Analyzing 2024 Naismith Award battle between Purdue's Zach Edey, Tennessee's Dalton Knecht

Tennessee star Dalton Knecht has been putting up huge numbers for most of the year and has reached 24 points or more in three of his past four games. There are some who believe he is pushing Purdue star Zach Edey for the National Player of the Year award and others who feel like he should win it.

On3’s James Fletcher joined Andy Staples recently to discuss the Naismith Award. Fletcher is without a doubt impressed with Dalton Knecht, but he’s still taking Zach Edey as the National Player of the Year.

“I know that there’s been kind of this push for Dalton Knecht, and I’ve loved everything he’s been able to do in the SEC. I think he’s the SEC Player of the Year at this point,” Fletcher said. “But for Zach Edey to come back to college basketball and to improve from what he did last year – he’s the reigning National Player of the Year, and he has been a better basketball player this year than he was last year.”

Edey averaged 22.3 points and 12.9 rebounds per game in 2022-23, while shooting 60.7 percent from the floor.

This season, Edey is up to 24.1 points per game and 62.3 percent shooting. Edey’s rebounding numbers have dipped slightly to 11.7 per game, but he’s still easily averaging a double-double and has been dominant night in and night out.

“From a scoring perspective, he’s looked like a much more well-rounded basketball player. From a rebounding perspective, you see him start to understand the game at a little bit higher level,” Fletcher said. “Defensively, he’s moving his feet a little bit better than he has in the past. We’ve seen his conditioning level get better and better and better.

“And these are little improvements around the margins for a guy who already was the best player in the country last season.”

Fletcher added that the fact that Edey is now being talked about as a potential first-round pick only further shows the improvement he has made from a year ago.

“I think the biggest support you’re going to see for Zach Edey being the Player of the Year for the second consecutive year, is the fact that there are mock drafters out there that have him in the lottery,” Fletcher said. 

“We’re talking about a guy who was not even considering the NBA draft last year in any meaningful way, because there wasn’t a whole lot of interest, to a guy who this year, because of a larger sample size and all those improvements on the margins that these teams are seeing, are now considering him as a potential starter long-term in the NBA at his size and with his ability to impact things on offense and defense.”