Purdue's Zach Edey Named 2023 Men's Wooden Award Winner

Purdue center Zach Edey etched his name alongside the likes of Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan, Kevin Durant and Larry Bird as winners of the men's Wooden Award, which is given to the best college basketball player in the country in a given season.

The winner was announced Tuesday on SportsCenter, and Edey defeated fellow finalists Trayce Jackson-Davis of Indiana, Marcus Sasser of Houston, Drew Timme of Gonzaga and Jalen Wilson of Kansas.

The finalists were announced on March 30 ahead of the Final Four.

All five players were joined by Jaime Jaquez Jr. (UCLA), Brandon Miller (Alabama), Jalen Pickett (Penn State), Oscar Tshiebwe (Kentucky) and Ažuolas Tubelis (Arizona) on the Wooden Award All-American Team.

Tshiebwe took home the award last season but was unable to go back-to-back despite still impressing for the Wildcats in 2022-23.

It was Edey who set the tone for big men for much of the past campaign. ESPN's Jeff Borzello called him the "perceived front-runner for most of the season" when it came to the Wooden Award, and he was already named the Naismith Men's Player of the Year.

He averaged 22.3 points, 12.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game while shooting 60.7 percent from the field and led Purdue to Big Ten regular-season and conference tournament titles.

While the Boilermakers' stunning loss to 16th-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson in the first round of the NCAA tournament ended their national championship hopes, Edey was brilliant on an individual level throughout the campaign and has been recognized as such on the award circuit.

Yet there was no shortage of worthy challengers for the Wooden Award, as Jackson-Davis averaged 20.9 points, 10.8 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.9 blocks per game and helped lead Indiana to a regular-season sweep of Edey's Boilermakers.

Timme earned finalist status for the second successive year and averaged 21.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.0 blocks for Gonzaga. He was unstoppable during the Bulldogs' Sweet 16 victory over UCLA, finishing with 36 points and 13 boards.

As for Sasser and Wilson, they helped lead Houston and Kansas to American Athletic Conference and Big 12 regular-season titles, respectively, and No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament.

Both fell short of the Final Four, but their teams would not have been in such a position without their individual dominance.

Ultimately, Edey took home the award and will go down in history alongside some of the greatest basketball players to ever take the court.