The Edey Approach

[PhillyRU]

Pike has seemed to take two general approaches in guarding dominant bigs (Cockburn, Edey, etc), to either double in the post and likely allow an open three in rotations or to allow the post to eat and limit other scorers.

To me, the latter makes sense this year, as Cliff seems to defend Edey well enough and I think we matchup pretty well with Purdue otherwise — their backcourt is even tinier than ours, I think Mag will suffocate Lance Jones and Hyatt has seemed to do well with bigger assignments like Gillis and TKR.

 

[NickRU714]

Is Ogbole healthy yet?
Tell him to foul Edey as soon as he gets the ball. 5 straight hard fouls.

 

[Knight Owl]

Give Edey the Idiocracy treatment…

 

[bac2therac]

this will simply come down to Cliff staying out of foul trouble and Purdue having a terrible shooting night when Edey kicks it out while RU shoots over 50%, anything less than that is a double digit loss

 

[RUKnights86]

this will simply come down to Cliff staying out of foul trouble and Purdue having a terrible shooting night when Edey kicks it out while RU shoots over 50%, anything less than that is a double digit loss

As an add on to the shooting comment, while 50% might be a little excessive, the point holds true. Edey will more than likely play drop coverage as Purdue does that with him and be content with giving up the mid range shots. RU will need its guards (Simpson or Noah) to make them on a regular basis to force Purdue's hand.

 

[NewJerseyHawk]

The same game plan is in place for Purdue since Trevion Williams and now Zach Edey.....single cover the post and stay attached to the perimeter players. If Edey scores 35+ points, so be it.

The problem isn't the 1st miss, because Edey isn't really THAT good, if you can stay in front of him......where Purdue benefits the most are the friendly whistles they get AND how many 2nd shot opportunities they generate.

Purdue has actually improved because if Edey actually misses a shot, you have to rebound his miss. A lot of times, Edey will climb over the back of the opponent and NOT get fouls called on him. And he's actually been coached to NOT try and force up a 2nd shot.

Edey is now improved on rebounding his missed shots and firing passes back out to the perimeter and finding open shooters. This game is potentially, just as frustrating at the initial Michigan State game a couple of weeks ago......RU played excellent half court defense in the 1st half and didn't secure the rebound.....all 3 of 1st half Sparty 3 pointers, occurred on 2nd opportunities. Those 9 points are extremely back-breaking, because RU executed the defensive gameplan, but it goes away if you don't rebound. Instead of having a lead or keeping Sparty in check, RU was down 6, when they played solid defense.

RU has rebounded better and despite fans here overhyping Purdue, they're very good, but far from unbeatable. Player for player, Michigan State is better and Illinois is way better overall, in terms of matchup difficulty.

In terms of how effective Edey is, he's in better shape now, but teams rarely run their offense INTO the post and right at Edey. Cliff has had 2 good games in a row and he needs to try and dunk and go through Zach Edey, even if it's an offensive foul. If you force the refs to call fouls, they will have to call something. Run a few sets through the post and let Cliff try some of those not-so-fluid drives, hooks and jump over Edey and see if Edey fouls him.

I actually think Purdue is better
on offense or tougher to defend. when Edey is off the floor and allows their forwards and guards to freelance and shoot 3s.....but Matt Painter is very reluctant to take that approach and go up and down the court, in a faster paced game.

The only path for RU to win, is let Edey score 30 to 35+ and limit the other shooters from 3......AND allow the RU guards to freelance and take the Purdue guards off the dribble and get to the FT line. If you stop the clock and get to the line (obviously, making more FTs or who shoots FTs matters), then RU has a chance.

RU has a much better chance vs Purdue than Illinois, who's much quicker, athletic, stronger and better at every other position on offense AND defense than Purdue is, outside of Center/Edey.

 

[bac2therac]

while I agree RU can possibly slow the Purdue offense down, if RU continues to not have a pulse on offense, it can easily turn into a 80-50 game

 

[RUBOB72]

Is Ogbole healthy yet?
Tell him to foul Edey as soon as he gets the ball. 5 straight hard fouls.

He’s close 🙏

 

[RAC93]

Is Ogbole healthy yet?
Tell him to foul Edey as soon as he gets the ball. 5 straight hard fouls.

Pike said “we’re close to adding a few guys”, essentially he said help is on the way. No idea when Ogbole actually steps on a court, but it sure seems like this would be a game where they could use him and his fouls to give. I expect Ogbole to play, even if it’s small minutes, or at least he’s available to play and possibly doesn’t get in the game. J Williams I don’t expect to play at all this year, not sure why Pike said that, I assume he knows something we don’t obviously but thus far it has been crickets in regards to J Williams and any sort of update to his status/situation.

