Best Walk On EVER?

[HouWarrior]

Bill Neary may have started as a Walk On but I don't think he was for the 77 Championship Team. He started most, if not all the games that great year and loved hard fouling the opponents best guy. This was his specialty, his niche. He backed down to no one. Bernard Toone would come in later for offense.

Lets say if you start as a walk on you are a walk on . Can you really help it later that they realize you are good enough and they give you a scholly? heck no its your entry status of joining the team without a scholly that fairly makes you a walk on.

That aside ....Neary is my choice here too....Saw all his play in person (Toone was in my class)........More than anyone on the teams of those years he played like AL did back in the day. Not necessarily  the most athletic but high energy, intense, aggressive, and boy they felt his fouls...almost to the point of them being careful of Neary the next time. Every once in while he'd also have some nice offensive streaks...nice offside, garbage rebounder, could help on press breaking, very good at being in the right position always.

[milwaukee ex-pat]

Best walk on for Marquette - maybe not the best ever but gotta be in the top 10:  Bruce Hayes.  What a game he had against Michigan and DePaul in O'Neill's first year as coach.

[NYWarrior]

Best walk on for Marquette - maybe not the best ever but gotta be in the top 10:  Bruce Hayes.  What a game he had against Michigan and DePaul in O'Neill's first year as coach.

Bruce was a hard working contributor during a tough, tough era.  KO had Bruce, Ben Peavy (who really could play too but blew out his knee in 1/91) Tommy LaChance, and Sean McDonough as walk-ons; good guys & hard workers.

BTW, Ben's son just signed an LOI to play for Trinity in San Antonio.

[oldwarrior81]

Don was a scholarship playa, hey?

agreed.  Pretty sure Smo was a scholarship guy.

[keefe]

Don was a scholarship playa, hey?

The Dark Years, eh Doc?

[Billy Hoyle]

Chris Crawford by virtue of baseball contract...?

Not quite. Even though his tuition was paid for by the Astros (not every year at MU) he still took up a counter spot.

[4everwarriors]

The Dark Years, eh Doc?

Doesn't get much blacker, ai na?

[bilsu]

Don Smolinski. Smo at the end of the bench, elbows on his knees watching every game?  End of discussion.

I thought he was a scholarship player.

[Dawson Rental]

Rick Majerus

[Skitch]

Bruce was a hard working contributor during a tough, tough era.  KO had Bruce, Ben Peavy (who really could play too but blew out his knee in 1/91) Tommy LaChance, and Sean McDonough as walk-ons; good guys & hard workers.

BTW, Ben's son just signed an LOI to play for Trinity in San Antonio.

Was Jay Zouloff (sp?) a walk on too?

[Dawson Rental]

Was Jay Zouloff (sp?) a walk on too?

No, a transfer, but on scholarship.

[Goose]

Dels by a very wide margin. Lavin hit a big score and I believe retired quite young. He might be one of the biggest off court success stories in program history.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Chris Crawford....walk on senior year....went on to the NBA

[GB Warrior]

Todd Mayo...thanks a bunch, OJ!

[NYWarrior]

No, a transfer, but on scholarship.

Right .. Zulauf landed at MU from Bowling Green, joining Keith Stewart (Purdue) & Ron Curry (Arizona) as transfers in when KO took over.

[PJDunn]

Rick Majerus


Smo was technically a scholarship player, but for the purposes of this thread and MU bball history, we can reclassify him as a walk-on.  Best op-ed piece ever in the MU Tribune posed this question to Smo...  If you divided the scholarship dollars by the points that you have contributed, what do you get?  The answer was null since you can't divide a number by zero. 

[Goose]

I loved Jay Z as a player big time. Unfortunately KO did not share the same belief. KO not liking Jay and Shannon Smith frustrated me back in the day.

[muwar2003]

Jay hung out with the wrong crowd.  He didn't last too long at Mu.

[NYWarrior]

Jay hung out with the wrong crowd.  He didn't last too long at Mu.

Huh? Jay spent four years on campus & earned his degree.

[KampusFoods]

Jay hung out with the wrong crowd.  He didn't last too long at Mu.

I heard Jay Z is a thug and that Henry should not be surrounding himself with such people.

[rocket surgeon]

can't forget about waukesha catholic memorial's rob hanley-started and played well after travis punched a wall instead of ...well, i'll just leave it at that

[vogue65]

Bernard Toone

So I'm dong a high school alumni recruiting night at a Holiday Inn in Tarrytown NY and who should show up but Mr. Toone and his mother.

He was an unheard of high school senior from an unheard of high school in Yonkers.  He said, "I would like to play basketball for Marquette" and all I could see was six foot 6 or 7, turned out to be 9, and his mother. 

Dutifully I said, "I'll let the coaches know of your interest" and that was that.  He played for the 76'ers and was a sophomore in 1977.

It was my best moment as a H.S. volunteer recruiter, and it goes to show that there are still probably lots of unheralded players who are late bloomers and under the radar.

[Jay Bee]

So I'm dong

ayyyy

[Blackhat]

After reading this board a few times I thought Dave Singleton was gonna turn pro after 2 yrs. 

BEAST

[Blackhat]

Then again, around that time I was telling the board Davante was going to be a fat waste, so we all make mistakes.