Centre Daily Times | 12/26/2004 | Nittany Lions freshman looks to lead team:
“The stroke is at once mechanical and fluid, a natural movement refined by too many years and too many practice shots to count.
“Arrive a few minutes early to any Penn State practice and you’ll see Mike Walker shooting. Sometimes a team manager is there to rebound for him, sometimes not. A layup or two, then foul shots, eventually on to threes. Over and over again, as if there wasn’t anything else in the world to do.
” ‘You’re always so busy here at school, it’s not like you can come back to the gym and shoot 300, 400 shots,’ Walker said, as if 300 shots was an afterthought. ‘So I try and get out here a little early just to get some shots up and stay a little bit later. But it’s something I’ve been doing my whole life.’
“Here’s a guy who is, in the words of his coach, the ‘ultimate gym rat,’ starting for a Big Ten team in his freshman season because of those long hours of shooting. His teammates rally around the 6-foot-2 freshman from Lewisberry, not even knowing why. Want the pulse of this young Penn State team? Look no further than its point guard.”