The good news is Grant Hill will not be waiting for Zach Edey in the Elite Eight.
He won’t even be part of the CBS announcing team – Hill is part of the trio calling the NCAA South Region games in Dallas – so any leftover hex he might hold over a Purdue superstar big man will be far removed from Purdue’s game in the Midwest Region final.
Edey’s rampage through three rounds of the NCAA Tournament recalls the work of Glenn “Big Dog” Robinson when he was Player of the Year in 1994 and carried the No. 1 seed Boilermakers to the Elite Eight.
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Robinson led the Boilers to victories that year over UCF, Alabama and Kansas while averaging 36 points per game and shooting 49.3 percent from the field. He also contributed 9.7 rebounds in those three wins. Robinson was the nation’s leading scorer that season.
Edey is not the No. 1 scorer in college basketball, and he has not been quite as prolific a scorer through his first three tournament games this season. Following his 27-point effort against Gonzaga in Friday night’s 80-68 victory over Gonzaga, he has averaged 26.7 points in this edition of March Madness, as well as 16.3 rebounds and two blocks.
"He's so unselfish," coach Matt Painter said. "But just keeping his composure from all the physicality is something that's pretty impressive."
MORE: Purdue on the brink of ending cruel Final Four drought
Whose has been the more dominant performance?
Well, that might be best assessed following Sunday’s regional final.
Because in 1994, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski put Hill on Robinson, and the result was a 6-of-22 shooting performance from the Big Dog that produced only 13 points. Duke won the game and advanced to their third Final Four in four years.
The Purdue Final Four drought that was only 14 years old at that point has continued another 30. The 2019 Boilers nearly ended that behind Carsen Edwards, who actually might have authored the greatest NCAA Tournament scoring performance in a Purdue uniform – or at least since Rick Mount got the Boilers to the 1969 Final Four.
Edwards averaged 34.8 points in the four games Purdue played, including the regional final loss to Virginia in which he smoked the noted UVa defense for 42 points on 14-of-25 shooting. But Purdue did not reach the Final Four that season, either.
Mount averaged 30.5 points in four games of the 1969 tournament, in which the Boilers fell to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the UCLA Bruins in the championship game.
