Zach Edey and Jaden Ivey changed the perception of Purdue en route to the top 10 of the NBA draft

INDIANAPOLIS – It turns out that all Purdue basketball needed was the nation’s 37th signing class to pull off a generational breakthrough.

The Memphis Grizzlies took the lowest-ranked member of that 2020 trio – center Zach Edey – with the ninth overall selection in the first round of Wednesday’s NBA Draft. Hard to remember the days when Ethan Morton cast even a figurative shadow over the 7-4 Canadian.

The headliner in that signing, Jaden Ivey, beat Edey by two years in the NBA draft lottery. However, on Wednesday evening they were reunited in spirit. They will continue to exist as the face of this piece of Boilermakers history – and of the growing momentum the program maintains after their departure.

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In the first 75 years of the NBA draft, Purdue produced seven top-10 picks. These included two who went No. 1 overall: Glenn Robinson in 1994 and Joe Barry Carroll in 1979. Still, that success was mostly scattered. The only exception came when Keith Edmonson and Russell Cross entered the top 10 in 1982-83.

When the Detroit Pistons selected Ivey fifth overall in 2022, they made him the first Boilermakers lottery pick since Robinson. When the Grizzlies took Edey, they turned the former classmates into a remarkable combo.

Leave it to a number cruncher like Jeremy Frank, a data scientist for Matt Painter’s beloved Chicago Cubs, to demonstrate exactly how rare this is. As he posted to X.com after Edey’s selection, only three freshman classes in Big Ten history have produced two top-10 picks:

• 1991-92 Michigan’s Chris Webber (1993) and Juwan Howard (1994). That’s 40% of the Fab Five, responsible for consecutive national championships.

• 2006-07 Ohio State’s Greg Oden and Mike Conley in 2007. The former Lawrence North teammates reached the national championship game in their lone collegiate season.

• Ivey and Edey from Purdue 2020-21. Although their careers diverged after two seasons, they belong together as catalysts of new momentum.

Before they arrived, Purdue’s national status came with many qualifications. Best program without a Final Four appearance since the Jimmy Carter administration. Best program without a lottery pick this century. What may have once been the best program had never been ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25 poll, but has reached that spot in each of the past three seasons.

Ivey and Edey have taken away almost all of those stubborn qualifiers. That elusive national championship remains the final “but/but” barrier to the most exclusive level of college basketball.

Painter recently said he wants to continue attracting the kind of players he’s already getting. Still, it won’t hurt the championship chase to regularly broadcast an advertisement for the program in the first hour of the draft night.

Ivey came to college with NBA expectations. He showed his maturity at Purdue’s Elite Camp in August 2018, the day he received his first scholarship offer. (Also offered that day: a 7-footer from the North named … Chet Holmgren. He ultimately chose Gonzaga, but this other 7-footer worked out well for Purdue.)

However, Edey had to be built into the force that dominated the Big Ten like few others have in consecutive seasons. Together, he and Ivey affirmed Purdue’s ability to both attract elite talent according to the consensus view and to recognize it where others did not.

Ivey and Edey have not set any standards. However, they did change the national perspective and appreciation for a program previously identified by the heights it had not yet reached.

Their talents now belong in the NBA, but any residual momentum could continue.

Follow IndyStar Purdue Insider Nathan Baird on X at @nwbaird.

This article originally appeared in the Indianapolis Star: Purdue’s Zach Edey, Jaden Ivey reunite as NBA Draft top 10 classmates