Research Data Proves That Purdue Center Zach Edey Is Actually Good, Not Just Tall

Love him or hate him, Purdue center Zach Edey is the biggest flash point for discussion in the NCAA Tournament right now. The 7-foot-4 senior just led Purdue to its first Final Four since 1980 as they look to win their first-ever national title.

There’s a ton of debate around whether the likely tw0-time National Player of the Year is actually good at basketball, or if he’s just outrageously tall. If you’ve been on college hoops Twitter during March Madness, you’d see how much attention this is getting.

To me, this argument is completely crazy and is somehow only being used against Zach Edey. Look at the top basketball players of all-time. There’s a huge bias towards guys that are close to 7 feet, and an even bigger bias towards guys that are at least 7-feet. Newslash: being tall helps make someone good at basketball.

But, there are a lot of tall human beings and tall basketball players, and there aren’t a lot of guys who have dominated college basketball like Zach Edey.  Coming off his National Player of the Year season last year, the Canadian was even better this year.

In just over 31 minutes a game, he’s averaging 25 points, 12 rebounds, and 2 blocks per game while shooting 62% from the field.  He gets to the foul line a ton, too. He’s shot 116 more foul shots than any other player in college basketball this year and has 11.45 free throw attempts per game.

His frequent trips to the foul line is a sore spot for many college basketball fans right now.  People think that he gets away with a lot of fouls himself and draws a lot of ticky-tack foul calls. I think the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. The bottom line is, it’s hard to officiate a player that much bigger than everyone who does have some level of skill and positional awareness.

The conversation has only increased in intensity since Zach Edey had 40 points and 16 rebounds in Sunday’s Elite Eight win over Tennessee. Heading into this weekend’s Final Four, it will likely be one of the top pieces of conversation in the entire sports world.

Luckily for us, someone made a chart to settle the “is he good, or is he tall?” debate. College basketball analytics guru Evan Miyakawa studied players of similar height to Zach Edey and plotted how good they were. Take a look.

Yeah, being tall helps. But, he’s still significantly better than all of these other similarly tall players! Who knows how he will do in the NBA, but it’s very clear he’s an elite college basketball player.

Purdue will take on Cinderella story North Carolina State in the Final Four on Saturday. If they win that, a matchup between Edey and UConn’s 7-foot-2 star Donovan Clingan likely awaits in the national title game.