Purdue star Edey tops Wooden Midseason Top 25

• Jeff Borzello, ESPN

  • Staff WriterJan 10, 2024, 06:49 PM ET Close Basketball recruiting expert.
  • Joined ESPN in 2014.
  • Graduate of University of Delaware.Purdue star Zach Edey, the reigning

  Wooden Award winner leading the No. 1-ranked Boilermakers, topped the award’s Midseason Top 25 list announced Wednesday.Edey, a 7-foot-4 center, is looking to become just the

  2nd two-time winner in Wooden Award history. He won it last season after averaging 22.3 points and 12.9 rebounds and is the clear preferred to go back-to-back this season.The Canadian is averaging 22.3 points and 10.6 rebounds, shooting 63.4%from the field and blocking 2.3 shots per game. He’s tallied nine double-doubles and scored 35 points on two separate occasions.Editor’s Picks The last player to win the Wood Award in successive seasons was Virginia’s Ralph Sampson, who took home both the 1982 and

1983 awards.Edey’s top competition for the award is most likely to come from blueblood programs. Kansas teammates Kevin McCullar Jr. and Hunter Dickinson are both taking pleasure in productive seasons, with McCullar(20.1 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 4.5 APG)in the midst of a breakout project and Dickinson (19.4 PPG, 12.4 RPG)averaging career-highs in both scoring and rebounding.Duke forward Kyle Filipowski is balancing 17.4 points and 8.6 rebounds and completed with 26 points and 10 rebounds in Tuesday’s win over Pittsburgh. On the other hand, perhaps the very best guard up until now this season

has been North Carolina’s RJ Davis, scoring 20.6 points per game.There are just 2 freshmen on the midseason list, Kentucky’s Reed Sheppard and Baylor’s Ja’Kobe Walter. Sheppard is averaging 11.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.1 helps and 2.5 steals, while Walter is setting up 15.3 points and 4.2 rebounds and simply scored 16 points in Tuesday’s win over No. 18 BYU.North Carolina(Davis and Armando Bacot), Kansas(McCullar and Dickinson )and Kentucky (Sheppard and Antonio Reeves )lead the way with two players apiece on the list.The complete Wooden Award Midseason Top 25: Max Abmas, Texas Armando Bacot, North Carolina L.J. Cryer, Houston Johnell Davis, Florida Atlantic RJ Davis, North Carolina Hunter Dickinson, Kansas Zach Edey, Purdue Kyle Filipowski, Duke PJ Hall, Clemson David Jones, Memphis Dalton Knecht, Tennessee Tyler Kolek, Marquette

Jaedon LeDee, San Diego State Caleb Love, Arizona Kevin McCullar Jr., Kansas Tristen Newton, UConn Antonio Reeves, Kentucky Baylor Scheierman, Creighton Mark Sears, Alabama Reed Sheppard