 

[Conq1234569]

The problem isn't the 1st miss, because Edey isn't really THAT good, if you can stay in front of him......where Purdue benefits the most are the friendly whistles they get AND how many 2nd shot opportunities they generate.

How can anyone take you seriously when you say things like this?

 

[RutgersChow]

Pike has seemed to take two general approaches in guarding dominant bigs (Cockburn, Edey, etc), to either double in the post and likely allow an open three in rotations or to allow the post to eat and limit other scorers.

To me, the latter makes sense this year, as Cliff seems to defend Edey well enough and I think we matchup pretty well with Purdue otherwise — their backcourt is even tinier than ours, I think Mag will suffocate Lance Jones and Hyatt has seemed to do well with bigger assignments like Gillis and TKR.

Without help Edey will destroy Cliff.

 

[Degaz-RU]

I feel like we defended Purdue two years ago with the "let Edey and Williams get theirs" approach, but that last year, we played more double and triple swarming type defense on Edey and let Caleb et al clamp down on the small freshmen guards. It worked at Mackey.

But that won't work this year, as Smith and Loyer have improved in geometric proportions from last year -- **Sigh** to marked sophomore improvements -- and will absolutely MURDER us from deep and on dribble penetration if we swarm Edey.

So I think this year we need to go back to just mano-a-mano and let Edey "get his," and don't let the guards hurt you from deep. And yes, Mag needs to be in Lance Jones' shorts all day.

It's not going to ultimately matter, mind you, as I think any successful strategy merely reduces the point differential in an inevitable loss. We either lose by 8-12 or we lose by 20+.

 

[PhillyRU]

I feel like we defended Purdue two years ago with the "let Edey and Williams get theirs" approach, but that last year, we played more double and triple swarming type defense on Edey and let Caleb et al clamp down on the small freshmen guards. It worked at Mackey.

But that won't work this year, as Smith and Loyer have improved in geometric proportions from last year -- **Sigh** to marked sophomore improvements -- and will absolutely MURDER us from deep and on dribble penetration if we swarm Edey.

So I think this year we need to go back to just mano-a-mano and let Edey "get his," and don't let the guards hurt you from deep. And yes, Mag needs to be in Lance Jones' shorts all day.

It's not going to ultimately matter, mind you, as I think any successful strategy merely reduces the point differential in an inevitable loss. We either lose by 8-12 or we lose by 20+.

That’s generally my thinking. The flaw with Purdue last year was the three-point shooting, which has been entirely remedied — at 40.6 percent this year (holy shit) from 32.2 percent last year.

Painter is such a good coach man

 

[RUBOB72]

Pike said “we’re close to adding a few guys”, essentially he said help is on the way. No idea when Ogbole actually steps on a court, but it sure seems like this would be a game where they could use him and his fouls to give. I expect Ogbole to play, even if it’s small minutes, or at least he’s available to play and possibly doesn’t get in the game. J Williams I don’t expect to play at all this year, not sure why Pike said that, I assume he knows something we don’t obviously but thus far it has been crickets in regards to J Williams and any sort of update to his status/situation.

Been hearing this for weeks and not only with the Big O. Does the name J . W Williams ring a bell.We may never see him on the court … ever.

 

[just.a.fan]

Is Ogbole healthy yet?
Tell him to foul Edey as soon as he gets the ball. 5 straight hard fouls.

As a sports fan I am not sure what is most disturbing. You suggesting this. Or other posters condoning your suggestion.

 

[Skull83]

Been hearing this for weeks and not only with the Big O. Does the name J . W Williams ring a bell.We may never see him on the court … ever.

We were hearing that about Mawot for a few weeks too and now we see him on the court.

 

[Scangg]

Is Ogbole healthy yet?
Tell him to foul Edey as soon as he gets the ball. 5 straight hard fouls.

Edey is actually a good foul shooter especially for a big man, but we could use his size. If Cliff gets into foul trouble, slimmed down Wolf will get overpowered. I think we have to double if Wolf is in

Oskar and Chol have gotten a handful of minutes at the 5 but they would get embarrassed by Edey

As an add on to the shooting comment, while 50% might be a little excessive, the point holds true. Edey will more than likely play drop coverage as Purdue does that with him and be content with giving up the mid range shots. RU will need its guards (Simpson or Noah) to make them on a regular basis to force Purdue's hand.

