Zach Edey & Purdue outperform Dalton Knecht’s Volunteers in Elite Eight
Jason Fitz, Krysten Peek and Danny Green analyze the Boilermakers’ Elite Eight win over Tennessee, highlighting the stellar performances of Zach Edey and Dalton Knecht.
Video Transcript
JASON FITZ: For the first time since 1980, Purdue is headed to the Final Four after a thrilling win over Tennessee. I might be eating crow. I came into this tournament saying they didn't have a chance to win it all, and it looks like I might be very wrong. Danny Green, Krysten Peek, Jason Fitz. Danny, I'm watching this. And I kept thinking, there's no way Zach Edey single-handedly can do this. But what a night for their superstar.
DANNY GREEN: Yeah, he had an unbelievable-- career game, unbelievable game. And they're making me look better. That's the only team-- I don't know if anybody's seen my bracket. I'm damn near dead last, but they're keeping me from being dead last in the bracket pool because they're winning games. Deep down, I didn't think they would do it, but they're making me look better.
And Zach Edey is making me look like a genius. 40 and 16. Missed a couple free throws at the end, but he's playing big-time. I know KP is not a big fan of it, but he really carried their team. Only one of the players [? who scored ?] in double figures. This was wasn't a very high-scoring game. But him and Dalton Knecht was battling. The Battle of the Stars tonight was a good one. And I think college fans got their money's worth today.
JASON FITZ: Yeah, they certainly did get their money's worth. And the funny thing is you knew, as this game went down to the wire-- we're calling this Tennessee versus Purdue. But KP, this is really Zach versus Dalton Knecht because both of the superstars were essentially having to carry the entire load.
KRYSTEN PEEK: This is what you want to see in this tournament is you want to see the best players play their best basketball. And that's what we saw from Zach Edey. He had 40 points. The rest of the team had 32. And with Dalton Knecht, he came out hot in the first half. I think he was 4 for 5 from 3 at halftime, and it was a very close game. He ended up finishing with 37 points.
Ran out of steam. Ran out of gas there at the end to try to-- they were just trying to get him the ball every chance that they could. And it was too little, too late for him. But you got to give credit to Dalton Knecht and what he's been able to do during his college career. I mean, he started off as a zero-star recruit, no D-1 offers. Went to JUCO. Then got picked up by Northern Colorado. Entered the transfer portal.
He chose Tennessee because he wanted to become more of a defensive threat. That's what he did. And his season is over, but his career is far from over. This is a player that could sneak into the lottery this year. And he's really, really earned that with the way he's played this year at Tennessee.
JASON FITZ: I continue to say part of the reason that I struggled to believe in Tennessee and Purdue coming into the tournament is, in my mind, it's tough to win when you're one-dimensional. But what we learned through the course of this game is that when your one dimension is as good as Edey and Knecht played in this game, you always have a chance. And that's why it's tough to count Purdue out, back in the Final Four for the first time since 1980.