A New Face of College Basketball Emerges During March Madness

Logan Drone, Staff Writer

As March Madness comes in full swing, many players have emerged onto the scene to prove their self-worth and team worth. Going into the tournament, big name players such as Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett, Ja Morant, Markus Howard, Rui Hachimura, and others looked to emerge as the best player in college basketball and bring their team a championship. Carsen Edwards, a junior guard out of Purdue, was not one of those players to be considered. However as the tournament went on, more people began to know about Edwards, as he dropped 42 points against reigning champ Villanova to knock them out of the tournament. This past weekend, Edwards continued to excite with a huge upset over number 2 Tennessee, a team that many thought would go far. Edwards finished with 29 points in the game, along with 3 assists. This game, however, wasn’t the highlight of the madness that Edwards brought unto the table. On Saturday night against number 1 Virginia, Edwards dropped an astonishing 42 points for the second time in the tournament, hitting 10 3’s in the outing, with several of those 3’s being hit from the logo. Although Purdue came out in the loss column, meaning that Edwards played his last game of the 2018-2019 season, Edwards finished with Most Outstanding Player honors, a feat that hasn’t been done by a player not in the Final Four since Steph Curry in 2009. Edwards also finished averaging 7 3’s a game, the largest amount ever in a March Madness tournament. Edwards showed in the 2019 March Madness tournament that he has the talent to be the face of college basketball for the 2018-2019 season.