Would be the perfect game for Derek to have a good shooting night on this mid range jumpers with Edey dropping


LOL at Hawk trying to say Edey is not that good. He's literally the national player of the year. Come on man. That's ridiculous. He's shooting 30% better than Simpson this year for reference at an eye popping 63% for someone averaging 23 ppg. That type of efficiency for someone scoring over 20 ppg is sooo freaking good

 

[MCKnight2004]

Upsets only happen when you make shots. RU will have to shoot as well as they did at SHU, especially from 3, where I think we made 12/24 at SHU. Confidence in that happening again are slim. Considering Gavin actually played that game and made 3 threes himself

 

[Plum Street]

this will simply come down to Cliff staying out of foul trouble and Purdue having a terrible shooting night when Edey kicks it out while RU shoots over 50%, anything less than that is a double digit loss

lol
You’re right

 

[PaBoiler78]

I feel like we defended Purdue two years ago with the "let Edey and Williams get theirs" approach, but that last year, we played more double and triple swarming type defense on Edey and let Caleb et al clamp down on the small freshmen guards. It worked at Mackey.

But that won't work this year, as Smith and Loyer have improved in geometric proportions from last year -- **Sigh** to marked sophomore improvements -- and will absolutely MURDER us from deep and on dribble penetration if we swarm Edey.

So I think this year we need to go back to just mano-a-mano and let Edey "get his," and don't let the guards hurt you from deep. And yes, Mag needs to be in Lance Jones' shorts all day.

It's not going to ultimately matter, mind you, as I think any successful strategy merely reduces the point differential in an inevitable loss. We either lose by 8-12 or we lose by 20+.

besides Smith and Loyer being better, you forgot to mention Lance Jones, he's been a large difference maker for us this year

 

[motorb54]

And Edey spent many minutes on the bench because of foul trouble in one of our upset wins.

 

[RUBOB72]

Edey is actually a good foul shooter especially for a big man, but we could use his size. If Cliff gets into foul trouble, slimmed down Wolf will get overpowered. I think we have to double if Wolf is in

Oskar and Chol have gotten a handful of minutes at the 5 but they would get embarrassed by Edey



Would be the perfect game for Derek to have a good shooting night on this mid range jumpers with Edey dropping


LOL at Hawk trying to say Edey is not that good. He's literally the national player of the year. Come on man. That's ridiculous. He's shooting 30% better than Simpson this year for reference at an eye popping 63% for someone averaging 23 ppg. That type of efficiency for someone scoring over 20 ppg is sooo freaking good

Edey will have a good post college career. Funny how people don’t see this 7’5” 290 + lber making it…. He moves well enough, passes well enough , uses both hands, and is smart enough to figure out a spot. Does he have 36”+ vertical no but he has definitely improved the past two seasons.

 

[RUBOB72]

We were hearing that about Mawot for a few weeks too and now we see him on the court.

The point is we have had both in football and basketball this thinking that the cavalry is on the way. Hope so maybe Emmanuel will get on the court . National TV … 12 pts… 7 REBS … 3 blocks great coming out party . See I fixed it… how about J Williams plays that might be more helpful.

 

[PhillyRU]

besides Smith and Loyer being better, you forgot to mention Lance Jones, he's been a large difference maker for us this year

As much as I think Purdue wins by double digits, I think Jones will have a really tough time with Mag

 

[fluoxetine]

This game is potentially, just as frustrating at the initial Michigan State game a couple of weeks ago......RU played excellent half court defense in the 1st half and didn't secure the rebound.....all 3 of 1st half Sparty 3 pointers, occurred on 2nd opportunities. Those 9 points are extremely back-breaking, because RU executed the defensive gameplan, but it goes away if you don't rebound. Instead of having a lead or keeping Sparty in check, RU was down 6, when they played solid defense.

Michigan State's OREB% in that game was 25.0%. That would be #31 for a defense (i.e. only giving up 25% offensive rebounds would be the 31st *best* defense) if maintained all season.

This is what an aversion to statistics gets you.

 

[RUJMM78]

He’s close 🙏

So is February.

