Is #5 Purdue really a national title contender? Definitely. They are among the favorites in the field of 68. If you are doing any March Madness betting this season, you’ll see the Boilermakers priced among the teams with the top five more favorable odds of winning it all. And it is all about Zach Edey, who is the country’s best individual player.
He’s not just having one of the best seasons in Purdue history, or even Big Ten history.
Zach Edey, the 2022-23 edition, will go down as one of the best seasons for an individual player, ever. Edey has five 30-10 games this season.
Over the course of the past decade and a half, the only power conference players with more are Duke’s Marvin Bagley (2017-18) and Oklahoma’s Blake Griffin (2008-09).
With 18 double doubles in 23 games, he is ranked No. 1 in KenPom’s Player of the Year ratings, and by a very wide margin.
The space between Edey and the No. 2 player, Kansas’ Jalen Wilson is the same as the distance between Wilson and the No. 40 ranking in the Player of the Year ratings.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
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