24 Days to Purdue Basketball: Sam King

My apologies to Sam. It is a busy time of year and we did not get to a profile for him yesterday on the real 24 days to Purdue basketball.

Sam King - Fr.

Columbus, IN (Columbus North HS)

6’8”, 225 pounds

Forward

2022-23 Projection: Deep reserve

The ultimate goal of every walk-on is to develop into a Grady Eifert-like career, and King at least has good size at 6’8” for a walk-on that could get him there. He had multiple Division III offers and a preferred walk-on shot at Northwestern, but ultimately picked Purdue as his walk-on destination. He was convinced to come to Purdue by fellow walk-on Matt Frost, who knew him from Columbus and played against him at rival Columbus East.

King had a great high school career too. He averaged 15.6 points and 6.2 rebounds as a senior at Columbus North. The Bulldogs went 16-8 with him and lost in double overtime to a very good Bloomington North team in the sectional. Bloomington North went on to win the sectional and regional before falling by six points to eventual state champ Cathedral in the semi-state.

I don’t expect a ton from King this year. It is extremely rare for a true freshman walk-on to have a major impact in year one. I like his size though at the forward spot. As we saw with Eifert, size and hard work can go a long way.