Edey Wins Wooden Award, Sweeps National Player of the Year Honors

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Purdue’s Zach Edey has been named winner of the 2024 John R. Wooden Award presented by Principal as the most outstanding player in college basketball.

Edey becomes only the second men’s player to win the Wooden Award twice, joining Ralph Sampson (1982 & 1983) and the seventh Big Ten player to be honored, including Purdue’s Glenn Robinson in 1994.

Edey has now won The Sporting News, the Associated Press, the Oscar Robertson Trophy, the National Association of Basketball Coaches, the Naismith Award and the Wooden Award honors in consecutive seasons, marking the first time since Bill Walton won the four major awards (at the time) in 1972 and 1973 that a player has swept the major National Player of the Year awards.

He technically becomes the sixth two-time National Player of the Year, joining Ralph Sampson (1981, 1982, 1983), Bill Walton (1971, 1972, 1973), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1967, 1969), Jerry Lucas (1961, 1962) and Oscar Robertson (1958, 1959, 1960) as multiple NPOY recipients.

This season, Edey led the nation in scoring at 25.2 points and ranked second with 12.2 rebounds to go with 2.2 blocked shots and 2.2 assists. The center also led the country in both free throws and field goals made, free throws attempts, total rebounds, and offensive rebounds, while leading Purdue to a 34-5 record, a Big Ten title, and the NCAA Tournament title game.

He scored 983 points with 474 rebounds, joining Houston's Elvin Hayes (1968) as the only players in NCAA history to reach those marks in a season in NCAA history. He finished the year by scoring at least 20 points with 10 rebounds in nine straight games, while posting 16 straight games of 20 or more points to end his career. He finished the season with ten 30-10 games, the most for a player since Kansas State's Michael Beasley in 2007-08 (13).

Edey capped his career with one of the best performances in NCAA Tournament history. The Toronto, Canada native averaged 29.5 points, 14.5 rebounds, 1.8 blocks and 1.8 assists while shooting 64.1 percent from the field while leading the Boilermakers to the NCAA Championship Game. He finished the tournament with 177 points, the third most in NCAA Tournament history, while playing all but four minutes in the last four games of the tournament. In fact, only three players in NCAA Tournament history have scored 150 points with 60 rebounds in the same tournament (Edey, Elvin Hayes, Jerry West) and Edey had 177 points and 87 rebounds.