Walking on in D3 Basketball

CTDad-classof2022
Sun, 01 Aug 2021 18:00:41 +0000

cinnamon1212:

I don’t know why basketball would be any different from soccer, though, in terms of walk ons. In men’s soccer it is extremely rare for there to be any walk ons at all, and those that do rarely get playing time. (I can’t speak to bottom of the barrel programs, I would guess they might have a harder time recruiting and therefore be more open to walkons)

The biggest way basketball is different than soccer is that anyone can work on their game to get better, at any time. I had friends in college that would play pickup 4 days a week, and they got a lot better over time. I know walk-ons who worked their way into contributing minutes for D1 NCAA Tournament teams.

That is hard to do in soccer or lacrosse. In those sports, if you don’t play your freshman year, your skills will deteriorate and there is no real path to work your way on to the team.