A Look Back (and ahead) Purdue Men’s Basketball: Jack Lusk

Purdue Boilermakers forward Jack Lusk (9) practices ahead of a NCAA Tournament first round game against the Queens University of Charlotte Royals on Thursday, March 19, 2026, at Enterprise Center in St. Louis. | Christine Tannous/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

As we continue our journey through the Purdue men’s basketball roster for 2026-2027 we come to #9 Jack Lusk. Lusk is a senior walk on and the son of Purdue assistant coach Paul Lusk. Being the sone of one of the coaches has got to be tough. I’m sure Coach Lusk gets on Jack Lusk a little extra each practice. And I speak from experience on matters such as this since my dad was my high school teacher for three semesters.

During his previous two seasons at Purdue, he spent his freshman season at Millikin University, he has appeared in 14 games for a total of 26 minutes of action. That’s got to be a hard pill to swallow for a guy who was an All-Conference honoree in high school. I’m sure he understands it and is thrilled to be at Purdue but that’s got to be such a huge change from high school to college whether you fully understand it or not.

Perhaps more important than any stat for Lusk is that during the 2025-2026 season he was named to the Big Ten All-Academic team. That’s what will carry him forward in life not basketball. Lusk is majoring in Organizational Leadership.

So, what do I want to see from Lusk this upcoming season? Just continuing the grind of a walk-on. It’s not as glamorous as being on scholarship and it certainly doesn’t come with the fame and fortune, but what it does come with is a healthy dose of respect from all those around him. I think we all remember how tough being a college student could be at times. Now, imagine all your free time is taken up by basketball but you know the likelihood of you getting on the court is very very small. It’s gotta be tough. It takes a special kind of person to be able to grind it out like this with no on court payoff. Lusk is that person and the Purdue basketball team and the locker room are better for it.