Thinking back on this and the tourney games I watched from Purdue this year, I have to say I think I'm being a little harsh on Edey here. He's not just big, he's very athletic and well coordinated, especially for a dude the size of a car. He's also an above average passer for a big man. Not great, but good enough to get his guards good looks at times. My main gripes with him are that:
He doesn't have a very diverse post position moveset in his repertoire, Clingan and UConn were well aware of this and used it to their advantage several times. I will say, the moves he does have he uses effectively and he's very fundamentally sound when he's executing them.
He can't score outside like 6 feet from the basket. That is just not good enough for basketball in 2024. Clingan is about the same size (maybe an inch or two shorter and a few pounds lighter, but that's it) but is capable of scoring from outside the post. Not in a prolific way by any means, but the threat is there and has to be respected.
He is a below average FT shooter, especially for someone that lives at the line as much as he does.
He is a bad defender. Might sound crazy to say for someone who is a very good shot blocker, but that's pretty much all he's good at besides getting his big body in front of the basket. He takes a lot of defensive possessions off and did so several times in the natty game last night. That's a big reason he's able to play as many minutes as he does besides having above average conditioning for a big. He's lucky to be as large as he is because that's good enough on many possessions.
I'm still sticking to:
He put up a big fat number last night, but that was obviously part of UConn's strategy. Purdue's guards are below average. They're probably barely a tournament team if even that without Edey. UConn clearly was willing to just defend Edey as well as they could without risking fouling too much, and let him get his because if they shut down Purdue's guards then Purdue didn't have a prayer to win. They did that brilliantly.
This is a big flaw in Painter's overall strategy, he's likely never going to win a title unless he addresses it. Edey played so many minutes this season because Purdue would struggle to win enough games to make the tourney if he didn't. His guards are incapable of creating their own shot, and the majority of ones they hit are off good looks generated by his post presence.