There was a play in the second half of Purdue's win at Marquette Tuesday night that nicely reflected the reasons Grady Eifert has cracked the Boilermakers' playing rotation.

With about 10 minutes remaining in a game that saw the junior log 24 minutes —just 20 fewer than he played all of last season — due to preseason All-Big Ten forward Vincent Edwards' foul problems, Dakota Mathias missed a long jump shot.

Eifert, though, darted into the lane amidst traffic to get a hand on the long rebound and deflect it back to Mathias, saving for Purdue a possession that ended with a bucket for Matt Haarms and an eight-point Boilermaker lead that would soon hit double-digits, to stay. Eifert didn't get credited for the rebound, but did wind up assisting on Haarms' score.

That sort of hustle has always been the forward's thing, what made him a particularly valuable practice player after he joined Purdue as a walk-on and has now helped carve him a niche for one of the best teams in the Big Ten.