A Look Back (And Ahead) Purdue Men’s Basketball: Sam King

WEST LAFAYETTE, IN - FEBRUARY 19: Purdue Boilermakers forward Sam King (24) warms up for the college basketball game between the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Purdue Boilermakers on February 19, 2023, at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Sam King will return to the Boilermakers for his final season in 2026-2027 after taking the rather unusual step for a walk-on of redshirting. That’s right during the 2025-2026 season Sam King officially redshirted meaning that he has one year of eligibility remaining. Painter and staff clearly think highly of this young man to offer him the chance to redshirt and remain on the team. You have to think this is a pretty strong signal that he’s a helpful guy in practice and brings a good attitude. That’s exactly what you want from the guy’s you choose to take on as walk-ons. Of course King has a very strong Purdue connection but he’s a good player in his own right and should be taken seriously based on his merits.

While he’s not seen a ton of action in his Purdue career, appearing in just 16 games over his three non-redshirt years, that’s not what it’s about for a guy like King. He came to Purdue from Columbus North where he averaged 15 and 6 as a senior. It’s not that he couldn’t have gone elsewhere to play basketball, he had multiple Division III offers and also preferred walk-on spots at Northwestern and Purdue Fort Wayne but it was that Purdue was where he wanted to be. He seems a bright enough kid to know how difficult it would be to break through into serious minutes as a Boilermaker. We just saw Aaron Fine head off to Ball State to try and get minutes and I’m sure if King wanted to head elsewhere he’d be able to find a place. Instead, he stuck around and was able to redshirt and will play one final season at Purdue. Will it be a Bobby Buckets or Grady Eifert like final season? That seems unlikely, instead what it is most likely to be is a season of grinding it out in practice, preparing the team for the next game, and doing everything he can off the court to prepare himself for like after basketball. He’s a management major, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he sticks around as a graduate assistant or some other role in the future.