College sports is about stories as much as scoreboards.

Eight college basketball teams around the country made their way to Honolulu for the most loaded tournament bracket of all time, the Maui Invitational.

#1 Kansas

#2 Purdue

#4 Marquette

#7 Tennessee

#11 Gonzaga

Those five teams highlighted a field supplanted by historic powerhouses UCLA and Syracuse, alongside local host, Chaminade.

Gonzaga, Tennessee, Marquette's scoreboards and stories all had one thing in common, ending up on the wrong side of a #2 Purdue team that will emerge from Hawaii as the #1 team in the country once the AP poll is released on Monday. It will be Purdue's third straight season reaching the top of the polls after never reaching that mark in its own storied history.

Some stories are subtle, quiet narratives that can get lost in big highlights or lazy cliches.

Purdue's story from Honolulu is an easy one, it stands tall, 7'4" inches and its named Zach Edey.

College basketball's best player, second year running.

Zach Edey is college sports. The only thing that might be better than his stats is his story.

For Edey's basketball dominance, the stats tell the story quite well. Against #11 Gonzaga, #7 Tennessee, and #4 Gonzaga, Purdue's big man dominated from the first game to the last, clinching the tournament trophy with a tip-in off a Braden Smith missed three that created the three-point margin Purdue hung onto.


His numbers went like this:

Gonzaga - 25 points, 14 rebounds, and 3 blocks

Tennessee - 23 points, 10 rebounds, and 1 block

Marquette - 28 points, 15 rebounds, and 2 blocks


But to fully appreciate Zach Edey's play and dominance, it's his story that you need to hear. While my job is normally to help the narrative, Purdue head coach Matt Painter, battling a cold all week, couldn't help but tell Zach Edey's story to me and the rest of the media room for his last question.

It's worth the time to listen or read: