The two PK85 events in Portland designed to honor Nike co-founder Phil Knight featured a total of 16 schools — six of which were ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 preseason poll, among them preseason No. 1 North Carolina and preseason No. 2 Gonzaga. So, naturally, two teams that were unranked in the preseason AP poll emerged as undefeated tournament champions.
The Boilermakers won the Phil Knight Legacy by defeating West Virginia, Gonzaga and Duke while the Huskies won the Phil Knight Invitational by defeating Oregon, Alabama and Iowa State. As a result, Purdue and UConn are now No. 3 and No. 6, respectively, in Monday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. Both are great early season stories — especially Purdue, which is flourishing thanks in part to Zach Edey emerging as an undeniable national player of the year candidate.
“[He’s] the most unique player in the country,” said Duke coach Jon Scheyer. “He’s a hard guy to prepare for because there’s nobody else like him.”
Edey, a 7-foot-4 center, finished with 21 points and 12 rebounds in Purdue’s 75-56 destruction of Duke and is now averaging a Big Ten-best 21.7 points, a Big Ten-best 12.0 rebounds and a Big Ten-best 2.3 blocks per game. That’s impressive regardless of the context but next-level impressive when you consider that Edey was ranked 440th in the Class of 2020, according to 247Sports. His emergence is symbolic of Purdue’s entire program, which is currently starting five players who were all ranked outside of the top 90 of their high school classes. Among the starters are Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer, a pair of nationally unheralded freshman guards who are combining to average 21.1 points, 6.5 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game.
Itching for more college hoops analysis? Listen below and subscribe to the Eye on College Basketball podcast where we take you beyond the hardwood with insider information and instant reactions.
Top 25 And 1 rankings
