2026 Purdue Commit Luke Ertel Climbs Into ESPN's Top 100 Recruiting Rankings
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Purdue 2026 commit Luke Ertel continues to climb in the recruiting rankings across multiple networks. The Mt. Vernon standout and future Boilermaker is now officially among ESPN's top-100 prospects for the rcruiting cycle.
Ertel, who committed to Purdue in the summer of 2024, ranks 98th in ESPN's updated 2026 recruiting rankings. He's listed as the No. 53 prospect by 247Sports and is No. 119 in the Rivals/On3 rankings.
Ertel is currently the only player committed to Purdue in the 2026 class.
Updated 2026 ESPN 100 player rankings, per @paulbiancardi 🚨 pic.twitter.com/8Mo8uRTqIa
— SportsCenter NEXT (@SCNext) July 3, 2025
During the 2024-25 campaign at Mt. Vernon, Ertel averaged 22.7 points, 4.0 assists, 6.4 rebounds, and 1.4 steals per game. He also shot 51% from the floor and 45% from three-point range. The Marauders finished the season with a 21-6 record, reaching the semi-state round of the IHSAA Boys Basketball Tournament.
Ertel has also had an excellent summer, both on the AAU circuit and during Indiana's All-Star Week.
In the Indiana Junior-Senior All-Star Game, Ertel scored 36 points, the most scored by a junior player in the game's history, per Kyle Neddenriep of The Indianapolis Star. The previous record was owned by former North Central star Eric Gordon and former Lawrence North standout Greg Oden, who both scored 29 points in the 2000s.
The juniors defeated the seniors 117-14.
Ertel also nearly recorded a triple-double in the Indiana-Kentucky All-Star Game, scoring 36 points, dishing out 13 assists, and grabbing nine rebounds. Indiana won that game 119-108.
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Dustin Schutte is the publisher of Purdue Boilermakers on SI and has spent more than a decade working in sports journalism. His career began in 2013, when he covered Big Ten football. He remained in that role for eight years before working at On SI to cover the Boilermakers. Dustin graduated from Manchester University in Indiana in 2010, where he played for the men's tennis team.
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