David Bagga - The Walk-On

The Walk-On

David Bagga

AuthorHouse

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2010 David Bagga. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 12/8/2010

ISBN: 978-1-4490-4179-3 (e)

ISBN: 978-1-4490-3772-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4490-3773-4 (hc)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2009910809

Printed in the United States of America

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Certain stock imagery Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any Web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

To Coach Olson

Coach Olson if it wasnt for you I wouldnt have been able to have the experience of a lifetime. I cant tell you how much you mean to me as a Coach, mentor and friend, thank you so much for everything.

People of Mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they dont know when to quit. Most men succeed because they are defined to. - George Allen

Acknowledgment

Dear Friends, Fans, and supporters of the program,

Hey everyone, Im writing this book to share my experience about what it was like walking on to the basketball team for four years and sharing all the experiences I had while playing here. First of all let me just say a few things on my behalf, my time at the University of Arizona was unbelievable and it was something Ill always remember for the rest of my life. I consider myself fortunate to be able to play at such a prestigious program for 4 years. I also feel fortunate enough to play for a hall of fame coach as well. I know I only had Coach Olson for 2 years but he taught me so much and gave me so many opportunities on and off the court. I wish him nothing but the best and I cant thank him enough for everything he did for me. To give you guys an idea of what type of guy Coach Olson was, read this.

Every practice we would stretch out as a team and then have a few minutes to loosen up on our own while our coaches would go over the practice schedule and while we were stretching out Coach Olson would make his way around the court and talk to us for a quick minute or so, sometimes guys were getting stretched by our strength coach or our trainer Justin and we usually had our own little areas where we loosened ourselves up. My area was the back corner near the basket closest to our bench, every practice I stretched out there and every other Practice Coach Olson would come and talk to me and ask me how everything was going. Whether it was my classes or my family or just him checking in with me, he always took the time to do that.

That by itself just goes to show people what type of person Lute Olson is; see I was a walk-on but not once did he ever treat me like a walk-on. If the truth be known he treated me like I was an all-American even though I never really played until the end of the game when we were up by a pretty good amount. When I think about my experience with Coach Olson that always sticks out in my mind because he genuinely cared about all of us whether we started and played forty minutes a game or forty seconds a game, whether we were the all Americans going to the NBA or we were on the bench waiving a towel around and pushing other players in practice to get better.

My freshman year at Arizona was great, we had a few more losses than we had hoped for but we wound up making the tournament and losing to Villanova in the 2 nd round of the tournament. It was about three weeks later I went into Coach Olsons office as we had our exit meetings for the season and I had told him that I had been journaling every night during the season and I had thought about writing a book about my experience as a walk-on.

My reasoning for doing this was because I wanted to give people a different view, a view that nobody had really ever seen before and that was the view from the bench. I promised him that I would never say a down word about the program because I didnt get a raw deal in terms of playing time or anything like that. I was a walk-on and I relished every moment of it. But I am being truthful with everything that has been written in here, and youll see that when you read this.

Call me crazy but there was always something intriguing about cheering my ass off for four years on that bench and going crazy when my teammates or I did something spectacular in a game. I got a lot of joy watching them in games because I knew I had the chance to push them everyday in practice and it made me feel pretty good. But there was always more to it than just basketball, the academic side of walking on, the social aspect, and the emotional and psychological part as well. Of course there were those days when I thought I wasnt going to make it and I couldnt do it.

Then there were the days when I thought I was a good enough player to start for this team. All of that was a big part of the process of being a walk-on and the ups and downs I experienced everyday. Most of the times were great experiences because this was what I wanted and I soaked up as much as I could for four years. Even if something was bad I did the most of it to make it a good situation. In the back of my mind I knew that it was going to be a grind playing and being a student so I had to do as much as I can to make it the best experience.

In my opinion there was no greater feeling than being able to compete on a daily basis with my teammates and build friendships with them while doing so. All in all this experience was a phenomenal one and reflecting back on everything I was glad I embarked on the journey.

I know a lot of fans thought the years of 2005-2009 of Arizona basketball were somewhat rocky; but if you asked me I wouldnt have changed the way the seasons went. The way we played and the way we battled spoke highly about our character as a team; and we did make that sweet sixteen run my senior year which is something a lot of people will remember for a long time. Anyway this book came from my heart and I hope you guys enjoy reading this story; Bear Down.

Contents

Chapter 1

When I heard the squeaking of the other shoes on the court I took a step back to see where I was at, as I heard the 9 other players talking on the court beside me I knew the atmosphere was so different, so unique, so incredible. I took a look around me and realized that I had been living out an experience of a lifetime, wearing a jersey that said ARIZONA on the front and engraved on the back of the jersey was BAGGA with a big #11 underneath my name. I didnt have time to reminisce about all this stuff because I had just checked into our first home game against Virginia and seconds later I would come off of a screen to score my first collegiate basket. There were so many emotions I was feeling after I scored. My dream had become an unlikely reality and suddenly I found myself caught up in the moment. The arena was so loud I couldnt hear myself think; all I could do was smile and soak up the experience and think about how many more there were to come.

A journey is defined as a passage or progress from one stage of life to the next. Opportunity is defined as a chance for progress or advancement. In life when we have opportunities we must grab them by the neck to get an experience that is much wanted. In my life I have had many opportunities come before me that I have either turned down, ran away from, or just did not care about. But this opportunity was unlike any other opportunity that had ever crossed my path. This is my story, my journey, my opportunity, my experience that changed my lifeWe have all heard the old saying Be the best you can be and that applies to virtually everything in life, from language to lay-ups, science to slam dunks, history to hoops you guys get the idea. To be the best at something, whatever it is in life, we have to learn to make sacrifices, which I definitely learned to do.