 

[RUBOB72]

Edey is actually a good foul shooter especially for a big man, but we could use his size. If Cliff gets into foul trouble, slimmed down Wolf will get overpowered. I think we have to double if Wolf is in

Oskar and Chol have gotten a handful of minutes at the 5 but they would get embarrassed by Edey



Would be the perfect game for Derek to have a good shooting night on this mid range jumpers with Edey dropping


LOL at Hawk trying to say Edey is not that good. He's literally the national player of the year. Come on man. That's ridiculous. He's shooting 30% better than Simpson this year for reference at an eye popping 63% for someone averaging 23 ppg. That type of efficiency for someone scoring over 20 ppg is sooo freaking good

What I have seen with Edey this year is at least in college a guy we would love to have. Question is … Edey or Omoruyi? What’s your choice… both can be dominant .

 

[RAC93]

Been hearing this for weeks and not only with the Big O. Does the name J . W Williams ring a bell.We may never see him on the court … ever.

I am 100% confident J Williams does not play this year and am starting to wonder if he will ever play at RU. The only follow up I heard on JWill was when Pike was asked during a post game about him a few games after his help is on the way comment, he said “we applied for a waiver”……a waiver for what?!?!?!?! What did RU apply for and what is their argument?!?!?!?! No follow up questions by reporters, nada, nil, zip. Pike just says “we applied for a waiver” and all media members sit there like zombies and don’t ask anything. Horrendous. Very frustrating with how passive Hobbs and athletic dept. come across on these type of issues, talk about in the media, challenge the NCAA, get more aggressive with a legal dept., etc………..they just seem so passive and accepting of however long the NCAA wants to wait, whatever they want to do……would love to see them speak out a little.

 

[RUBOB72]

We have ALWAYS been like sheep in the meadow .

 

[Scangg]

What I have seen with Edey this year is at least in college a guy we would love to have. Question is … Edey or Omoruyi? What’s your choice… both can be dominant .

There is only one choice. Edey is the reigning college player of the year.

 

[Scangg]

I am 100% confident J Williams does not play this year and am starting to wonder if he will ever play at RU. The only follow up I heard on JWill was when Pike was asked during a post game about him a few games after his help is on the way comment, he said “we applied for a waiver”……a waiver for what?!?!?!?! What did RU apply for and what is their argument?!?!?!?! No follow up questions by reporters, nada, nil, zip. Pike just says “we applied for a waiver” and all media members sit there like zombies and don’t ask anything. Horrendous. Very frustrating with how passive Hobbs and athletic dept. come across on these type of issues, talk about in the media, challenge the NCAA, get more aggressive with a legal dept., etc………..they just seem so passive and accepting of however long the NCAA wants to wait, whatever they want to do……would love to see them speak out a little.

 

[RAC93]

We have ALWAYS been like sheep in the meadow .

The squeaky wheel gets greased, unfortunately RU has no idea how, why, or when to squeak. If I were Pike I would bring JWill up weekly and keep talking about this in the media, in other words force the NCAA to deal with this because Pike standing in front of the media and addressing it is not going to go away. Go full court press with it, have Hobbs do a press conference in addition to Pike…….I feel like if this situation went on at other schools with other coaches, there would be a much different approach to it. Just like I would love to see Pike work the refs more and get teed up occasionally, I would love to see them work the NCAA more aggressively.

 

[RutgersChow]

What I have seen with Edey this year is at least in college a guy we would love to have. Question is … Edey or Omoruyi? What’s your choice… both can be dominant .

999 out of 1000 would rather have Edey, The one person rather having Omoruyi is blind.

 

[fluoxetine]

That’s generally my thinking. The flaw with Purdue last year was the three-point shooting, which has been entirely remedied — at 40.6 percent this year (holy shit) from 32.2 percent last year.

Painter is such a good coach man

If anything this makes me think they are a bit overrated, no team shoots 40.6% in the long run. (To be clear I’m not saying they aren’t a very good team.)

 

[RAC93]

That’s generally my thinking. The flaw with Purdue last year was the three-point shooting, which has been entirely remedied — at 40.6 percent this year (holy shit) from 32.2 percent last year.

Painter is such a good coach man

Good coach…..yes and no. Izzo gets his teams to ramp up as the the year goes on and to try to excel in March. Painter has had a recent rough go of the month of March. If Purdue is an absolute dud once again in March, Painter may still be a good coach, especially with offense, but we can definitely say getting his teams ready for March is not something he is good at. We’ll see how they do this year, pressure is on them. I think they’ll be fine and advance to sweet 16 minimum this year, final four would not be shocking obviously. They’ve played a very tough schedule this year and seem more ready this year.

