The Big Ten was well-represented when it came to national awards this year in men’s and women’s basketball. The Purdue Boilermakers dominated the Big Ten throughout the season, had a great run in the NCAA Tournament that saw them get to the championship game and they had the top player in the country in Zach Edey. As good as he was, Edey was overtaken by women’s basketball star Caitlin Clark in notoriety. The Iowa superstar became the top scorer in the history of the women’s sport.
Big Ten in the Big City
@bigten x @WoodenAward pic.twitter.com/uNjIiqQr0p
— Iowa Women's Basketball (@IowaWBB) April 13, 2024
Just like Edey’s team, Clark’s Hawkeyes also made it to the NCAA Championship game. The Boilermakers lost to the UConn Huskies, while Iowa was beaten by South Carolina.
Edey and Clark both earned their sport’s version of the John Wooden Award, named after the legendary UCLA head coach who coached the Burins to 10 NCAA Championships. The awards were given out Friday in Los Angeles and the photo of the two stars created quite a stir because of the height differential.
Edey stands in at 7-4 and 300 pounds, while Clark is 6-0. That 16-inch differential is remarkably eye-catching. Clark is huge in the women’s basketball world, but she is tiny in comparison to Edey.
Both Clark and Edey won their second consecutive Wooden Awards as college basketball’s most outstanding women’s and men’s players at the Los Angeles Athletic Club.
Clark led NCAA Division I in scoring with an average of 31.6 points per game. He also led the nation in 8.9 assists per game. She is the first player to lead the nation in both categories in back-to-back seasons.
Edey led Division I in men’s scoring, averaging 25.2 points. He was second in rebounding, averaging 12.2 boards per game. the Boilermakers made it to the title game for the first time since 1969 when they were beaten by Wooden’s UCLA Bruins and superstar Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — who was known as Lew Alcindor at the time.
When the men’s outstanding player award was named after Wooden, the coach wanted it to mean more than just excellence on the basketball court. He wanted all winners to be certified by their universities, and that is part of the reason that the Toronto native was honored.
While Clark is likely to be the first pick in the WNBA draft and a player who is likely to dominate at the next level, scouts are not as high on Edey.
While he has the size and strength to be a factor, quickness is not an asset and he does not have an array of sophisticated moves.
He was listed as the potential 23rd pick in the first round by Tankathon, and that’s a significant jump in the past month. Zach Edey was listed as a second-round selection in March.
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