2024 Final Four: How Zach Edey’s tribute to Gene Keady shows Purdue’s legacy is thriving under Matt Painter

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DETROIT — After Zach Edey reached up without the help of a ladder and cut down a piece of the net inside Little Caesars Arena on Sunday, he held it aloft in his left hand to cheers from the Purdue faithful. Before he passed the scissors to the next man in the celebration of the Boilermakers’ victory vs. Tennessee in the Midwest Regional final, he used them to cut his share of the keepsake in two.

Edey kept one piece of the net for himself and brought the other piece to the man who started this journey 44 years earlier. Gene Keady won 512 games at Purdue, took the Boilermakers to 17 NCAA Tournaments and a pair of Elite Eights.

The 2023 Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame inductee won six national coach of the year awards and a gold medal as part of the Team USA staff in the 2000 Olympics. He also mentored Matt Painter, the coach responsible for leading the Boilermakers to the 2024 Final Four.

Though Keady never reached the Final Four himself, Edey’s handshake, hug and presentation of the net to Keady said everything about what the 87-year-old icon meant in Purdue’s journey to Sunday’s celebration.

“You’ve always got to pay respect to those that came first,” said Edey, who was 2 years old when Keady retired in 2005. “He built this. It doesn’t go over our heads. He helped set this all up. To be able to pay him back and give him a little piece of net, it’s the least I can do.”

The moment bridged the generations of Purdue basketball in an especially meaningful way for Painter, who played for Keady from 1989 to 1993 and joined Purdue’s staff for Keady’s final season in 2004-05 with the understanding that he would be the successor.

“You have guilt because Gene Keady deserved to coach in a Final Four, and he deserved to play in one, and you’re getting ready to go to one,” Painter said. “I just appreciate what he did for us.”

Painter didn’t always appreciate Keady, though. In the late 1980s,…

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Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/2024-final-four-how-zach-edeys-tribute-to-gene-keady-shows-purdues-legacy-is-thriving-under-matt-painter/

Author : David Cobb

Publish date : 2024-04-02 12:49:57

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