They’re the guys at the bottom of the box score — if they’re lucky to even make it that far.
They pay to play the sport they love for precious few minutes when their team is either way up or way down, and they always have a legitimate chance of joining Club Trillion.
But sometimes even walk-ons do great things. They make us laugh and sometimes gasp, and, as in the case of Green Bay’s Eric Valentin and many others, walk-ons often work their way into scholarshiphood either through their original school or by transferring.
Only currently unscholarshipped players made the cut.
1. Craig Cusick, BYU
Ever wondered who’s starting in Jimmer Fredette’s vacant post? Well, a freshman walk-on is, of course. Part-time, anyway.
Originally slated to walk on for Utah, Cusick rolled the dice at BYU (not literally, because that’s against the honor code) and quickly earned minutes at the point position, which he shares with freshman Anson Winder.
What makes Cusick attractive is his ball-handling abilities — He’s already earned a stellar 3.3 assist to turnover ratio in his 102 minutes on the floor, including two starts.
2. Kaipo Sabas, Colorado State
Sabas, a second-year senior walk-on at CSU, is developing into a true sixth man under head coach Tim Miles. As his team trailed, 47-46, against Texas San Antonio on Nov. 21, Sabas caught fire, draining three threes in 54 seconds to go on an all-Sabas 9-0 run to give his team a commanding lead.
The 5-11 two guard has averaged over 25 minutes in his last three games and has a 97.0 percent effective field goal percentage. The Rams have found their deep threat, and he’s most of the reason CSU is ranked fifth nationally in 3P% (45.2 percent).
3. Kelvin Parker, Mount St. Mary’s
You don’t see many (any?) freshman walk-ons that start in half of their team’s games. Parker has clearly made an impression on MSM head coach Rovert Burke, because the 6-3 forward is getting 26.2 minutes per game, and 33.3 minutes over the Mountaineers’ last three games.
Parker’s shooting stroke is the best on Burke’s team (61.2 percent eFG%) to go with a 15.2 percent defensive board-grabbing rate. So far this season his scoring has increased with every game he’s played in. He scored 2, 3, 6, 13, 14 and 16 points respectively in his six appearances.
4. Jonathan Thomas, Maryland
It’s telling when a head coach plays a walk-on with his team behind in a one-possession game. Thomas found himself in that situation last week.
The first-year junior walk-on drilled a go-ahead trey to push the Terps past Florida Gulf Coast University. Thomas, a 6-2 shooting guard has seen 49 minutes of action in his short career, and has hit 2 of 7 from range.
5. Brendan Allen, UConn
Allen walked in on a great opportunity with national champion UConn, and now he’s the No. 2 point guard on the team.
“We’re throwing an awful lot at a walk-on in Brendan,” Jim Calhoun told the Journal Inquirer. “But I thought today he looked more comfortable. I’ll tell you, he’s got a little stomach (guts) to him. I’m happy with him and I think with more work, he’s going to help us, particularly given the situation right now with Niels and with Ryan.”
The 6-3 freshman had little offers after high school, and decided to try his luck in the walk-on game. There really aren’t any numbers to report, but it’ll be interesting to see where Allen ends up.
6. Charonn Woods, Bradley
Bradley head coach Geno Ford made a bold move two weeks ago with his team clinging to a one-point lead and with 4.6 seconds left on the clock: He put in a third-year walk-on to make the clutch defensive stop. The 5-11 athletic guard performed flawlessly, and the Braves picked up the win.
Players like Woods are hard to gauge, because their worth doesn’t show up in the stat columns. Despite the 31 minutes of action in his team’s seven games so far this season, Woods has yet to pick up a point. But his experience and IQ are evident in other areas: Woods has no turnovers on the year and just three fouls.
7. Branden Stubbs, Iowa
Fran McCaffery is trying to fix his struggling Hawkeyes, and that means experimenting. Sophomore walk-on point guard Stubbs is benefiting from this experimentation in the form of minutes, and he’s doing what he can with what he gets.
Stubbs has four steals and an assist in the 20 minutes he’s gotten on the floor. There’s a team out there that could use his tenacity.
8. Elisha Justice, Louisville
He’s nursing a broken nose right now, but the second-year walk-on is averaging over 13 minutes per game for the injury-riddled Cardinals. The 5-10 winger even played 28 minutes against Arkansas State, and scored six points with some high-volume shooting.
9. Sam Malone, Kentucky
No one gets fewer minutes on John Calipari’s floor than freshman walk-on Sam Malone (he has 14 this season), so no one expected what happened against Radford last week when Calipari brought on the “victory squad” with the Wildcats up, 86-37, and two minutes to play.
Malone grabbed a defensive board, beat two defenders in transition with a strange fake maneuver at the free throw line, and scored a layup. The Kentucky bench erupted and Calipari couldn’t help but smile. Malone also grabbed the ‘Cats’ next defensive rebound to bring his career rebound total to two.
He’s three for six from the floor on the season. Tempo-free stats don’t really seem to apply in these cases.
10. Nathan Stegelmann, Valparaiso
There are walk-ons and then there’s grab-a-guy-from-the-gym-across-the-street Nathan Stegelmann.
Determined to rest his starters and pretty much anybody he could for a next-day match-up against Duquesne, Valpo head coach Bryce Drew found 6-6 Stegelmann, an intramurals senior superstar and had him cleared to play just two hours before the Crusaders tipped against Indiana-Kokomo, a first-year NAIA team.
He played 24 minutes, scored 11 points and made four blocks. He hasn’t seen action since.
