Meet Zach Edey – The 7-foot-4 Purdue big man from Toronto
TORONTO — Zach Edey is yet another remarkable talent to come out of the Toronto area, even while his journey wasn’t necessarily par for the course.
Even though the Canadian center stands (very) tall at 7-foot-4 with a 7-foot-7 wingspan and is 285-pounds with a size 20 shoe, he grew up as a multi-sport athlete playing hockey and baseball primarily. In fact, he was even scouted by the University of Alabama for his pitching and all-around baseball skills.
It wasn’t until his good friend, Magnus Taylor, and his dad/coach, Steve, convinced Edey to join their North Toronto Huskies team in the fall of 2017 subsequently starting Edey off on his storied basketball journey in his sophomore year at Leaside High School in Toronto.
After playing in a few local tournaments, Edey was noticed by the renowned Toronto-based basketball program, the Northern Kings, and joined in March 2018. Thanks to the exposure that came along with playing for the established program, Edey earned a spot on the U17 Canadian national team in April 2018.
Over the next two years, Edey would go on to further hone his skills by attending the prestigious IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida where he would compete against some of the top prep schools in the U.S., including Montverde Academy, Hillcrest Prep, and others.
Despite having a few other Division I offers (most notably Baylor and Santa Clara), Edey saw a golden opportunity waiting for him in West Lafayette, Indiana officially committing to Purdue on Nov. 9, 2019, enrolling for the following 2020 fall semester.
Coming into Zach’s freshman year with the Boilermakers in 2020, expectations were relatively low for the inexperienced and under-recruited big man from Toronto. Yet, in his freshman season at Purdue, Edey (the tallest player in Big Ten history) finished averaging 8.7 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game including an incredible performance on March 2 where he recorded 21 points, and seven rebounds off the bench in a dramatic 73-69 win over Wisconsin. Doing so much earned him Big Ten All-Freshman Team honors by the end of the season.
Even Edey’s teammate, Trevion WIlliams (who led the team with 15.5 points per game in 2020-21), explained during the season why he’s been able to dominate so early on stating how it’s Edey’s physicality, and ability to absorb contact that makes him such a threat:
“He’s relentless… A lot of those bigs, you hit them one time, and they stop going. Zach’s so big, I hit him once and he’s still right there trying to get the rebound.”
With such overwhelming size, Edey tends to make things look easy at times when he’s catching passes and scoring off people a half-foot shorter than him. Still, he carries such unusual court awareness for a player with such little experience and is amazingly mature for a 19-year-old.
That being said, due to his inexperience, he has struggled in other areas such as fouls and turnovers, both of which Edey’s more than aware of:
“I’ve been dealing with too-tall fouls, and penalties my whole life in hockey… I’d make a hit or do certain things and get called for it because it just looks weird ‘cause I’m so much taller than everyone. It’s something I had to learn when I was younger playing hockey. It was frustrating for me when I first started playing but being able to move past it and not let it faze me, that’s been important.”
While these are certainly two things he will have to clean up over his next few seasons with the Boilermakers, his coaches seem increasingly positive on the young center’s outlook. His coach, Matt Painter, also shares a similar optimism for the young Canadian:
“I think once he can curtail that, he’s going to be a big weapon in our league… But he’s got to get to that point. We’ve got to keep working with him and helping him.”
He also represented Team Canada at the 2021 FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup in Latvia, where he finished with 15.1 points, 14.1 rebounds (tournament-high), and 2.3 blocks per game, leading his home country to a miraculous bronze medal finish, as well as an all-tournament team selection.
After averaging over 15 minutes per game in just his freshman year with Purdue and establishing himself as one of the top young Canadians at the 2021 FIBA U19 World Cup Zach Edey’s future seems exceptionally bright, and will look to help lead Purdue to their first Big Ten Championship since 2009 this upcoming season.
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