Purdue’s Zach Edey Started The Season By Winning A Jump Ball Against A 5’8 Guard

Purdue center Zach Edey is probably the best-known player in college basketball. The 7’4 center from Canada is the reigning national player of the year after a season in which he averaged 22.3 points, 12.9 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks per game for a No. 1 seed and, independent of his immense skill level, the star for the Purdue Boilermakers stands out above many for his sheer size. That made Monday’s scene even more interesting, when Purdue opened its season against Samford.

As you would expect, Edey took the jump ball for the Boilermakers — he tends to do this, as he is, you know, seven feet and four inches tall. But he faced a much different opponent in the middle of the floor when Samford deployed 5’8 guard Dallas Graziani against him.

The visuals were quite striking.

Edey did not exactly explode off the floor to win the tip, but he did manage to guide the ball to a teammate and avoid what would have been a funny situation had things broken another way. Of course, it seems that Samford would have to acknowledge this wasn’t the best way to win possession at the start of the game, but the program did accomplish the goal of garnering some attention at the start of a game in which Purdue was a 20.5-point favorite.