Walk-ons take different paths to making basketball team

For 45 agonizing minutes, freshman Joe Haarman sat outside IU men's basketball coach John Treloar's office waiting for the news of whether or not he would be the next walk-on to join the team.\nHaarmon watched two other players walk in the office and get the news, including junior Jason Stewart, who got his good news right before Haarmon.\n"I didn't react really," Stewart said. "Joe hadn't gotten his news yet, so when I came out of the office, I just kept it to myself. I was kind of calm because I didn't want him to know that I had made it before he knew his news."\nSo Haarman saw the first person, a senior, receive word that he hadn't made the team, and watched as a calm Stewart walked out of Treloar's office.\nBut Haarman went in, sat down across from Treloar and was told that Haarmon's decision to bypass the chance to play at Div. 2 or Div. 3 schools was worth it.\nHaarman and Stewart were accepted as the newest members of the Hoosier squad.\n"It's just amazing, and a dream come true to be out here with these guys everyday," Stewart said. "It's not that I didn't think I had the ability to bang with this guys, it's just that I didn't know they were taking anybody, and if they were, they didn't tell me there were two spots. It was one of the best days of my life."\nFor three weeks prior to being added to the team, Haarman and Stewart endured practice with the better conditioned and more seasoned scholarship players.\nThe two forwards were in the front court, battling with senior forward Jeff Newton and junior center George Leach.\nThe hard work underneath earned them the right to wear the cream-and-crimson candy-striped pants and run out of the tunnel in front of the Assembly Hall crowd.\n"I just want to be part of the program and work these guys out in practice as much as I can," Stewart said. "Hopefully over the years, if I'm fortunate to make it over the years until I'm a senior, I'd love to be able to contribute to the team on the floor during a game. I know my minutes are limited as it is, if not zero."\nBoth Haarman and Stewart took different paths attempting to get on the team. Haarman, an Ohio-native, had a variety of different schools he could have attended, including Ohio, Clemson or South Carolina. But he wanted to take his chances at IU.\nFor Stewart, the idea of being a walk-on never left his mind. During his first two years at IU, Stewart spent his time playing basketball at the SRSC and HPER, all the while dreaming of his shot on the team.\nStewart had originally called the men's team during his sophomore year, but he didn't get a call to try-out until this past summer.\n"I came in and just started working out," Stewart said. "The first couple weeks were the hardest time I have had in my life, coming out here and adjusting from being a student to a student-athlete."\nDespite having to adjust to new class, sleep and eating schedules, the pair has been adjusting to the intensity of college-level basketball.\nEven though Stewart is a junior, he describes himself as a freshman on the basketball court. But both Haarman and Stewart have been welcomed on the team, and have established their roles as being the "practice players who work the big guys out."\n"They're doing a great job as far as being able to push guys in practice," coach Mike Davis said. "They're really working hard. They are playing hard and working hard."\nBoth understand that playing minutes are going to be few and far between, and that it is in practice where they really have to execute.\nBut just being part of the storied IU basketball history is enough for them.\n"The best thing is just knowing that I'm part of the tradition of IU basketball and the great history that it has," Stewart said. "Knowing that I'll be a part of it forever, and when people talk about IU basketball, I can relate to it and I know I am a part of it"