It was obvious from the start that the refs were going to let 7 foot 4 inch tall Zach Edey do whatever he wanted. Everyone could see it except, apparently, Purdue head coach Matt Painter. The refs were not going to call 3-second violations on Edey, they weren’t going to call offensive fouls despite his violent elbows and push offs, and many of his missed shots resulted in foul calls on UConn. It was going to be the greatest night of Zach Edey’s career. But Coach Painter had other ideas.
At the end of the night, Edey made 15 of 25 shots. That’s 15 of 20 if you remove the missed shots in which he was fouled. So he missed 5 shots all night. So then why didn’t Purdue throw him the ball more? Because he was positioned out at the 3-point line much of the game.
UConn missed 32 shots during the national title game. Zach Edey had 6 defensive rebounds. So, Edey didn’t rebound 26 missed UConn shots. Why? Because he was positioned out at the 3-point line much of the game.
Despite having a (for me) large futures national title bet on UConn, that game was hard to watch. I winced nearly every time Purdue had the ball.
UConn was not stopping Zach Edey. Purdue coach Matt Painter squandered that advantage and handed the national title to UConn.
-Bad Bet Benny
