Purdue’s coaches say that much of Edey’s success occurs with his positioning before he gets the ball, when he nudges opposing big men with his shoulders, back and behind, spins, shuffles and raises his right arm high to call for the ball. Brandon Brantley, a former Purdue big man and now a coach for the team, wears large cushioned covers on his hands in practices and before games, knocking Edey to simulate physical pressure from other big men. “You’re soft, you’re soft,” a smiling Brantley teases Edey as he crowds him, a strategy that Brantley says motivates his star center.

Late one afternoon, Edey squeezed into a chair in Brantley’s cramped Mackey Arena office to review game film from the team’s final regular season game against Illinois. Edey watched as he made a hook shot from just inside the free throw line. “That’s it right there,” he said. Brantley beamed. “That,” he said, “is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar!”

But the mood in Brantley’s office turned tense. Edey, who plays mostly expressionless, grew upset about missed foul calls as players banged against him. In the second half, Illinois began triple-teaming him more. The score tightened. Swarmed, Edey struggled, missing a series of shots in the final 10 minutes. Then came a breakthrough: With the game tied, Edey spun, then thrust at the hoop for a layup with his left hand, reclaiming the lead with 57 seconds to go. Purdue won 76-71.

Brantley looked at Edey in his office, hoping to inspire confidence. “We’ve been in this position a whole lot, right? Look what you do: Play on two feet, transfer the ball, step through, layup.”

“They can’t take everything away,” Brantley said to his pupil, referring to his opponents.

Too large for hockey and baseball, his favorite sports, Edey began playing competitive basketball only in 2018 — partly to stay in shape for baseball. He wanted to focus on one sport in high school, Julia Edey, his mother, said. He grew eight inches around middle school, then from 6-foot-10 to 7-foot-2 midway through high school, when family friends talked him into playing organized basketball.