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WEST LAFAYETTE — In 2015, Caleb Swanigan joined the Purdue basketball roster.
Assistant coach Brandon Brantley, who works with Boilermaker post players, knew almost immediately he was training a future NBA talent.
Brantley had no such premonition with his next NBA prospect.
“Caleb Swanigan, everyone pretty much assumed he was going to get to the NBA,” Brantley said of Swanigan, who was a first-round draft pick in 2017. “We didn’t know when, but we knew it would happen. Nobody thought that about Zach.”
In four years, Zach Edey went from project to potential lottery pick, leaving Purdue as the program’s all-time leader in points and rebounds.
Edey dominated college basketball over the past two seasons in a way that hadn’t been witnessed in decades and on Wednesday night, he’ll become the latest Boilermaker selected in the NBA draft.
“It’s kind of crazy,” Edey said. “When you put it like that, it all seems super fast. I just started playing basketball halfway through high school and now I am going to the NBA.”
More: Five years ago, Purdue’s Zach Edey chose basketball, but what if he hadn’t?
Zach Edey’s basketball beginnings
The backstory is well known by now.
Edey grew up a hockey and baseball player, but because of his elite size, people kept trying to push him toward basketball. Edey didn’t want to accept the stereotype he should hoop because he is tall.
But, turns out all those people were right.
Edey picked up basketball on his own terms. He gave up baseball and ended up moving from Canada to the United States to play at IMG Academy in Florida where it was still evident he had a long route of development still as a basketball player.
More: Purdue basketball has a problem at center, but it’s not what you think
Purdue happened to have a need for a center in the 2020 class after Hunter Dickinson (Michigan) and Ryan Kalkbrenner (Creighton) committed elsewhere. Edey became the best consolation signing perhaps in college basketball history.
As Purdue coach Matt Painter has alluded to…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/kind-crazy-purdue-basketballs-zach-220840864.html
Author : IndyStar | The Indianapolis Star
Publish date : 2024-06-25 22:08:40
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