Walking on to a basketball team is like bungee cording off a cliff.

It demands a certain type of personality. It demands guts, heart, confidence, some luck and a heck of a lot of patience.

But with all the hyped publicity generated around high school athletes, how is it possible for an athlete to walk onto a Division I basketball team?

Steve Wydman and freshman forward/center Brian Anderson are two players who have for now, conquered the walk-on stigma. Freshman guard Tom Barnett is also a walk-on, but he hasn't seen the playing time that Wydman and Anderson have.

With three games left to play, Wydman and Anderson's roles have exploded. With the season's rash of injuries, they have become two mainstays in Coach Bruce Parkhill's rotation.

"It's really been an unusual situation," said Parkhill. "We've had a lot of guys walk on, but rarely so young as Steve and Brian.

"It's a credit to them. They were able to pick it up confidence-wise."

And Wydman's confidence barometer continues to rise with each game. He is as much a part of the team as any scholarship player.

Wydman keeps his teammates on their toes by constantly impersonating their voices.

Said Anderson, "He's one of the funniest guys I've ever met. He cracks us up.

"And he still can't do me," Anderson joked.

If Wydman could act his life out as a movie star, then voila . . . he'd become Chevy Chase in a heartbeat. Straight from the movie Fletch.

"I like (Fletch's) sarcasm," Wydman commented. "You should look at life like he does. I mean nothing's tough for him.

"When it gets tough, sometimes it's good to turn to humor because it's a good escape."

There are times, believe it or not, when Wydman takes himself seriously. As a student he is a potential marketing major and he's a brother in Pi Kappa Phi fraternity.

However, he didn't experience the same sort of success when he walked onto last year's Atlantic 10 Tournament champion team as a freshman. He walked right onto the bench.

"At the initial point, it was like wow," Wydman said. "I was so used to playing the whole game in high school, it was empty some times. I just always wanted to contribute, even if it was for 30 seconds.

"So, I made a big goal this summer, and I was going to go home and really work hard." By returning to the basics: lifting weights and ball-handling.

He caught Parkhill's keen eye in preseason. And that earned him some playing time.

Which prompted some people to ask, "Steve Who?"

Those people know who Steve Wydman is now. Injuries to fellow guards Michael Jennings and Donovan Williams have paved Wydman's track into the lineup.

"Someone's obviously looking upon me," Wydman quipped. "If I could do it again, I would hope that (Jennings and Williams) would be all right. But right now, I am as happy as pie . . . because this is great. I never dreamed of this ever happening."

He never dreamed of playing and contributing at Ohio State; Or playing tough defense down the stretch at JMU. Or scoring a career high 13 points against Morgan State. He never dreamed of moving up to the third guard position on the team. And with Freddie Barnes' ankle still mending, Wydman's minutes could continue to escalate.

"He plays as hard as anybody on the team," Parkhill noted. "When I think of Steve Wydman, I think of heart. And you talk about improvement, his is like night and day from last year."

While Wydman has reaped the benefits from his improvement this season, he'll never let it get to his head.

"I still call home and my dad says 'Don't you get content,' " Wydman said.

"I say, 'Don't you worry dad, I'm not. Not until I sign my first million-dollar contract.' "

Wydman does in fact see eye-to-eye with his parents, particularly his dad, who is a former Penn State quarterback.

"I remember some heated arguments with my dad after games when he'd tell me what to do. I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm glad my dad was on my butt during high school."

And his mom was a cheerleader when she attended Penn State. "Is that not disgusting?" Wydman joked.

But now, at age 20, the sophomore no longer wears his blue-and-white PSU pajamas to football games, like he did as a tyke. He's matured to wear his blue-and-white mesh PSU jersey in his basketball games. Quite a major leap.

A leap that Wydman credits to his family's move to Dallas, Tex. from Big Flats, N.Y.

"The greatest move of my athletic career," he said.

"The competition down there is unbelievable," Wydman said. "I always thought I was going to follow in my dad's footsteps, but basketball kind of took over."

So why come back north?

"I guess I'm a northern boy at heart," Wydman said. "Penn State . . . This is a campus. You go down south, they're out in flatlands. I set a goal in my junior year that I wanted to get into the school here and I'm extremely happy that it worked out."

And it's worked out in a major way. Both off the court and right now, on it.

"I kind of decided in high school that I wanted to walk on," Wydman recollected. "I couldn't imagine myself as just a student because I had grown up around athletics all my life. I just set a goal. And if I didn't make it then I'd just go on being a student."

Wydman sent Parkhill a portfolio of his career at J.J. Pearce High School where he was All-City performer in two sports. And when he enrolled at Penn State in the summer of 1990, he played pickup ball with the guys.

Fast forward to October, 15, 1990 -- the tryout day for Wydman and 30 other players.

"The tryouts were rough," Wydman said. "We did layups and regular drills and then we jumped into five-on-five full court and I was gassed. It ended up with full court one-on-one, and by this time I was just running on fumes."

Since that first season where he fumed on the bench his career has been running at a high-octaned pace.

Wydman, however, will never forget that he's a walk-on.

"I hope that they keep walk-ons for the history of this school because of the opportunity," he said. "Look what it's done for me. If I was to tell someone who wanted to walk on and was kind of antsy about doing it, I'd tell them you do it because if you don't try . . . you'll never know. You could succeed and if you don't there are other things that are meant for you to do."