Prior Entrance Interviews: Jaden Ivey | Ethan Morton
Purdue needed a post player to round out its 2020 recruiting class last year, and came away with perhaps the most interesting player of the class: 7-foot-3 Canadian Zach Edey, who walked away from hockey and baseball a few years back to concentrate on basketball, enrolled at IMG Academy in Florida, reclassified up a year and wound up choosing Purdue over Baylor.
In this GoldandBlack.com Entrance Interview, the Boilermakers' new center discusses all of it.
GoldandBlack.com: What are you most excited about for college in terms of looking ahead?
Edey: Just getting better as a basketball player, getting better as a person and getting my degree for sure.
GoldandBlack.com: Looking back on it, what drew you to Purdue and what were the reasons behind you choosing Purdue?
Edey: Purdue was always on my top three of schools I wanted just because of the reputation with big men and people of my size and stature. So that was kind of one of them. And then when they offered, I was immediately interested. So I took a visit the next weekend, and then at that visit, I connected with the people in the program the best of any of the programs I was at. I felt like they were kind of more like my type of people. So that was something I was looking for. And then with the reputation combined with that, I just felt like it was going to be the best fit for me.
GoldandBlack.com: Obviously, they have a little bit of a track record with really big post players. How important was it for you to see the school having a track record with players who are like you, because there aren't a whole lot of players of your dimensions out there and Purdue is one of the few schools that can actually point to someone like you.
Edey: It was very important because especially the way the game is going right now, a lot of coaches will promise you things and then they won't deliver because they'll want a smaller person who can run faster and shoot a little bit. I know with Purdue, they always want that one big solid guy in the middle to hold down the paint. I know when they said that they want me there and they want me to help them, I know they were being real about it. Coach Painter, he just seems like a real guy. He doesn’t promise anyone anything. He just says that you'll come to the campus, you'll work and then we'll see how your role is from there.
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GoldandBlack.com: What's going to be the biggest transition? What's going to be the thing you're most curious to find out about college?
Edey: I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on myself and who I am. I don't think I'll come to any like big revelations or big realization in college. What I'm most excited about in college, I'm just excited about going and playing on TV, going against other people who are just as gifted as me and just seeing how that works out.
GoldandBlack.com: Obviously you haven't been playing basketball your whole life but where do you feel like you are right now from a developmental standpoint in terms of what you're capable of being relative to where you are now?
Edey: I have no idea. Just every day I work harder, I get better, because it's my path. I have no idea. A year ago I would never would have predicted that I would be in this spot right now. You can never guess what the future holds.
GoldandBlack.com: What's the biggest area you feel like you have to improve at this point with experience and with the resources that'll come at Purdue?
Edey: Probably my feel for the game just because I haven't played it for as long as other people have. They'll have a better feel to all the game reps they had, but that will come eventually. I'm confident that will come and when it does, that's where I think I'm going to hit a really big turning point.
GoldandBlack.com: How did hockey and baseball shape you as a basketball player if at all?
Edey: They’ve added surprising things. In hockey, since you're always skating and since you always do conditioning drills, hockey is all about hard work. If you don't like hard work, you don’t play hockey. It's helped me embrace working hard every practice running, the suicides. That's what hockey helped me with and having a big strong foundation with my legs. I was a defenseman in hockey, so it's helped me with some zone principles because in hockey, you basically constantly play zone defense. The puck moves so fast and the players are so fast you can't play man to man. So you play a lot of zones so it's helped me with different principles like defense.
"Then baseball's really helped me because it's developed a soft touch that I have on my right hand which is my shooting hand. So it helped me with just coming over the natural curve of being big and not being able to shoot. I've been able to have a nice touch with my last two fingers when I shoot the ball. It helped me have a lot of control like in pitching."
GoldandBlack.com: So what kind of defenseman were you? Were you just the big enforcer back there? Or were you kind of the guy who initiated offense a little bit?
Edey: I was a really defensive big man, but I would say I was like the enforcer of the team. If the team saw on me on the ice, they wouldn't try any of the dirty cheap stuff. Because they realize like, 'This guy is like a foot bigger than me, I'm not really going to try to slash my guy.' That definitely helped bring some discipline to the team and helped provide a lot on the defensive end with different principles and just being able to cover a lot of ice with my body and my stick."
GoldandBlack.com: Now that you're solely a basketball guy, do you have a favorite NBA player or a favorite basketball player? Is there somebody you enjoy watching and try to mold yourself after?
Edey: Yeah, it would be Joel Embiid for me. He’s kind of similar, like his path and his story. He started playing at 16 in a different country. He played volleyball and soccer growing up, and I played hockey and baseball growing up. He started playing when he's 16. He moved to the States the next year. He played at Montverde (Academy), which actually was our (IMG) rival, and then he transferred but our paths are pretty similar.
GoldandBlack.com: What are your general expectations for your freshman year at Purdue, if you have any? Looks like an opportunity for minutes may have opened.
Edey: I don’t have any expectations. I just want to go in there and work every day to try to earn my spot in the game.
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