Zach Edey just scored 30+ points again. It's two in a row. He's inching up towards the top of Purdue's all-time scoring list.

He made 11 of 12 free throws against IU. He made 11 more field goals even though IU hung and clung, pushed and clawed, and tried to match up with him down low with its own seven footer.

Flashback to last year, and it was Edey scoring 33 points at Assembly Hall again. Two years in a row, the 7-4 National Player of the Year was dominating a rivalry where that dominance means a little extra.

Last year, the game ended with IU fans storming the court. This year, the game ended with IU fans leaving with more than three minutes left to play in the game. Storming the exits.

But somehow, the Big Maple has outgrown his box scores. The points, all the rebounds, they fall away like the big man dives for the board, securing a lose ball, a turnover, despite those fans already starting to leave and Purdue holding to a 17 point lead.

Earlier, in the first half, Xavier Johnson, repeat offender of cheap shots tried to get at Edey the only way he knew how. As Edey stood setting a screen to the side of Johnson, Johnson saw his moment like a heel wrestler with the official turned away. He went for the cheap shot. The finishing blow. His forearm extended and he reached as high as he could to send the shiver into Edey's chest.

Edey laughed. The referees, well, they saw it. That and the ten or so cameras broadcasting the game.

It would have been kind to the Hoosiers to have rang the bell then.

There's a lot of things missing in this IU team. Mike Woodson couldn't help but see the holes in his defense, the ones that Trayce Jackson-Davis and players like Race Thompson and Jalen Hood-Schifino helped cover last year.

How much has altered in these two programs with the addition of Zach Edey? How much has Edey's meteoric rise helped ensure Purdue's place on top of Indiana in the state and in the Big Ten?

"We couldn't get to Edey quick enough," Mike Woodson said after the game about his defense. Last year, IU couldn't really stop Edey either, but they got to the players around him. They made it harder to get the ball to Edey. But Purdue has grown at the edges, added Lance Jones, and found guys determined to feed Edey for his last hurrah.

It's hard to imagine that Edey could possibly have more to give Matt Painter, but as his senior year progresses, Edey finds a way to give Painter more.

"We kept him in there a long time," Painter said about Edey after the game. Edey played 36 minutes. " I thought when he got fatigued he missed a couple but I also thought he got fatigued and made a couple."

It was an uncharacteristic Edey performance in that when he shot the ball, more often than not it didn't go in. He was 11 of 23 from the floor. But Edey grabbed 14 boards, and a lot of the misses were the missed calls, and ball that didn't fall. But he also stepped to the line 12 times where he made 11 of them.

"Zach's the best," Painter said, reaching the end of his poetry, cutting to the core of what's become clear to college basketball and anyone paying attention. "There's no way around it."

The best got the best of its rival tonight. #2 Purdue road Zach Edey on the road, and when the inevitable run came, Purdue and Zach Edey stomped it down.

Purdue came into Assembly Hall with two straight losses against inferior IU teams. It's only right that Edey's final trip ended in Purdue's largest margin of victory in Bloomington in 90 years.

Edey is transcending generational player. He's becoming once in a lifetime.