NCAA 2024 MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 5, 2024

Zach Edey

Brendan Quinn

News Conference

USBWA Oscar Robertson Player of the Year Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We have the winner of the Oscar Robertson trophy, Zach Edey, and the president currently serving from The Athletic Brendan Quinn.

BRENDAN QUINN: Good morning, everybody. My name is Brendan Quinn. It is an honor to be up here representing the USBWA, an organization with 68 years of history covering the game that we all love.

It's also an honor to be up here with Zach, who I imagine is getting tired -- if there is such a thing of being tired of winning awards, I think Zach has to be testing the theory.

I think I speak for all writers when I say we have run out of ways to describe your talent and your stature and to celebrate what you've given to the sport of college basketball.

Perhaps even more impressive than those attributes and all the awards and all of the stats is the burden upon Zach that goes mostly unseen. Being the face of college basketball is beyond demanding, and it's hard to imagine anyone doing it better than Zach Edey.

Last week in a story by my colleague, your teammate Ethan Morton said this of you: Everybody wants to be that guy, but there's also a lot of stuff -- he did not say stuff -- that comes with it, and nobody gets that. I don't think people understand what he has to deal with and the weight he carries on his shoulders. He has a master's degree in dealing with stuff.

Zach, you were also on the stage last year, a double dip, but this year feels so much more fitting because you are here with your team, you are here with your uniform, and you are ready to play in Purdue's first national semifinal in 44 years and potentially lead the Boilermakers to their first national championship in school history. He will do so as a two-time Oscar Robertson Award trophy winner.

Congrats.

ZACH EDEY: Thank you. It's been a great year, not only for me personally, but for, like, Purdue. We've had a great year up to this point. I can't complain. I'm so proud of my teammates, the way that they bounced back this year.

You say I have a weight on my shoulders, but they do, too. Let's not get that mistaken. The way they've handled that, the way they've succeeded in that role, I'm super proud of them.

I wouldn't be here without them. Braden has helped me so much. Everything. Like they give me room to work in the game, they give me that space. Braden sets me up. I'm so proud of the way they responded from last year. Obviously we're here and we're still playing. We still have more games to go. We're not done by any means.

Up to this point, the way that they responded like grown men, I'm so happy for them.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Zach.

Q. I wanted to ask you about some NIL stuff. You've been doing social media posts. How easy it for people like you to make money doing those posts? When do you do that? How do you take the time to do it? Your overall thoughts on NIL benefiting players like yourself?

ZACH EDEY: Well, I'm probably a bad person to that about that just 'cause since I'm a foreign student, obviously I have those kind of NIL issues, visa issues. I'll try to do some stuff when I can. When I'm back in Toronto, I'll try to do some stuff.

Obviously I can still do jersey sales and stuff while I'm here, that passive income stuff. It's not like I can go film a commercial in West Lafayette. I don't think I'm really the best person to ask about that.

Q. The posts you did, was that when you were in Canada?

ZACH EDEY: Just when I was in Canada.

Q. Do you think it's unfair that international students can't benefit from NIL?

ZACH EDEY: Yeah, for sure. I hope they change it in the future. I obviously have lost out on a lot of money this year. At the end of the day it needs to change, for sure. I understand kind of the legal process, it takes a while. It's not like it's an NCAA rule; it's an American law. Anytime you try to go change that, I understand it takes a while.

But I do think it needs to change.

Q. You were the best player in the sport last year. Best player in the sport this year. Was it more difficult getting to that point a year ago or was it more difficult sustaining it over the past five months?

ZACH EDEY: Well, I mean, both seasons presented their own kind of challenges. Obviously last year, like, we kind of came from that team that no one expected anything from. If we made the tournament last year, it was going to be a good year. To have all the success that we had in that season...

For me, I had personal success. For me that was a big challenging. I had never been in that focal point of an offense role. Being in that last year, accepting that, working out all the problems that come with it was challenging.

This year it's playing with that. Everybody wants to play against me. Everybody wants to play against me. I got that target on my back. Kind of accepting that it's a privilege to have that. They don't do that for everybody. Only great players and great teams get that target. Kind of accepting that, dealing with that. Then, like, the other stuff.

Like I said, they both presented their own unique challenges. I don't know if one was harder than the other.

Q. I understand the frustrations with NIL for you. That doesn't sound fair. What kind of deals have you heard of that your teammates have been able to capitalize on, things you have passed up, some of the cooler, more interesting NIL deals you've seen that you wish you could have been a part of?

ZACH EDEY: I try to stay out of that for the most part. I have my agents deal with that. I'm a basketball player at the end of the day. That's really what I'm focused on. Especially when I can't even make the NIL deals, I don't want to hear about them, to be honest (smiling).

I haven't really heard about too many of them. I try to stay away from that.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Zach, congratulations.