Purdue Basketball Roster Moves: Kyle King Added as Walk-on

Walk-ons are always the fan favorites. When they get in the game, especially at home, they are basically human victory cigars. Hours of work in practices are paid back in brief moments of playing time during a 20-point blowout where they might get one possession. During said possession, the crowd, of course, implores them to shoot.

We have had many walk-ons move forward to greatness. Bobby Riddell, Bubba Day, Grady Eifert, and the beloved Tommy Luce. Now we have a new one to cheer for per a report from GBI:

King is the grandson of former men’s head coach athletic director George King, who coached the Boilers from 1966-72. He took Purdue the farthest it has ever gone in the NCAA Tournament, as they were National Runner-up in 1969 with Rick Mount. he then took over as athletic director until 1992, giving way to Morgan Burke.

Kyle King is a promising 6’5” 200 pound forward who played at St. Charles North HS in Illinois. Do you want walk-on highlights? I have walk-on highlights!

King averaged 16 points, 9 rebounds and 4.5 assists last year. He also worked heavily on an inside-out game:

“I’ve worked on my outside shot a lot over the summer and the spring because I knew that was needed at the next level,” King said. “I’ll probably be a stretch four (in college). I knew that my size wasn’t big enough to play the post like I do now. I was definitely looking ahead.”

As a result of his newfound versatility, King has become even more diverse for the North Stars (13-9, 6-3 Upstate Eight River). He leads the North Stars in scoring (15.1), rebounding (8.7) and assists (3.8), while shooting 54 percent from the field and 36.4 percent from 3-point range.

”If you take something away, Kyle is the type of player who will find it,” St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin said. “He doesn’t play selfishly. When you play with somebody with a basketball IQ like him, he knows where the basketball needs to go, or if it needs to stay in his hands. He makes good decisions.”

Poulin said that King’s move away from being exclusively in the post is utilizing what he thinks is King’s best attribute — his passing and court vision.

Sounds a lot like Grady Eifert to me, so welcome aboard!