MANHATTAN, Kan. -- The legend?
The legend says he's 7 feet tall, has a 42-inch vertical, shoots fireballs from his eyes and cracks lightning bolts from his backside.
The truth?
The truth about Justin Edwards is a tad less ... spectacular. Well, save for the 42-inch vertical part. That's on the money. Conservative, even.
"(Coach Bruce Weber) said his expectations for me was to like lead in scoring, rebounding, steals and stuff like that," said Edwards, the Kansas State guard who'll make his Wildcat debut Sunday in the men's basketball exhibition opener against Washburn (2 p.m., FOX Sports Kansas City). "Basically, he said, 'Just try to lead in every statistical category.' So I just try to go out and just do that."
The fireballs and lightning aren't coming, but word on the street -- several streets, actually -- is that there isn't much else Edwards, a Canadian who transferred from Maine after his sophomore season, can't do on the basketball court. In his final run with the Black Bears two years ago, the 6-foot-4 wing guard averaged 16.7 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.9 steals and 0.9 3-point makes per contest.
"He's very hard to guard," K-State guard Marcus Foster said of his new backcourt running mate. "You think you've got him cut off but he goes around you and still is able to score.
"He brings a different style of play to K-State. ... (He's) athletic and can shoot the ball and get to the rim. So I feel he's going to be very hard to stop and it's going to release pressure off of guys like me, (Thomas) Gipson, (Stephen) Hurt, Jevon (Thomas) -- it's going to release pressure off of everybody."
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The Wildcats hit the hardwood as something of a vogue sleeper in the Big 12, bubbling under the radar while Kansas and Texas are expected to duke it out among the clouds. Post rock Gipson (11.7 points, 6.5 boards per game last winter) and last season's frosh surprise, Foster (15.5, 3.2), anchor a lineup that welcomes a slew of new and interesting pieces to the mix, including 6-11 forwards Hurt and Brandon Bolden, 6-7 freshman guard Malek Harris and Edwards -- who might wind up being the most interesting of them all.
"He's gotten stronger, more athletic," Gipson said of the Wildcats' slashing import. "And just overall, he knows what to do on defense and on offense. He's bought into the system and he's becoming a good player. He's going to be a star player."
The package isn't completely together yet -- Edwards averaged 3.6 turnovers per game and shot just 26.8 percent from beyond the arc at Maine -- but the raw pieces sure as heck are. That and an edge. If Wichita State plays angry, Edwards, or "Air Canada" as they called him at Maine, plays slighted.
"I definitely kind of entered (here) with a chip on my shoulder," said Edwards, a native of Whitby, Ont. "Because I'm just so anxious to prove everyone wrong.
"I went to a small school coming out of Canada, and most big schools that recruited me didn't think I could really do as much as I could. So now that I'm at a really big school, I'm just anxious to show the big schools that didn't want me that I can do this."
Edwards says the likes of Louisville, Missouri, Iowa State and Creighton gave him a sniff coming out of the Great White North, but none guaranteed him playing time right out of the chute. Maine did, so he pounced.
"After my first year, I was 50 percent sure (if) I was going to leave or not," said Edwards, who averaged 13.9 points as a true freshman with the Bears. "I wasn't sure. Then, after my second year, I was sure I could compete at a high level and wanted to move on."
Shortly thereafter, the Bluejays and Cyclones and Oregon got back into the picture, Edwards recalled. But Weber trumped the lot by jumping on a plane and heading up north to make his pitch personally.
"Normally, coaches won't fly all the way to Maine," Edwards said. "That showed me he was really interested."
When Edwards visited Manhattan, that interest snowballed. Especially after one workout, in which assistant coach Chester Frazier wanted to see if the reports of the Canadian's freakish athleticism were on the ball.
"On my visit, Coach Frazier just made me do a bunch of dunks, just jumping from like, far away and stuff like that. And like, going through my legs and just exciting dunks."
FOX Sports Kansas City coverage of the Washburn-K-State game begins at 2:30 p.m. Sunday
Wait. Through your legs?
"I was there, on the other end," Foster recalled. "It was crazy. He just did it like a regular layup, he just decided, 'I'm in the air, I'm high enough, I might as well go between the legs.' It's crazy how he did it, (he) made it look so easy.
"He does crazy things every day. I've seen him take off from outside the paint, go around a player and make a play. ... He definitely does incredible things on the court."
The truth? It isn't just stranger than the fiction. It might turn out to be better, too.
You can follow Sean Keeler on Twitter at @SeanKeeler or email him at seanmkeeler@gmail.com.
