Was Eric Hunter Jr.’s Career at Purdue a Success?

It’s never easy to look back at players who played at Purdue for 4 years and dissect their career. Who am I to judge an athlete with more talent than I’ll ever have? It’s really a difficult thing for me to discuss because as a general rule I like all Purdue players. I like that they’ve committed to Purdue, I like that they comport themselves with a good attitude and seem to care about those around them and the community. I always respect how they get involved in the community. Sometimes though a player simply doesn’t perform how we expected them too and as a writer for a sports blog it’s a thing we’ve got to get used to. So, those caveats out of the way let’s get into it.

The hardest thing about discussing Eric Hunter Jr.’s career at Purdue is we don’t know if it’s over. Hunter took the unusual step of declaring for the NBA Draft while maintaining his college eligibility while also entering his name in the transfer portal for a grad transfer year. At this point we have no idea where or even if Eric Hunter Jr. will play college basketball next season.

Putting that other caveat aside it’s not hard to look at Hunter’s career and see great promise but also great struggles. This season was emblematic of this issue. Hunter struggled for probably the first ²⁄₃ of the year before really turning it around and becoming the player we hoped he would be. Then, like most of the rest of the team, he struggled against St. Peter’s. It’s a tough way to go out. Was the final (roughly) ¹⁄₃ of the season enough for Hunter’s season to be considered a success? What about his career in general? Casey and I discuss this in today’s H&R podcast.