Purdue’s Zach Edey and the Big Ten’s top 11 men’s basketball players of the last

One program has had the unmitigated gall to topple the great giant Zach Edey two seasons in a row:

Northwestern

, which has

upset No. 1-ranked Purdue back-to-back in Evanston

.

The payback Wednesday in West Lafayette, Indiana, could be like something out of a Cormac McCarthy novel.

Just ask Indiana — which swept bitter rival Purdue last season — what an angry, extra-motivated Edey is like. As much as the Boilermakers have been fueled all season by a humiliating 2023 NCAA Tournament loss to 16th-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson, they had an ever stronger taste for Hoosier blood. Two weeks ago in Bloomington, the score at the half was 51-29. It ended in IU’s worst-ever loss to Purdue at Assembly Hall, Edey having gone off mercilessly for 33 points and 14 rebounds.

Now, they’re hunting Wildcat. That unsettling sound you hear in the distance is the growling stomach of the 7-4, 300-pound Edey, who had 35 and 14 in an overtime loss at Welsh-Ryan Arena on Dec. 1.

“I coached against Tyler Hansbrough for four years, who was an absolute monster,” coach Chris Collins said. “I played against Tim Duncan, Rasheed Wallace, Joe Smith. I didn’t have a chance to go against [Shaquille O’Neal] as a player or coach, but I have never seen a more dominant player at the college level than Edey. I just never have.”

In his most recent game, Edey became the sixth Big Ten player to amass 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in a career, joining Michigan State’s Greg Kelser, Purdue’s Joe Barry Carroll, Ohio State’s Herb Williams, Wisconsin’s Ethan Happ and Indiana’s Trayce Jackson-Davis. A fourth-year player, Edey got there despite coming off the bench as a freshman and platooning at center with All-Big Ten teammate Trevion Williams a sophomore. And he still has a whole bunch of games left in which to pile on.

The biggest upset of all would be if anyone stops Edey from becoming the first repeat consensus national…