If Mackey Arena's still standing after this Purdue blowout of IU, it might just be immortal
WEST LAFAYETTE – The IU basketball team is jawing at Zach Edey, all five of them under the basket, and Edey is walking that way, laughing at them, because he thinks this is funny. The scoreboard is showing a blowout late in the second half, Purdue well on its way to a 79-59 victory after Edey has just given the crowd the happiest moment of the happiest night of the season — and the Hoosiers aren’t in the mood. They’re talking to Edey and he’s walking that way and an official is getting in the middle of things, and now the crowd is having its say:
IU sucks, IU sucks, IU sucks…
It’s rhythmic and it’s everywhere, and on the court Purdue’s Fletcher Loyer and Lance Jones are waving their arms skyward, asking for more. The crowd is giving it to them.
IU sucks, IU sucks, IU sucks…
This is the night of Mackey Arena’s dreams, starting with the wooden guitar, then the realization that Gene Keady is in the front row. Then a bobblehead of Purdue legend Troy Lewis is unveiled, and now Troy Lewis himself is on the floor with a microphone at halftime, pumping up the student section — the Paint Crew — and Mackey Arena is in love.
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They’re having the time of their life, and they have no idea how much better it’s going to get. Because the crowd’s about to get free chicken, and Purdue’s about to blow out Indiana, and now 7-4 Purdue center Zach Edey is running the pick-and-roll with Braden Smith, only Edey isn’t rolling to the basket.
He’s floating behind the 3-point arc, he’s getting the pass, the crowd is begging him — shoooooooot — and Edey is hoisting a jump shot they’ll be talking about until Mackey Arena comes down.
Then again, if it could survive Saturday night, Mackey Arena might just be immortal.
Zach Edey hits first career 3. 'Dude, we're only up 20. What are you doing?'
Zach Edey and Braden Smith's two-man game
Purdue won by 20, Purdue’s second unseemly beating of the Hoosiers this season, following its 21-point win earlier this season that was the Boilermakers’ biggest blowout in Bloomington in 90 years. This one was tracking historically as well, with the Boilers leading by 28 with 6½ minutes left. That would’ve been their biggest win against IU, anywhere, since that ridiculous 120-76 result during the Final Four season of 1969, but IU sophomore C.J. Gunn of Lawrence North (team-high 13 points) got hot in the final minutes.
The scoreboard says what it says, and it was enough of a show, but after the game Zach Edey and Braden Smith gave an encore performance during their news conference with local reporters.
Smith started it, walking into the media room in a Connor McGregor T-shirt, and when a reporter mentioned the UFC fighter, Smith said something like: “That’s how scary I was.”
He was kidding, he’s got jokes for days, but Smith later gave a serious answer that might cause some upset tummies in the IU basketball offices. He’d just scored 19 points, most of them on the pick-and-roll with Edey where Edey rolled toward the rim but Smith beat him there — beat everyone there — and scored repeatedly at point-blank range. Someone asked Smith about the Boilers’ go-to play, and he spoke his truth.
Driving through 'no defense.' Braden Smith breaks through his IU funk.
“I was really surprised how I got to the rim a couple times — with no defense, to be honest,” he said. “It felt really weird to me, but hey, take what they give you.”
Edey, who had a ho-hum night — 26 points, 13 rebounds, four assists, two blocks — was asked about Smith’s performance, something about Smith being underrated or over-achvieving. Edey got the subtext of the question and had his teammate’s back. Sort of.
“He’s a really good athlete,” Edey said. “He’s just … short.”
Reporters are giggling and Purdue forward Mason Gillis, who earned his spot at the dais with a trio of 3-pointers, is sitting at the end, laughing. Smith is shaking his head and running a hand over his face. With friends like this, you know?
“Personally,” Smith said, “I think I’m the right height.”
Smith is 6-0, 175 pounds and the only player in the country averaging 12 points, five rebounds and seven assists, and most of those numbers will climb after this 19-point, nine-rebound, four-assist performance. Smith wasn’t the night’s only star from Westfield High, though.
We’ve got to discuss that guitar some more.
Guitar made from Mackey Arena floor??
The young man’s name is Gryphon Mawhorter. He’s a Purdue senior and a 2020 graduate of Westfield High, two years before Smith won the IndyStar Mr. Basketball award there. Not to take away from Smith’s achievement, because the Mr. Basketball award doesn’t exactly grow on trees, but Mawhorter pulled off something even more unusual:
He made a guitar from a chunk of hardwood from the Mackey Arena court!
Well, he did. He made it during a class known around here as “the Purdue guitar lab,” and he whittled it and shaped it from Mackey’s previous floor, and then Purdue grad Noah Scott of Warsaw used that guitar to play the national anthem before this game, an anthem that got awkward as the crowd was giving him a standing ovation before he was even finished. In the second half the guitar was put up for auction to benefit the guitar lab, and by midnight the bidding had reached $8,500.
That would buy a lot of poultry from Slim Chickens, but for anyone who was at the game Saturday night, your money’s no good there. The local chicken chain had the bright idea this season to offer the following deal for Purdue home games: If an opposing player misses both free throws of a two-shot opportunity, everyone in attendance has 24 hours to get some free chicken. IU senior Trey Galloway did the honors at the foul line, and the crowd exploded with noise like you wouldn’t believe, and even Zach Edey was hoping to get in on the free food before the night was through.
“I’m definitely going to get some later,” he said, which is silly for two reasons. One, Edey makes almost $1 million annually from his NIL deals; he could buy a Slim Chickens franchise.
Two, Edey will never have to pay for a meal again in this town, and not because he’s well on his way to becoming the just the second player since Bill Walton to win back-to-back national Player of the Year awards unanimously.
No, we’re talking about that shot he took in the second half, after running the pick-and-roll with Smith and getting the ball atop the key. Edey passed up the open 3-pointer, but he and Smith ran the play again and the crowd was begging him to shoot and Edey chucked one and—
And—
And it went in off the glass.
Yes it did!
He banked that sucker home, the first 3-pointer of his career — only his second attempt of the season — and afterward a reporter was teasing him, asking if he called “glass.” Edey wasn’t having it. This is his night, his narrative, so this is what he said.
“I’m the best shooter in the country,” he said and then smiled, satisfied with himself after the perfect answer on a perfect night at Mackey Arena, assuming the place is still here in the morning.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Purdue stomps IU, Zach Edey hits 3-pointer and free chicken for Mackey
