Walton experiencing Final Four differently 2nd time around

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Indianapolis — Travis Walton forever is grateful that MSU men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo gave him a scholarship and an opportunity.

In return, Walton gave Izzo four years of blood, sweat and tears, and Walton eventually landed in Switzerland playing basketball.

In January, Izzo gave Walton another chance, this time as a student assistant, and Walton has taken advantage of learning the game from another perspective and helping MSU to another Final Four.

“I love Coach. I’d give my right arm and my right leg for him if I had to,” Walton said.

“He gave me another opportunity. He gave me one opportunity by giving me a scholarship, and he gave me another one by (letting me) come back. Never bite the hand that feeds you: That’s what I live by.”

When January rolled around, the Spartans were full of chemistry and leadership problems, and junior guard Kalin Lucas had once been kicked out of practice.

Walton had been released from the Lugano Tigers in Switzerland and was unsure about his future.

After talking with MSU coaches, in stepped Walton, the fiery leader who had taken the Spartans to the national championship game one year ago.

His presence immediately was felt by the team.

“Travis is a motivating and emotional guy. He brings a lot of energy to practice and to the locker room and everything,” sophomore guard Korie Lucious said.

“I think that was something we were needing this year. He just did a great job of coming in, helping everybody, and he’s just doing a great job.”

But Walton didn’t only return to help Izzo and the Spartans. He promised his grandmother he would earn his college degree.

After finishing his playing career three classes short of an undergraduate degree, he decided this was as good a time as ever to finish.

However, by the time Izzo and Walton had made the decision to bring Walton back in, the deadline for enrollment already had passed.

So Izzo and his staff made some phone calls and were able to get Walton into a classroom the next day.

“They got hold of some professors and asked them. When you come in too late, it’s up to the professors to let you in the class,” Walton said.

“We got a hold of some professors, and they all agreed to let me in the classes, and that’s how it worked out. I talked to the professors, I had a little extra work to do that I was behind on, but it worked out.”

What Walton brought to the team was more than another mouth yelling in players’ ears. His experience with the players meant his word was taken to heart a little more.

“He’s been through it. Anytime you’re a former player, and you’ve been through it, guys are going to respect that,” associate head coach Mark Montgomery said. “When he’s saying you have to lift harder, he lifted harder. When you have to condition better, he did it. So players in this era have a tendency to respect former players because they’ve done it and walked it.”

With the recent season-ending injury to Lucas, Walton took Lucious under his wing and helped the young guard understand what it takes to take a team to the Final Four.

“I’m watching more film with him every day,” Lucious said.

“He’s just talking to me every day, trying to be solid and be a leader. I’m just embracing everything he’s telling me, and I’m taking it all in.”

Walton doesn’t know what’s next for him. He might go back to Europe to play or coach or he might stay in the U.S.

But no matter what happens, Walton knows he has grown as a person and as a student of the game this semester.

“God will take me where I need to go,” Walton said. “I’ve learned so much. If I do go back and play basketball, I’ve learned how to better my game, let it come to me and slow parts up like the thinking parts that people don’t see a lot.”

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