Purdue finds perfect pair in Edey, Smith
WEST LAFAYETTE, inches separates them.
But Purdue basketball’s shortest player and its tallest one need each other.
Zach Edey is a product of Braden Smith and vice versa. Smith knows it. Edey does, too. And Purdue men’s basketball coach Matt Painter. Even Indian men’s coach Mike Woodson.
“I thought the difference was Smith and then the big fella,” Woodson said after his Indiana team suffered a 79-59 loss Feb. 10 at Purdue’s Mackey Arena. Rinse and repeat. Twenty-two times in 24 games now the 6-foot Smith and 7-foot-4 Edey operated a seemingly unstoppable two-man game.
Edey used to play alongside Jadey Ivey, the guy the offense went through before Smith came along.
With Ivey, Edey was a second-team All-Big Ten player. Granted, playing time was significantly less then, but Smith’s arrival and the drastic rise in Edey’s impact is no coincidence.
“Different players,” Edey said of the comparison. “I kind of have to figure out how to integrate my game with them and how to play off them.”
Ivey was a different athlete. A different player. And one everybody knew had an NBA future.
One striking similarity, though. “The thing they both have is the confidence
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Sixteen level,” Purdue redshirt senior Mason Gillis said. “Jaden was a really confident athlete, a really confident player, really confident person. And I’d say the same about Braden.”
To become the best player in the nation, Edey needed Smith’s confidence to play the pick-and-roll to perfection. Or to see Edey open when nobody else thinks he’s open.
So naturally, when Edey did the unthinkable, made his first career 3-pointer, it was Smith who set it up.
And it was Edey who coaxed Smith to do so.
“He said, ‘Hey, hit me on the pop,’ ” Smith said.
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Smith thought it was a joke. Edey was serious. Painter, well, he didn’t even know it was coming.
Smart coaches like Painter, they learn to live with the decisions of their players.
Especially if those players are Edey and Smith, who – if Purdue is able to do something fans have dreamed about for the eternity of Boilermaker basketball – it will be because of those two.
The Boilermakers, with the help of Michigan State beating Illinois, can see the finish line in the Big Ten title race.
Edey and Smith already were catalysts for a Big Ten Conference title team a year ago.
Because of this duo, one a dominant post presence and the other a savvy, slick ball handler who’ll sink jumpers in your eye, beat you off the dribble and, just when you think you have him figured out, lob it to the big man and pad his assists total, Purdue is a national championship contender.
Smith knows it. Edey does, too. And Matt Painter.
Even Mike Woodson.
“You’ve got to give Purdue credit,” Woodson said. “They’re a pretty damn good team.”