Nate Oats on playing Zach Edey: 'I haven't seen anything like him'

No. 4 Purdue outlasted Alabama 92-86 in a high-scoring thriller during Saturday night’s Hall of Fame Series in Toronto behind Zach Edey‘s 35-point performance.

Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats couldn’t say enough about the Boilermaker big man after the game, making an impressive comparison to former NBA All-Star — although, Edey might have been more dominant based on Oats’ experience.

“I haven’t seen anything like him,” Oats said postgame. “When I was at Buffalo we played against DeAndre Ayton. Ayton’s big, strong. We were able to do a better job on Ayton, by a long shot, than we were able to do on Zach. I mean, he’s huge. I don’t know what he weighs, but it’s a lot.

“When you stand next to Nick [Pringle], he’s a big guy, too, but he dwarfed Pringle, [Mohamed] Wague, all of them. All three of those guys are 6-10, 6-11, and they all looked really small next to him. He’s extremely, physically imposing. He imposed his will on us for 35 points tonight. He’s going to do that to a few teams this year, I think.”

Both Pringle and Wague are 6-foot-10 and give up around five inches to Edey in size, so Oats knew he wouldn’t have anyone to match up against Edey coming in. Crimson Tide veteran guard Mark Sears matched Edey with 35 points as well thanks to eight made three-point field goals during the contest. The difference, however, was Purdue guard Braden Smith going off for a career-high 27 points and eight assists for the Boilermakers.

While Edey had his way against the Crimson Tide, that wasn’t due to a lack of game planning. Oats explained what went into preparing for a game against the 7-foot-4 reigning national player of the year.

“He’s a tough cover. We didn’t do a terrible job on him, and he had 35 points,” Oats continued. “So he makes things difficult. You’ve got to figure out what you’re going to do. He gets the ball so deep and he’s so big, and then when you do double him, he’s pretty good passing out of it. You can’t foul him. He went 11-of-11 at the free-throw line.”

Alabama will look to move past this loss — but things aren’t getting any easier for the Crimson Tide. They have one week to prepare for a road trip against No. 10 Creighton before a quick turnaround the following Wednesday against No. 1 Arizona as a part of the Hall of Fame Classic, this time in Phoenix.