Gonzaga has the ‘benefit’ of experience vs. Edey
Purdue star has owned Zags, who hope to prevail in Detroit
Gonzaga knows all about Zach Edey, so much so that by Friday, the Bulldogs will face the Purdue superstar more in the past two seasons than some Big Ten opponents have. Maybe the third time is the charm?
“We've seen him twice as a team last year and this year, so just getting a better feel for what they do is so big-time,” Gonzaga junior forward Ben Gregg said Thursday at Little Caesars Arena. “You can watch it on film, but until you guard him in person, it's night and day different. Just having that experience under our belt and having already played them is good for us.”
The fifth-seeded Bulldogs (27-7) face Edey and the No. 1 seed Boilermakers (31-4) for the second time this season, Friday in the NCAA tournament Sweet 16 (7:39 p.m., TBS).
The 7-foot-4, 300-pound Edey continues to be one of the most dominant forces in college basketball, earning his second straight firstteam All-America spot after winning consecutive Big Ten player of the year honors. The senior from Toronto also is pushing to become the first back-to-back Naismith Award national player of the year since Ralph Sampson won three straight between 1981-83.
Bulldogs coach Mark Few called Edey a “phenomenal, phenomenal player.”
“I've been doing this a long, long, long time,” Few, at Gonzaga since 1999, said. “And you just have never dealt with something like Zach — that size, but yet that good of a player.”
Edey leads the nation at 24.5 points per game this season, and ranks second in rebounding at 12.1. He is 12th in field goal percentage at 62.3% and 18th with 2.3 blocks per game.
Part of Edey’s gaudy totals came in the Boilermakers’ 73-63 victory over Gonzaga on Nov. 20 in Honolulu as part of the displaced Maui Classic. Edey posted 25 points on 8-for-16 shooting with 14 rebounds, five on the offensive glass. He also went 9-for-10 on free throws.
Gregg said how the Boilermakers have been delivering the ball to Edey from multiple points on the perimeter is something Gonzaga is focused on trying to do a better job of in this matchup.
“It's just about having a good ball pressure at all those spots,” Gregg said, “making sure they don't have an easy entry passes, and trying to get as many deflections on passes as we can.”
Gonzaga’s first meeting against Edey came Nov. 25, 2022 in the PK85 in Portland, Oregon. Edey scored 23 points with seven rebounds and three blocks, as the Boilermakers pulled way in the second half to an 84-66 victory. He was 10-for-16 from the field.
“He's really developed his touch. His ball goes in now, it's very soft,” Few said. “Great passer if you choose to double-team him. Shoots free throws really, really well. Obviously at that size, (he) really impacts the game on the defensive end.”
Edey is 18-for-32 (56.3%) for 48 points with 21 rebounds and six blocked shots in the two previous meetings. He was called for just one foul in each game, while drawing 13 whistles between the two matchups.
The Bulldogs lost first-team All-American Drew Timme after last season. Graham Ike, a 6-9, 240-pound junior, and Braden Huff, a 6-10, 242-pound redshirt freshman, both sat out last season and got their baptism against Edey in Hawaii.
The lessons learned four months ago? “Keep your hands back as much as possible and affect the shots as much as you can,” said Ike, a Wyoming transfer who averages 16.4 points and a team-leading 7.3 rebounds for Gonzaga. “Stay physical with him, get into his body for as much as the refs will allow, and just continue to trust that the fouls won't be called if you play good defense.”
Ike had 14 points and seven rebounds in the first meeting while picking up four fouls. Huff had six points, six rebounds and two fouls. Gregg had two points and six rebounds with three fouls.
“The thing with Gonzaga, they can beat you in a lot of ways,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “Those guards can break you down. Those bigs get on the glass. Graham Ike can score on the block. They bring in Braden Huff, who stretches the defense also. So you've got a lot of skill, you've got a lot of size, but you've also got playmaking guards. It gives you a recipe for success.”
Few also has integrated Gregg into the starting lineup since the first meeting to give the Bulldogs more size. The 6-10, 230-pound junior is averaging 13 points and 6.6 rebounds over his past five games, and averaging 30 minutes. But that wasn’t against Edey.
“It's about not letting those other guys score and be big factors in the game,” said Gregg, who averages 9.2 points and 5.7 rebounds. “(Edey) is gonna get his points, obviously. He's pretty much impossible to guard. It's just making sure that those other guys aren't having big nights.”