Purdue star Zach Edey tops Wooden Award Midseason Top 25

Purdue star Zach Edey, the reigning Wooden Award winner leading the No. 1-ranked Boilermakers, topped the award’s Midseason Top 25 list announced Wednesday.

Edey, a 7-foot-4 center, is looking to become only the second two-time winner in Wooden Award history. He won it last season after averaging 22.3 points and 12.9 rebounds and is the clear favorite to go back-to-back this season.

The Canadian is averaging 22.3 points and 10.6 rebounds, shooting 63.4% from the field and blocking 2.3 shots per game. He’s tallied nine double-doubles and scored 35 points on two separate occasions.

The last player to win the Wooden Award in consecutive seasons was Virginia’s Ralph Sampson, who took home both the 1982 and 1983 awards.

Edey’s top competition for the award is likely to come from blueblood programs. Kansas teammates Kevin McCullar Jr. and Hunter Dickinson are both enjoying productive seasons, with McCullar (20.1 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 4.5 APG) in the midst of a breakout campaign and Dickinson (19.4 PPG, 12.4 RPG) averaging career-highs in both scoring and rebounding.

Duke forward Kyle Filipowski is averaging 17.4 points and 8.6 rebounds and finished with 26 points and 10 rebounds in Tuesday’s win over Pittsburgh. Meanwhile, arguably the best guard so far this season has been North Carolina’s RJ Davis, scoring 20.6 points per game.

There are only two freshmen on the midseason list, Kentucky’s Reed Sheppard and Baylor’s Ja’Kobe Walter. Sheppard is averaging 11.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 2.5 steals, while Walter is putting up 15.3 points and 4.2 rebounds and just scored 16 points in Tuesday’s win over No. 18 BYU.

North Carolina (Davis and Armando Bacot), Kansas (McCullar and Dickinson) and Kentucky (Sheppard and Antonio Reeves) lead the way with two players apiece on the list.

The complete Wooden Award Midseason Top 25:

• Max Abmas, Texas

• Armando Bacot, North Carolina

• L.J. Cryer, Houston

• Johnell Davis, Florida Atlantic

• RJ Davis, North Carolina

• Hunter Dickinson, Kansas

• Zach Edey, Purdue

• Kyle Filipowski, Duke

• PJ Hall, Clemson

• David Jones, Memphis

• Dalton Knecht, Tennessee

• Tyler Kolek, Marquette

• Jaedon LeDee, San Diego State

• Caleb Love, Arizona

• Kevin McCullar Jr., Kansas

• Tristen Newton, UConn

• Antonio Reeves, Kentucky

• Baylor Scheierman, Creighton

• Mark Sears, Alabama

• Reed Sheppard, Kentucky

• KJ Simpson, Colorado

• Isaiah Stevens, Colorado State

• Wade Taylor IV, Texas A&M

• Tyson Walker, Michigan State

• Ja’Kobe Walter, Baylor