No one has won all six Division I National Player of the Year Awards in consecutive seasons.
Until today.
Over the past week at the Final Four Zach Edey was named the USBWA, Associated Press, and Naismith National Player of the Year. Wednesday he made it a clean sweep for the second straight season.
Obviously this is a tremendous honor for Edey. It is the third time a player from Purdue has won the honor named after one of its most famous alumni. Glenn Robinson in 1994 an, of course, himself last year were the other two times. He joins Ralph Sampson as the only two-time winners of specifically the Wooden Award.
Both Sampson and Bill Walton won the Naismith Award three times, while Edey is the only other player to win it twice. Also like Edey, Iowa's Caitlin Clark was a repeat winner of both awards.
The six National Player of the Year Awards are:
- Naismith
- Wooden
- The Sporting News
- Associated Press
- Oscar Robertson (US Basketball Writer's Association)
- National Association of Basketball Coaches
As mentioned above, Edey is the only player to sweep all six awards twice. Sampson won 3 of 6 in 1981, all 6 in 1982, and 5 of 6 in 1993 (losing the Sporting News to Michael Jordan). Only Edey, Luka Garza, Jay Williams, Jordan, Sampson, Mark Aguirre, David Thompson, Walton, Pete Maravich, Kareen Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Bradley, and Oscar Robertson won at least one National Player of the Year Award in multiple seasons.
Boiler Upload is now a partner with Seatgeek. Use Discount code is BOILERUPLOADRIVALS to get $20 off your first purchase at Seatgeek.com
Boiler Upload is an affiliate partner with Homefield Apparel, a premium collegiate apparel brand based in Indianapolis. They feature licensed vintage designs for over 150 different colleges and universities from the Colorado School of Mines all the way to most of the Big Ten. This, of course, includes Purdue. I can speak from experience that their Purdue line is fabulous, including the awesome 1967 Rose Bowl retro tee. Visit Homefield and use code BOILERUPLOAD for a discount on their unique designs.