Do you agree with Matt Painter about how star center Zach Edey is officiated?
Purdue head coach Matt Painter joined The Ride with JMV on Indianapolis, Indiana’s 93.5 The Fan recently to discuss his Purdue team entering the NCAA Tournament.
One big topic of conversation was star center Zach Edey, a soon-to-be two-time Wooden Award winner and one of the best players in the program’s history.
Edey has become a somewhat controversial figure despite his dominance on the court: Fans across the Big Ten have grown tired of how he’s officiated.
Related: Social media relitigates Zach Edey’s whistle from Wisconsin’s upset win over Purdue
Painter had a long response defending Edey, saying he actually gets fouled more than what’s called. Here’s nearly a two-minute bit of Painter’s 20-minute interview:
“You get radio hosts and different people that follow the game that are saying crazy things. It’s a level of ignorance that’s unmatched. (Zach Edey) doesn’t deserve any of that. … The people that understand basketball, the people we go against coaching and playing, you see some tactics out there, you see guys that are cheap-shotting him and chucking him and doing some different things, then they make a big deal about all the calls that he gets.
If you sit down and actually watch the game, and you know the rules, and you watch what’s going on from the two hands in the back to the hook-and-holds, to the guys trying to take charges when he’s diving, things of that nature, where they’re not trying to take those charges on anyone else in the country. That’s how people get hurt. That’s why they changed the block/charge and making guys be more set, because they don’t want collisions and they don’t want guys getting hurt. …
When you get into the NCAA Tournament, you’ll get people that have never reffed him. You can’t have two rules. … Any ref would say ‘the rules are for everybody,’ yet as the game progresses they’ll call it differently, and they think we’re getting away with it because at the end of the game, he has 13 fouls drawn. But go back and watch the game. How many times does he get fouled, by the letter of the law, 25, 20? …
I’ve had Final Four officials, not one of them, 10 of them, come over and say: ‘They foul him every play. He gets fouled every single play.’ And this is their words.”
The one remark about drawing charges is most likely about Wisconsin’s plan, and Tyler Wahl’s perfect execution late in the game that was somehow called a blocking foul.
Wisconsin won that game, 75-74, on a last-second basket in overtime. The story from the game was the Badgers’ resilience despite Steven Crowl, Nolan Winter and Tyler Wahl all questionably fouling out trying to defend Edey. Badgers fans went back through the tapes and found some inconsistencies with the officiating.
Related: Pewaukee, Wisconsin’s Jack Gohlke becomes viral sensation with NCAA Tournament performance vs. Kentucky
In Painter’s mind, those inconsistencies should have gone the other way and punished Wisconsin even more.
Keep in mind: Edey committed two fouls that game — each coming two minutes in to the game. That means the officiating crew believed the star center played more than an entire game of action without committing a single foul.
Whether the Big Ten Tournament semifinal was called correctly or not, the officiating of Edey will be a point of discussion when Purdue takes the court in the NCAA Tournament. Once again, the program is a No. 1 seed, though is looking to avoid a third early exit in the last four seasons.
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