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This announcement comes as no surprise, but walk-ons Tommy Luce and Grady Eifert will be on scholarship for the 2018-19 men’s basketball season:
We reward hard work.
— Purdue Men’s Basketball (@BoilerBall) August 21, 2018
Congrats @tluce_. #Purdue #BoilerUp pic.twitter.com/ELv5dK18Tk
I say this comes as no surprise because Purdue was only set to use 10 of its alloted 13 scholarships for men’s basketball this coming season. Eifert has technically been on scholarship each of the last two years as the “ranking” walk-on with Purdue having an extra spot each season. This past season he even played like a scholarship player. He made a name for himself early on and later played big minutes when Vince Edwards missed a few games with an ankle injury.
Before the year he had only played 72 minutes and had scored 22 points. His numbers jumped to 300 minutes and 57 points including starts against Penn State and Illinois. As a senior with so many open spots he certainly deserves it.
As for Luce, the fan favorite has broken ankles with better handles than a Lowe’s cabinet section for two years. He has 10 points in 60 career minutes and even led off Sportcenter last season.
So here is your updated scholarship grid, with Luce likely staying on scholarship (but not definite) as a senior in 2019-20 if there is another open spot that year.
Purdue Basketball Scholarship Grid
Player | ('18-'19) | ('19-'20) | ('20-'21) | ('21-'22) | ('22-'23) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Player | ('18-'19) | ('19-'20) | ('20-'21) | ('21-'22) | ('22-'23) |
Ryan Cline | Senior | ||||
Grady Eifert | Senior | ||||
Carsen Edwards | Junior | Senior | |||
Evan Boudreaux | Junior | Senior | |||
Tommy Luce | Junior | ||||
Matt Haarms | RS Soph. | RS Junior | RS Senior | ||
Nojel Eastern | Sophomore | Junior | Senior | ||
Aaron Wheeler | RS Freshman | RS Soph. | RS Junior | RS Senior | |
Sasha Stefanovic | RS Freshman | RS Soph. | RS Junior | RS Senior | |
Trevion Williams | Freshman | Sophomore | Junior | Senior | |
Emmanuel Dowuona | Freshman | Sophomore | Junior | Senior | |
Eric Hunter | Freshman | Sophomore | Junior | Senior | |
Isaiah Thompson | Freshman | Sophomore | Junior | Senior | |
Mason Gillis | Freshman | Sophomore | Junior | Senior | |
Brandon Newman | Freshman | Sophomore | Junior | Senior | |
Scholarships Used | 12 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 3 |
Scholarships Left | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 10 |
So keep an Ei(fert) our for Luce change. The Luce women will continue to hand out Grad(y)s on their favorite FORMER walk-ons.