The Marquette Tribune did an interesting article on what it takes to be a walk-on for the basketball team. It was so well done that it spawned a post on ESPN.com's College Basketball Nation blog.
Marquette help walk-on tryouts following the graduation of uber-walk-on Rob Frozena. He's Marquette's only ever four-year walk-on.
Frozena was a fan-favorite and the student section went nuts whenever he got a chance to get in the game. And that wasn't often. Stats show that Frozena played just 1.9 minutes on the court in the 2010-2011 season.
Just 1.9 minutes in his senior season.
The article points out that while walk-on players need to have some skill, their dedication and physical fitness are probably more important.
As a walk-on, there's the thrill of being on a major NCAA program. There's road trips and free gear. But there's also countless hours of rebounding balls, providing picks and generally being a punching bag in practices.
A team really couldn't be successful without these players to provide foils for their starters, but that doesn't mean it's an easy process for the walk-on.
Occasionally scholarships might trickle down, but often they're working as hard if not harder than other players for no recompense and no glory.
We laugh when the student section goes nuts for guys like Frozena, but its nice that players like that are getting recognition for the things they do for the team.
It's got to be mentally tough to be a walk-on. You're waking up early, working your butt off, keeping your grades up - with no pay off. It takes a special kind of person to do that for four years.
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