No. 3 Purdue honors Edey with special surprise after Senior Day win
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WISH) — It was an afternoon filled with pomp and circumstance, and dominance.
No. 3 Purdue powered through Wisconsin on Senior Day, 78-70, thanks to yet another powerful performance by one of the Boilermakers’ six seniors, Zach Edey.
The defending National Player of the Year finished with 25 points and 14 rebounds — his 22nd double-double of the season — after taking a beating in the paint by the Badgers. With that performance on the boards, Edey became the first player in Big Ten history to have at least 2,200 points and 1,200 rebounds in their career.
Following the game, Edey saw the number 15 be forever enshrined in Mackey Arena as Purdue unveiled a new banner hanging with the other legends in the rafters.
It was an emotional win for the Purdue star. Before the game, the Boiler Brass band honored him by playing ‘O, Canada,’ the Canadian National Anthem, which was met with loud applause. Edey had a whole contingent from back home in Toronto, including his mom Julia and childhood friends.
“I’ve been trying to get them to do that for like four years now,” Edey laughed postgame. “About time! It was cool… Something I’ll remember forever.”
The 8-point win was a record-tying for the 2024 class of seniors. This group won 59 Big Ten matchups in the last four years — tied for most in the conference by a single class. The win also marked the 28th regular season victory for the Boilermakers this regular season — a feat that’s never been accomplished in Purdue’s storied history.
“However you want to rank us doesn’t really matter. We’re just going to keep winning,” Edey said.
“I think that’s a testament to a lot of our guys. Not a lot of us were high recruits or top of the line, or whatever. We just work hard,” senior Mason Gillis said. “We love working together, and it makes it a lot better. We’re relationship guys. We’re brothers, not just teammates. It’s more than a game… It’s bigger than basketball. That’s the biggest thing, and we all feel that.”
Gillis helped lead the Boilers to this record-setting win with two timely threes in the second half. Fellow senior Lance Jones finished with 13 points, sinking three triples, while sophomores Fletcher Loyer and Braden Smith had 15 and 10 respectively. Smith also ended with 10 assists.
“That’s what you want to keep doing – you want to keep having the best class in Big Ten history,” head coach Matt Painter said. “At the end of the day, that’s what people are going to go look at. You can’t change that… I’m happy for them.”
Up next, the Boilers head up to Minneapolis for the Big Ten Tournament, where Purdue will be the No. 1 seed as they prepare to be a likely No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament the following week.