Purdue shooting guard Carsen Edwards was certainly seen as a high-level talent entering this season, but very few could have seen a development of this magnitude coming. He’s rising as fast and as high as any college basketball who made “the leap” this season.
Edwards was the only B1G player named as a finalist for the Jerry West Award (nation’s best shooting guard). The sophomore is a strong front-runner for all-conference first team. A 6-foot, 1-inch guard from Atascocita, Texas, Carsen Edwards was also named a top-20 finalist for the Wooden Award, which is the basketball Heisman (well, it shares that status with the Naismith Award). It’s quite an accomplishment when you realize Edwards wasn’t on the preseason top-20 list for the West Award.
Hence most of us did not see Edwards’ breakout coming this season, but maybe we should have. The B1G Player of the Year contender made the Team USA Under-19 World Championships squad this past offseason, where he led a side coached by John Calipari in minutes played and assists.
It’s quite a feat when you realize it’s a roster filled with multiple future NBA Draft lottery picks. Not bad for a guy ranked only the 25th best point guard coming out of high school.
Entering the loss at home to Ohio State, the Boilermakers sophomore was leading the team in scoring at 16.6 points per game. He scored 11 straight against the Buckeyes, en route to a career high and game high 28. Edwards, no relation to Vince Edwards, is also shooting 47.1 percent from the field, 39.6 percent from 3-point range and 81.2 percent from the free throw line. He’s achieved double figure scoring in his past ten and the Boilermakers are 35-6 when he scores 10+.
Overall, Carsen Edwards is doing a lot more than just shooting better at every FG/3PT/FT slash line than he did as a rookie last year. Edwards is also getting to the line a lot more, cutting way down on the turnovers, and racking up more assists. Purdue is a team that knows its identity as well as anybody in the country, and that identity is certainly one of the collective, shared success, team-oriented approach.
We discussed Carsen Edwards, Michigan State, Purdue, and the resume for both teams to obtain a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, during the Hammer and Rails podcast, embedded below
Simply put, his success is definitely not happening in a vacuum. Vince Edwards (no relation) and Isaac Haas are also all-B1G first team contenders. Dakota Mathias and P.J. Thompson provide more balance to a team that isn’t built in the traditional model of an alpha dog, second banana etc. and on down the line.
Despite the massive breakout season that Carsen Edwards has enjoyed, he should definitely stay in school, he’s extremely undersized for a NBA shooting guard, but his grittiness and heart works in his favor.
Another year in which he can showcase more point guard skills at the collegiate level would help, as that might be the position that he’ll play in the league.
It will be interesting to see how Matt Painter can create opportunities for him at the one next season, as Nojel Eastern will take over for P.J. Thompson.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
Follow him on Twitter, Instagram, Sound Cloud, LinkedIn and YouTube.