Purdue’s Zach Edey had plenty of pent-up emotion to unleash after the Boilermakers punched their ticket to the Final Four with an Elite Eight victory over Tennessee.
The 7’4″ Canadian center was brilliant with 40 points and 16 rebounds against the Vols, but more pointedly, he took the opportunity to call out those who doubted and overlooked him along his journey.
“They thought they knew what we had in our hearts,” Edey told CBS after the 72-66 win. “I’ll promise you they didn’t. We’re f—ing winners. This is what we do.”
Zach Edey had extra motivation facing Tennessee, directly calling out Volunteers head coach Rick Barnes for essentially dismissing him in the recruiting process a few years ago.
“Rick Barnes is a great coach, but he was in a bunch of our practices, looked over me,” Edey calmly stated. “It’s kind of been the story of my life. People have doubted me, people have looked past me. Can’t do that anymore.”
The 21-year-old only had three scholarship offers coming out of high school in 2020 – Purdue, Baylor, and Western Kentucky. He committed to Matt Painter’s program and has blossomed into a dominant force and potential National Player of the Year.
Painter explained his recruiting philosophy focuses on identifying talents overlooked by basketball’s traditional power programs.
“There’s great players everywhere. So I want to get guys like Mark Sears out of high school because he had mid-major offers,” Painter said, referencing Alabama’s star guard. “I want players that just want to win.”
Zach Edey has certainly exemplified that win-at-all-costs mentality. A year after Purdue infamously became just the second 1-seed to lose to a 16-seed in the NCAA tournament, the Boilermakers shook off that lingering stigma with their Elite Eight triumph.
