WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — For the second consecutive year, the college basketball National Player of the Year is returning for another season.
Last year it was Kentucky's Oscar Tshiebwe returning for coach John Calipari's team, and this year it is Purdue big man Zach Edey, who pulled out of the NBA draft at the last minute and will return to West Lafayette and the Boilermakers for another go around.
As Locked on College Basketball host Isaac Schade pointed out, that's an uncommon occurrence in the modern basketball landscape.
"From 2009 to 2021 every National Player of the Year left college basketball the next season," Schade explained. "But now we've had two [returners] in a row. That's awesome."
The NBA has become so focused on floor spacing, outside shooting, and generating switches on screens which has put more traditional back to the basket post players - like Tshiebwe, Edey, Gonzaga's Drew Timme, and Kansas' Hunter Dickinson - on the outs at the game's highest level.
That, coupled with the new laws allowing college players to profit off their name, image, and likeness, makes it more desirable for many of the game's best players to stay in college and make real money while dominating the sport, rather than going pro and earning a non-guaranteed salary while not playing a significant role thanks to a skill set that is largely not transferrable at the NBA level.
For Purdue, the return of Edey puts this team squarely back in the conversation as a preseason Top 5 team. Coach Matt Painter returns young guards Fletcher Loyer and Braden Smith, veteran forward Mason Gillis, and added high scoring guard Lance Jones from Southern Illinois.
After becoming the second ever No. 1 seed to lose to a 16 seed in the NCAA Tournament, Purdue will look to follow in the footsteps of the only other team to suffer this fate, Virginia, who won the national championship the following year.