After giving a brief overview of what happened with the 2019-20 Purdue Basketball Season, let’s take a bit of a deeper dive into the different position groups and the individual players’ performance for the year. This isn’t going to be a game by game breakdown but more of a holistic view of each player and if applicable, what they need to work on moving into next year.

We will start with the Guards as they initiate the offense and are the point of the defense for any given night. In 19-20 Purdue had some issues with consistency from game to game. After a season watching Carsen Edwards run the team and score 15 points plus every night, it became more apparent that this team didn’t have a Carsen Edwards. This team needed someone to step up and make a play when the team needed it most. Guys showed flashes of this in different games, but no one seemed to take the reigns in every game and provide that steady performance the team could build off of. Moving forward to 2020-21, Purdue needs more consistent guard high-level guard play to take pressure away from the interior to always make the plays.

We now get to look back on the fan favorite players on the team, the Walk-Ons! These players don’t get much playing time and are still expected to do everything that the scholarship players do without the guarantee that they will see the floor. They put in all the time at practice, the offseason workouts, and traveling with the team to every game.

That being said, they get the opportunity to be some of the most important players on the team at the same time. They usually run the scout team in practice, providing the rest of the team the chance to play against their next opponents scheme. Also, as we saw with Tommy Luce, they have the chance to garner a cult following that will chant their name at the end of games hoping to get the chance to see them play.

Tommy Luce

The King of Mackey, LUUUUUUUUUUUUUCE. Tommy probably ranks among the most beloved walk-ons to play at Purdue. He was coined the Human Victory Cigar, routinely only appearing in games where Purdue was winning in impressive fashion.

Preseason

After the surprise success of 2018-19, fans were hoping that the success would carry over into 2019-20. Fans knew there would be a slight step back with the loss of Carsen Edwards, Ryan Cline and Grady Eifert; but, they were still hopeful that Purdue’s run of success would continue. If Purdue had success then that mean that Tommy had more opportunities to play and dazzle fans with his ball handling and potential for scoring. All Purdue fans wanted was to see Tommy score which was always the icing on the cake.

In-Season Results:

As we all saw, this year was very up-and-down, and that meant that there were fewer opportunities to see The King play. Tommy is credited with 10 appearances averaging just under 3 minutes per outing. Fans wanted to see him score but he always broke out the fancy footwork and ball skills that always impressed me the most. I know that fans will always focus on the offense, but Tommy also impressed me with his defensive intensity and rotations. You could tell that getting into the game wasn’t just the reward and that he was still focusing on making the correct play and being in the correct position.

Season Stats/Averages: [PurdueSports.com]

GP/GS/Avg Mins/FGM/FGA/FG%/3PT/3PtA/3Pt%/PPG/AvgReb/TotalAST/TotalTO/TotalSTL

10/0/2.9 /4/13/30.8% /2/6/33.3% /1.0 /0.2 /6 /2 /2

Takeaways

As you can expect, walk-ons don’t get quiet the same opportunity to fill up the stat sheet, but Tommy was able to fill up the stat sheet a little bit! The reason that it was such a celebratory moment when Tommy scores could be contributed to one of two things. His size could be a contributing factor, being a smaller guy, but I will choose to look at it as Tommy being so well known to the other teams that once he checks in, the opponent does all they can to keep him from scoring.

He finished a respectable 33.3% from three on the season, which gets a little worrisome when you realize that his season makes happened in one game. That’s going to need to be cleaned up if Tommy is going to make it at the next level. I’m less worried about inside the arc shooting issues as Tommy is a facilitator first and won’t be asked to focus on scoring much. You see this in his total assists numbers as they are far and away above the rest. He boasted a very impressive 3:1 assist-to-turnover ratio on the season truly showing what he brought to the team.

Best Game

It has to be Iowa at home and there is no question about it. It was a game where the Boilers absolutely dominated Iowa from tip to horn in Mackey Arena. This gave Tommy and the other walk-on players some solid run! Tommy puts in 2 threes to seal a dominant win for Purdue in an up-and-down season. Just watch this video and enjoy!

Tommy leaves Purdue as a fan favorite as well as one of the most successful from a career perspective. He was a part of 2 Big Ten Championship teams, 4 straight trips to the Sweet-Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament, a career where he never lost to Indiana (7-0). That’s not a bad resume to have as he leaves Purdue. I believe I can speak for all Purdue fans everywhere to wish Tommy luck in whatever life brings next!

Jared Wulbrun

Jared is a transfer walk-on from Cal Lutherin where he averaged 27.3 mpg, 6.6 ppg, shot 37.9% from the field, made 43 threes (shooting 35.8% from deep).

Jared came to Purdue to help sure up the roster and provide valuable time in the practice gym to help the team prepare for games.

Season Takeaways

Jared appeared in 9 games in 2019-20 for the Boilermakers basketball squad totaling 17 minutes total for the season.

While he only scored in one game, he had the opportunity to suit up in the Old Gold and Black and play in front of the greatest fans in the country!

Season Stats

Looking at his stat lines for the year, there isn’t much there. On the season Jared played 17 total minutes and only took 2 shots all season. He went 1-2 from three on the season as his only shots. His lone make coming in the home blowout of Jacksonville State, and his other attempt coming in the home win versus Central Michigan.

His only other recorded stats are 2 assists he got in the home win vs Iowa and 2 turnovers, 1 vs Chicago St and 1 vs Jacksonville St.

JR [Big Ten Highlights start at 3:55]

Here we see Jared’s lone make of the season. It displays a pretty nice shot taken quickly in transition!

Jared will probably not see major minutes during his time at Purdue. That being said, he still puts in just as much work as the rest of the squad and that is to be commended. Hopefully going forward we will be able to see more of Jared because this would meant he team is finding success enough for the walk-ons to get in! There is also the question of, who replaces Tommy Luce as the Boilermaker fans’ favorite? Could Jared step in and take the thrown? Only time will tell!

As always, Boiler Up, Hammer Down, Hail Purdue!