NCAA 2024 MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 5, 2024

Barry Bedlan

Zach Edey

Associated Press Player of the Year Press Conference

BARRY BEDLAN: I'm Barry Bedlan, and I'm the sports products director for the Associated Press. It's my pleasure to present the AP College Basketball Player of the Year award.

Since 1961, the recipient of this award has been selected by the same panel of journalists who select the weekly AP Top 25. Voting for the award is conducted at the end of the regular season, before the start of the NCAA tournament.

If you were paying attention to the season, the AP Player of the Year is no surprise. In fact, this is kind of like Groundhog Day for him because he received the trophy on this stage last year. In fact, he is the first player to win this award a second time in just over 40 years. The last to do it was Virginia's Ralph Sampson, the award's only three-time winner from 1981 to 1993.

This year's recipient joins an elite club of only six repeat winners in the award's 63-year history. Others include UCLA's Lew Alcindor and Bill Walton, NC State's David Thompson, and Ohio State's Jerry Lucas, the award's first winner and the only other Big Ten player to repeat.

This star from Toronto, Canada, also was named the unanimous AP All-American and Big Ten Player of the Year, both also for a second year. He led the nation in scoring, averaging 25 points per game, and was second in rebounds, with 12.2 per game. He also finished the season with 28 double-doubles.

He is the first player since Oscar Robertson in 1960 to lead the nation in scoring and lead his team to the Final Four.

In fact, he recorded a career-high 40 points at the most opportune time against Tennessee in the Elite Eight leading the Boilermakers to their first Final Four in 44 years.

Known as "Big Maple," he is still listed as being 7'4", but I swear he's only gotten taller since last season. This year's AP Men's College Basketball Player of the Year is Purdue's Zach Edey.

ZACH EDEY: I don't really have anything planned. It's an honor to receive this and join that elite club of people. It's just been a heck of a season for not just me but my team. I'm so proud of everything that we've accomplished at this point. Obviously we have still more games left to play.

With the amount of stuff that we've gone through, the amount of stuff we've heard, to be able to bounce back and accomplish things we have up to this point, it's been my favorite year I've ever lived in. Just the experiences, going through it with the guys, I wouldn't trade it for anything. I wouldn't trade the group of people I went through it with for anything.

THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions now for Zach and Barry.

Q. Zach, last year you won it, of course, but you weren't playing at this time. Now that you are playing, are you able to enjoy it? Or after the tournament will you think about it?

ZACH EDEY: Yeah, I always kind of think these awards are something that I'll look back on in the future and really appreciate, like, let it all sink in in the future. Right now it kind of hasn't.

I'm living kind of in the moment. This is a big award, this is a big deal for me, but I have bigger things on the horizon here that demand my attention.

Like last year, I wasn't playing at this time. This year I definitely will play my position this year more. Just being appreciative of kind of everything that's happened for me and trying to stay in the moment. Like I said, in the future I think that's when it will sink in and I'll be able to appreciate all this.

Q. Zach, when you cut your part of the nets down, you handed part of it to Coach Keatts. Was that thought of ahead of time or was it a spontaneous moment? What did that mean to you?

ZACH EDEY: Well, it meant to me, like, just paying it back. The ones that came before you, you always have to remember, not overlook. I think that's one of the great things about Purdue, when you commit to Purdue, when you play for Purdue, you're in the Purdue family for life. You see people on the sideline, like Robbie is crying, Coach K is having a great time, his wife is crying. In the family section, there's people that I've known forever that are, like, crying. I think that's the one great thing about Purdue, we really pay respect to people that came before us, we acknowledge them. We don't overlook that.

I think just being able to give him kind of like a piece of that net, being able to have him be a part of that, make sure he knows, like, we know he's a part of this, it was a great feeling.

Q. That being said, Drew Brees, has he reached out to you? Have you been able to meet or talk with him?

ZACH EDEY: No, I've never really talked to him personally. Obviously I know about him. He's one of the greatest Purdue athletes ever. No, I haven't really talked to him too much.

Q. So often it's just seemed over the last two years everyone has talked about everything you can't do rather than what you are doing. As you sit here at a Final Four with another trophy in front of you, what are you starting to show and have proven to the basketball world?

ZACH EDEY: Well, I don't think I have to prove anything. I think what I've done, like, speaks for itself. I think the people that can't appreciate some of the stuff, I don't really pay them any mind anymore. Obviously the first few years, it would kind of get me upset, off balance, whatever. I've been dealing with it for so long, it's not anything crazy.

It just makes me appreciate the people that do care about me more: my teammates, my family, the Purdue fans. I'm signing stuff after every game because I know they appreciate me. I value that. Like, I know it sounds kind of corny, but I value the people that value me. I'm going to focus on them.

Q. Have you heard from any of the national team guys over the last week?

ZACH EDEY: Yeah a few of them congratulating me, for sure.

Q. When you say you have a different way of motivating yourself than other people, how would you define that?

ZACH EDEY: Yeah, for sure. I know I play better when I, like, get angry. Obviously I'm trying to get angry before a game. Everyone has their own thing, whether it's listening to music, stretching. It's just my little thing.

Q. Mason Gillis here with the Purdue basketball team. A couple of us were wondering, when did you know that nobody could guard you?

ZACH EDEY: Next question (smiling).

Q. The level of shape you've gotten yourself in is impressive. What sort of work went into that, the difference between the summer of your junior year to the summer of your senior year?

ZACH EDEY: Yeah, I think a big thing kind of comes with having a big role on the team is you have to play a lot of minutes. I'm never going to complain about playing minutes. I'm going to try to get myself in the best shape possible so I can play as many minutes. I want to be on the floor at all times. I'm never going to ask for a stop. I think that's kind of the mentality of our whole team.

THE MODERATOR: We congratulate Zach as Player of the Year.