Using the extra season of eligibility granted by the NCAA for the 2020-21 COVID year wasn’t originally the plan for Elijah Parquet. But a midseason foot injury that put a premature end to Parquet’s Buffaloes career changed that dynamic.
Now Parquet will complete his collegiate career at UNLV.
On Monday, Parquet announced via his social media accounts that he has committed to the Runnin’ Rebels for the 2022-23 season. Parquet becomes the fourth CU player to opt to use his extra season of eligibility elsewhere for his final season, following last year’s trio of D’Shawn Schwartz (George Mason), Dallas Walton (Wake Forest) and Jeriah Horne (Tulsa).
Parquet’s final season at CU was limited to 18 games (17 starts) due to a foot injury that eventually required surgery to repair bone spurs.
The 6-foot-4 guard out of Beaumont, Texas, was a Pac-12 Conference All-Defense selection for the 2020-21 season, when he started all 31 games as a junior. Parquet averaged 5.2 points that season and shot 41.8% from 3-point range after posting a 29.5% mark (18-for-61) from the arc during his first two seasons.
Parquet struggled with that long-range touch as a senior this past year, shooting just 22.2% (8-for-36) while recording an overall field goal percentage of 44.3. Parquet averaged 6.9 points as a senior and posted the three highest-scoring games of his CU career, scoring a career-high 17 points in a season-opening win against Montana State and adding 11 points both at UCLA on Dec. 1 and again nine days later at home against Milwaukee.
Overall in his CU career, Parquet appeared in 105 games with 57 starts, averaging 3.7 points while shooting 42.2% overall, 32.2 on 3-pointers, and 75.6 at the free-throw line. Earlier this spring, Parquet won the Buffs’ team award as the best defender for a second consecutive year.
UNLV went 18-14 this past season and 10-8 in the Mountain West Conference, finishing fifth in the conference before losing to Wyoming in the quarterfinals of the league tournament. Parquet will play for coach Kevin Kruger, who this spring was named as a finalist for the Joe B. Hall Award as the top first-year coach in Division I basketball.
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