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VOLUME 26, ISSUE 1 63 BY BRIAN NEUBERT BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com C a r s e n E d w a r d s i s Purdue's point guard, the recruit who will fill its crucial need at the position in the 2016 class. Now, he will strive to prove he is a point guard. Not that there's any doubt sur- rounding him — and obviously Matt Painter and his staff are convinced — but to this point, the Houston area native has largely been a scoring-minded shooting guard who's shared backcourts with other playmak- er-type guards. At Atascocita High School in Humble, Texas, Edwards has lined up alongside Greg Shead, a traditional point guard sort of player whose presence has al- lowed Edwards to play away from the ball so that he can focus on putting said ball in the basket. In the springs and summers, Edwards has played for the Hous- ton Hoops program alongside blue-chip point guard De'Aaron Fox, whose presence, again, of- ten moved Edwards to the 2. He has played point guard in both environments, but in nei- ther has the 6-foot combo guard had the role all to himself. It stands to reason to suggest he will have a chance to at Pur- due one day, maybe early in his college career. "He hasn't had a chance yet to really run a team," Atascocita coach David Martinez said, "but he can because he's extremely intelligent, a really good student and has a great basketball IQ. He's a super competitor. I think all those things at a school like Purdue are going to really come into play and help him." Purdue had offers out to sev- eral point guards, some of which might have been regarded as truer fits for the position in a traditional sense. But Purdue was drawn to Ed- wards for a variety of reasons and took his commitment before another point guard even set foot on campus for a visit. "They told me they haven't had a player like me in a while at the point guard position, a player who can score the ball as M E N'S B A S K E T B A L L R E C R U I T I N G 'GAMER' Scoring-minded high school guard fills Purdue need at the point Brian Neubert Purdue told Carsen Edwards it would like more of a scoring dimension at point guard, an element he would seem equipped to provide.