six points, all from beyond the 3-point line.
Grambling State’s head coach Donte’ Jackson issues a warning to any other team that sees Purdue and Edey during this tournament.
“I hope you’re equipped for it,” Jackson said. “The tough part about it is that when you run two people at him, then he’s good enough to kick it out for threes, and it’s one of them things that you’ve got to pick your poison and hopefully you’ve got enough bigs that can kind of battle with him and have enough fouls to give and hope he’s having a bad free throw shooting night. ”
Purdue has set the tone for the rest of its NCAA tournament run. “I kind of came out, tried to set the tone,” Edey said. “Tried to play as hard as I can, trying to send a message to the team: We’re here, we’re ready, we’re good. Send a message to the country that we’re good.”