 

[TC4THREE]

Good coach…..yes and no. Izzo gets his teams to ramp up as the the year goes on and to try to excel in March. Painter has had a recent rough go of the month of March. If Purdue is an absolute dud once again in March, Painter may still be a good coach, especially with offense, but we can definitely say getting his teams ready for March is not something he is good at. We’ll see how they do this year, pressure is on them. I think they’ll be fine and advance to sweet 16 minimum this year, final four would not be shocking obviously. They’ve played a very tough schedule this year and seem more ready this year.

Or maybe you can say that some years they had no business being as good as they are/were in the regular season which allowed them to get exposed in the tournament in a high-profile manner.

In reality, they never should've won as many games as they did last year with an all-freshman backcourt where neither player was ranked in the top 100 in that class. For that matter, Edey was ranked like 400-something and had no business being all-conference, let alone NPOY.

They were unranked to start last season. Edey was not in the play of the year convo for the conference, let alone the country. Most Purdue fans weren't even sure if he could play more than the 20 minutes a game he got the season before when he shared the center spot with Trevion Williams. They somehow emerged to win the PK tournament and go undefeated in the non-conference, win the Big Ten by 3 games, and the Big Ten tournament. Doesn't mean they should've lost to FDU but had they been a bubble team and flamed out in the first round against whoever the entire narrative would be different.

Just my opinion but what we saw last season was a young, marginally talented team maximize their capabilities only to have a very bad game when the lights were the brightest. We will see what fate befalls them this March.

 

[Nycrusupporter]

If anything this makes me think they are a bit overrated, no team shoots 40.6% in the long run. (To be clear I’m not saying they aren’t a very good team.)

When Baylor won the National Championship in 2021, they shot .413 for the season from 3, on much higher volume than Purdue.

 

[fluoxetine]

When Baylor won the National Championship in 2021, they shot .413 for the season from 3, on much higher volume than Purdue.

You're right; it seems like a few teams each year shoot >40% all season. I would still say that if you sort by top 3p% you are generally getting teams that are both really good at shooting AND a bit lucky, and my guess is that most of those teams would end up <40% if the season were extended out to 100 games or something. But it does seem like I overstated the degree of it.

 

[RAC93]

Or maybe you can say that some years they had no business being as good as they are/were in the regular season which allowed them to get exposed in the tournament in a high-profile manner.

In reality, they never should've won as many games as they did last year with an all-freshman backcourt where neither player was ranked in the top 100 in that class. For that matter, Edey was ranked like 400-something and had no business being all-conference, let alone NPOY.

They were unranked to start last season. Edey was not in the play of the year convo for the conference, let alone the country. Most Purdue fans weren't even sure if he could play more than the 20 minutes a game he got the season before when he shared the center spot with Trevion Williams. They somehow emerged to win the PK tournament and go undefeated in the non-conference, win the Big Ten by 3 games, and the Big Ten tournament. Doesn't mean they should've lost to FDU but had they been a bubble team and flamed out in the first round against whoever the entire narrative would be different.

Just my opinion but what we saw last season was a young, marginally talented team maximize their capabilities only to have a very bad game when the lights were the brightest. We will see what fate befalls them this March.

You glossed over the fact they lost to a 16 seed, a 15 seed, and a 13 seed the last 3 years in the tourney. Pressure is on them for sure this year. Plus, they had Ivey (a lottery pick) and Trevion Williams so let’s not make them sound like a bunch of talentless, underdog teams playing at Purdue. I think this year they’ll deliver the goods and advance further in March, but the pressure is on to deliver when you have the back-to-back POY (assuming Edey wins again) and you’re ranked somewhere in the top 4 for virtually the whole season with a great record. If they’re a dud in March AGAIN, that is a reflection on the program and the coach. Big year for them as they have a legit shot at national title and the lights will be even brighter for them this March.

 

[Scangg]

You glossed over the fact they lost to a 16 seed, a 15 seed, and a 13 seed the last 3 years in the tourney. Pressure is on them for sure this year. Plus, they had Ivey (a lottery pick) and Trevion Williams so let’s not make them sound like a bunch of talentless, underdog teams playing at Purdue. I think this year they’ll deliver the goods and advance further in March, but the pressure is on to deliver when you have the back-to-back POY (assuming Edey wins again) and you’re ranked somewhere in the top 4 for virtually the whole season with a great record. If they’re a dud in March AGAIN, that is a reflection on the program and the coach. Big year for them as they have a legit shot at national title and the lights will be even brighter for them this March.

There's more pressure on Purdue and Painter to make a deep run than any other program. I think this is the year they get it done with the way they are shooting the 3 plus Edey