NCAA Basketball: 10 best players from state of Texas of last decade
By Joey Loose
3. Carsen Edwards – Purdue
An extremely talented player, Edwards is a 6’1 guard originally from Atascocita. He was a fringe top 100 recruit who made his way to Purdue and made a phenomenal impact for the Boilermakers across the next three seasons.
Edwards was already averaging double-digit points as a freshman; it didn’t take long for him to carve out his role on this squad. He helped lead Purdue to Sweet Sixteen runs as both a freshman and sophomore, scoring 30 points in a Sweet Sixteen loss to Texas Tech. During his junior season, nobody was overlooking Edwards, who averaged 24.3 points a game for an impressive Boilermakers team that advanced to the Elite Eight and was on the brim of the Final Four. Edwards scored a career-high 42 points in multiple games during that run, hitting 10 3-pointers in their Elite Eight loss to Virginia.
Each of those final two seasons saw Edwards named First Team All-Big Ten, winning the Jerry West Award as a sophomore and being named Second Team All-American as a junior. His leadership on this Purdue team was outstanding during a slew of postseason runs and we were among the national leaders in a flurry of offensive statistics during that final season. He became an early 2nd round pick of the 2019 NBA Draft but has most recently played overseas after a brief stint in the NBA.