by Gregg Doyel, IndyStar

SAN JOSE, CA — Sam King is a senior forward on the Purdue basketball team, a walk-on being redshirted this season, and if those five words don’t have your attention – a walk-on being redshirted – maybe this will:

Walk-on basketball players rarely redshirt. They just … don’t. At least, not the kind of walk-on that Sam King was when he arrived at Purdue four years ago from Columbus North, the kind of walk-on you see all over college basketball:

Just big enough, just skilled and athletic enough, to be a solid practice player – but an even better person and student, someone who will stay out of trouble and lift up the team’s grade-point average.

That was Sam King: A 6-foot-7, 230-pound graduating senior at Columbus North, a decent basketball player – 15.6 points and 6.2 rebounds per game for the Bull Dogs – with scholarship offers from Division III Hanover, Wabash and DePauw.

But this Sam King – well, that Sam King – had something to offer the Division I college basketball world, too: Great kid, great student (3.9 GPA), and a decent high school player from Indiana. Northwestern wanted him to walk-on. Northwestern! You picking up what I’m putting down? Purdue also asked him to walk-on, he accepted, and for three years King did his job for the Boilermakers:

∎ Banging away in practice with 7-4 Zach Edey, 7-4 Daniel Jacobsen, 6-11 Raleigh Burgess and 6-9 Trey Kaufman-Renn, saving them the wear-and-tear of constantly having to bang on each other.

∎ Earning three spots (in three years) on the Academic All-Big Ten Team. He’s majoring in Real Estate Finance, and his GPA is 3.3. A year ago he received Honors Court distinction from the National Association of Basketball Coaches for academic achievement.

On the court King played in 16 games across the past three seasons, scoring eight points in 31 minutes. But off the court, something was happening.

Sam King was growing taller. He was getting stronger, more skilled, more athletic. He’s now 6-9 and a chiseled 225 pounds, a late bloomer in the classic sense. Check out his season averages in three years on the varsity at Columbus North High:

Sophomore: 1.1 points, 1.3 rebounds

Junior: 5.1 ppg, 3.7 rpg

Senior: 15.6 ppg, 6.2 rpg

That’s the background. Now, come with me inside the Purdue locker room this week at the SAP Center in San Jose, where the Boilermakers played Texas in the Sweet 16 of the 2026 NCAA Tournament. See the goofball in the middle of the room, entertaining the team with his wholesome, inclusive brand of team-building? He’s walking around the place, pretending to be a reporter, holding up his cell phone to video teammates as he asks them silly questions.

He calls it “the Sam Cam.”

“Sam King is a goober,” said 6-2 guard Aaron Fine, a former Indiana All-Star from Noblesville. “He’s fun. He’s funny.”

King’s exactly what Matt Painter expected, four years ago.

And more.

Sam King: What just happened?

This was late October, a few weeks before Purdue’s season opener against Evansville. The Boilermakers are practicing, running through their drills, and Sam King is out there doing his job. No, not studying! He’s banging away with Jacobsen, Burgess and Kaufman-Renn, Purdue’s three scholarship big men, when Painter walks King to the next drill and drops this on him:

“Hey man,” Painter says, “what do you think about redshirting and coming back next year?”

Then Painter walks off.

Sam King is like: What? What just happened?

“I was taken aback,” King’s telling me this week in the locker room at the SAP Center, and here I’ll share the rest of our conversation on that topic.

“First of all you,” King’s telling me, “you don’t see a lot of walk-on redshirts.”

That’s why I’m talking to you now! I’m practically shouting at King, telling him I know there’s a story there.

King continues.

“And you almost never see a senior walk-on get redshirted,” he says.

It’s a compliment, I would think, I tell King.

“That’s what I took it as,” he says.

Painter doesn’t see you as the 13th guy next year, I’m telling King. He doesn’t bring you back to do that.

King’s smiling, but he’s humble.

“Even if it’s a type of insurance policy to where we don’t get the guys we’re thinking of getting in the (transfer) portal, or different types of injuries happen, I’ll take it,” he says. “At least Paint knows he still has a dude willing to work hard, understand all of our offensive and defensive philosophes, be great in the locker room and be one of the dudes who’s been here four years.”

All of that, yes, but there’s more here. Look, nobody’s calling Sam King a possible star or even a Purdue starter next season as a redshirt senior. But he’s not what he was, when he arrived. He’s not just a good kid, good student, good practice player. I mean, he’s all of that.

But he’s more.

Purdue basketball’s wanted Sam King

Sam King already had his job lined up. He’d worked this past summer as an operations finance intern at Wabash, a trucking manufacturer in Lafayette, and Wabash offered him a job when he graduated. Of course, Wabash thought he’d be graduating in May 2026. So did King. In late October, he accepted the job.

A few days later, Painter stops him in practice: Hey man, what do you think about redshirting…

King called Wabash, told them he’d like to stay one more year at Purdue – play one more year at Purdue – and get his Master of Business Administration. Would that job offer still be there in May 2027? Wabash said what you’d expect them to say: Absolutely. And they’d like him to come back this summer for another internship.

Here’s the rest of my conversation with King:

“I graduate in May,” he tells me, referring to his bachelor’s degree. “Right now I’m finishing the app process for the MBA.”

Which you’re doing only because of this redshirt, right?

King nods.

I’m telling him: You’re gonna be 60 one day and you’re gonna be stinkin’ rich, and you’re going to be like: ‘Matt Painter knew what he was doing!’”

King’s smiling. He’s so humble. This is what he says.

“Now I’ll be coming off my college career with two internships, an MBA, an undergrad degree in Real Estate Finance. I think overall it’ll serve me well,” he says.

Oh, I tell Sam King, you’re going to be just fine.