Zach Edey sends a loud message in the Boilers' opening-round victory over Grambling State

He became just the third player in NCAA history to record a 30-point, 20-rebound game, and he showed the world he's NOT messing around.

They were doing player introductions, each Purdue and Grambling State player greeting his positional opponent at midcourt. Fletcher Loyer did it, Trey Kauffman-Renn did it, Braden Smith and Lance Jones did it, until it was time to introduce Zach Edey. His name was announced, he took a few steps toward midcourt, made distant eye contact with Grambling State’s Jonathan Aku and then stopped and waved half-heartedly before returning to the Purdue huddle.

There was no time for niceties Friday night. Not before the game, a 78-50 Purdue victory over Grambling State, and not after the game, when he did a quick TV interview with Andy Katz, during which poor Katz needed the Jaws of Life to extract expansive answers from The Big Maple.

Lets put it this way: Edey, the presumptive two-time National Player of the Year, wasn’t playing around, earning a double-double (14 points, 10 rebounds) with 5:42 remaining in the first half, finishing with just the third 30-point, 20-rebound game in NCAA basketball history. His 30 points and 21 rebounds marked the first time that’s been accomplished since 1995. To put it in some perspective – and that’s a difficult proposition given how much he dominated the opening-round game Friday – Edey had 21 rebounds; Grambling, as a team, had 23.

Insane, really.

I asked two Grambling State players if they’ve ever seen or played against anybody like the 7-foot-4, 300-pound Edey. I knew the answer beforehand. I just wanted to see their reaction.

Tra’Michael Moton: “No.”

Kintavious Dozier: “I don’t think nobody has seen anything like Zach Edey. That’s kind of unreal. What they say he is on paper, he’s exactly that.”

Moton: “Yeah, he’s a big dude. It was kind of hard trying to get shots up on him.”

Welcome to Grambling State’s, and the NCAA field’s nightmare. Edey is locked in, so locked in, he took mild umbrage at the notion that Purdue accomplished anything by winning its opening-round game.