Zach Edey scores 40 to put Purdue into Final Four

DETROIT — As they jumped around the court, hugged one another and screamed toward their fans following a 72-66 win over Tennessee in the Elite Eight on Sunday, the Purdue Boilermakers enjoyed the moment, something they couldn’t do a year ago.

As they made the 239-mile trek from Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, to their campus in West Lafayette, Indiana, last March, Purdue ran into a snowstorm.

The previous 24 hours had gone so poorly that it almost seemed appropriate. That silent, long — and snowy — bus ride followed the wrong kind of history for the Boilermakers, who had been laughed out of the 2023 NCAA tournament with a first-round loss to 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson.

But the Boilermakers never ran from that reality. They confronted it throughout the season, knowing they’d never convert the naysayers into believers without a deep run in the NCAA tournament.

With Dalton Knecht (37 points, 6-for-12 from the 3-point line) driving to the rim for a must-have bucket with 22 seconds to play on Sunday, Zach Edey (40 points, 16 rebounds) blocked his shot — and Tennessee’s hopes with it.

Both Edey and Knecht, the two front-runners for every major national player of the year award, put on a show in Little Caesars Arena. Edey and Knecht are the third pair of opposing players to each score at least 35 points in the Elite Eight or a later round, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

But Edey & Co. left with the prize.

Before the game, both Edey and Knecht said a shot to earn a trip to the Final Four superseded any talk about who would win the Wooden Award and other honors. But on Sunday, both players competed as if they were playing for the title of “best player in America.”

In the first half alone, Knecht finished with 18 points and started 4-for-4 from the 3-point-line, while Edey had 19 points and 10 rebounds.

They were the engines for their teams throughout the game, the second time these programs had met this season.

At the Maui Invitational in November, Purdue battled to a 71-67 win over Tennessee in a game that featured some late drama. Volunteers guard Jordan Gainey hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 64 with 3:10 to play and Knecht made a 3-pointer to cut Purdue’s lead to three with 17 seconds left. But the Boilermakers left with the win.

As they prepared for the rematch, Vols coach Rick Barnes and his players were quick to suggest the officiating had made it difficult to corral Edey that day. In the first game, Tennessee had 30 fouls and Purdue had 48 free throw attempts.

Early in the game on Sunday, there may have been some deja vu for the Vols, who were called for six fouls in the first seven minutes of the game — mostly as players tried to put a body on Edey. With eight minutes left, Tennessee had 18 fouls. But Tennessee also got a boost from Toby Awaka and JP Estrella, who put in quality minutes guarding Edey for key stretches in the game.

Tennessee also had a better version of Knecht, a projected lottery pick. His 3-pointer with 7:04 to play tied the game at 56 as the final minutes began to feel eerily similar to the Maui Invitational finish.

It ended the way it had to end: with Knecht and Edey trying to lead their teams to victory. Knecht kept his team afloat again, while Edey continued to lumber toward the rim, draw fouls and earn free throws. His dunk with 3:24 to play extended the lead by three points, and his late block on Knecht ended any Tennessee comeback hopes.

Now, the Fairleigh Dickinson loss is a distant memory for a team that has reached the Final Four for just the third time in school history, and has continued its pursuit to follow Virginia in 2018-19 and win the national title a year after suffering a loss to a 16-seed.

The end of last season was a nightmare. But the dream is still alive for Purdue.