Indiana's Trayce Jackson-Davis Next Challenge for Zach Edey, No. 1 Purdue Basketball

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue basketball is no stranger to witnessing some of the nation's most talented big men take the floor this season. 

Leading the No. 1-ranked Boilermakers is their 7-foot-4 star center Zach Edey, a national player of the year frontrunner that's proven every week to be among college basketball's most dominant forces. 

Sharing the floor with the likes of Gonzaga's Drew Timme and Michigan's Hunter Dickinson, Edey has battled with some of the top centers in the country throughout the 2022-23 campaign. Trayce Jackson-Davis is the next player on the list as Purdue heads to Assembly Hall on Saturday for a game against No. 21 Indiana. 

In a rivalry matchup between the only two ranked teams in the Big Ten this week, a duel between Edey and Jackson-Davis will be at the forefront. Both players have the potential to single-handedly sway the outcome of the game in their team's favor. 

"I think everyone in the Purdue organization has had this game circled for a while," Edey said. "Whenever you match up against a good big man in our country or in our league, you kind of look forward to it and you get excited for it."

So far this season, Edey leads the Big Ten with 22.0 points and 13.0 rebounds per game, ranking inside the top five in both categories at the national level. He's been a steady force on the defensive end of the floor too, affecting shots with his presence underneath the basket while adding 2.1 blocks per contest.  

As unguardable as Edey has been at times, he doesn't force shots when his opportunities aren't there. Faced with double and triple teams on a night-to-night basis, he's often tasked with facilitating offense for the Boilermakers, posting a career-best 1.4 assists per game on a team that shoots 33.9% from the 3-point line. 

But if there's anyone who can compete with Edey by stuffing the stat sheet, it's Jackson-Davis. At 6-foot-9 and 245 pounds, he averaged 23.0 points, 14.6 rebounds and 3.4 blocks in January, which has only been done twice before by a college basketball player in a calendar month. 

The other two names on that list are Shaquille O'Neal and Tim Duncan. 

"Trayce Jackson-Davis is just having one of the best years in college basketball," Purdue basketball coach Matt Painter said. "He's just hard to deal with whether he has the ball on the perimeter, or he has the ball in the mid post or the low post. You just have to know where he is at all times. His ability to make that second effort or that second jump is pretty impressive."

Jackson-Davis has posted 19.5 points, 11.2 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 3.1 blocks per game in the 2022-23 season. He ranks second in the conference in both points and rebounds behind Edey but is far and away the top shot blocker in the league. 

He is one of four players in the entire country averaging more than three rejections per contest. Jackson-Davis has a block in 14 straight games, recording as many as nine on a single night. 

"You have to know where he is defensively. He does a good job in ball screen defense of ignoring you and kind of playing possum, and then just luring you into thinking you have a layup," Painter said. "And then he blocks it and they go to the other end. He's very experienced in some areas around the rim. He tries to make you feel comfortable, and he's just walking you into a trap so he can block your shot." 

Jackson-Davis makes use of his athleticism as well as anybody by turning defense into offense. He runs the floor effortlessly and takes advantage of breakaway opportunities when they present themselves. Those chances lead to easy buckets for himself or his teammates in transition, helping Indiana score on 49.7% of its shot attempts, good for fifth in the country. 

"I think he's very versatile offensively with the way he can rebound and push the ball," Edey said. "He's almost like their point guard in a sense sometimes within their offense. He'll get the rebound and he'll just run it up the floor. He's so fast, he's a good athlete and he has good vision. So he can set up his teammates pretty well."

As easy as it may seem to get lost in the individual matchup between two star players in college basketball, Edey keeps the same approach no matter what team comes next on Purdue's schedule. 

Beating the man in front of him — sometimes even two or three — is certainly part of the formula for coming away with a win, but Edey is spearheading full-team efforts that have allowed the Boilermakers to reach a 22-1 overall record this season. 

The Hoosiers, led by Jackson-Davis, are another obstacle standing in the way. No matter which player has the better performance, Edey will only be satisfied if the Boilermakers walk out of Assembly Hall victorious. 

"People are going to talk about the match between me and him a lot, but I think it's still just a game between Purdue and Indiana," Edey said. "We both have played big roles on our teams. But at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is who wins."

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