“I’AM LEAVING” NBA Guard Andrew Hurley has announced that he is leaving the UCONN Huskies due to…..

Zach Edey still seethes as he tells the story of how little he was recruited during high school.

He was an afterthought even though he played for one of the nation’s most high-profile prep school programs.

Edey didn’t make IMG Academy’s top-tier team until his senior year and even then he barely played behind two more highly regarded big men.

Only a few college coaches showed interest in Edey before former Purdue assistant Steve Lutz stumbled across him in 2019 and urged head coach Matt Painter to take a closer look.

“I was the 436th-ranked person in my recruiting class,” Edey said.

“I had coaches coming in and out the doors every day and none of them gave me a look.

[Painter] was the one who said we need to look at this guy when so many other coaches passed me by.”

The raw, unpolished 7-foot-4 giant who went overlooked in high school now has a chance to leave Purdue as one of the most accomplished college basketball players in recent history.

Edey, the first player to repeat as consensus national player of the year in four decades, can add a national title to his stacked résumé on Monday night if the Boilermakers can take down mighty UConn.

Standing in Edey’s path is a fitting final boss, another 7-foot monster who alters games with his ability to run the floor, defend in space and erase scoring opportunities at the rim.

UConn sophomore Donovan Clingan is already the next-best center in college basketball to Edey and is considered the better pro prospect of the two of them.