If it weren't for the thrill of taking charge in practice, voluntarily letting a first-teamer strong-arm his behind into the hardwood floor, guard Adam Highberger thinks the best part of his day might just be lying in bed.

A walk-on's success cannot be measured by replayed game highlights on the jumbotron, simply because those would be sideline shots of him or her chatting it up on the bench as glorified cheerleaders -- separated from lights that are brighter than the practice courts
by a couple of feet and a lopsided
score.

When sophomore walk-ons Clay Scovill and Will Leiner entered Saturday's game with 57 seconds left against Michigan State, the Penn State basketball team was already doomed to a 91-64 defeat, and their substitutions didn't incite even the mildest fan reaction.

Instead, there were "We want Norwood" chants arising from the student section late in the blowout.

Jordan Norwood has only just started to watch sports from the bench. Norwood, who already had a football scholarship, recently added basketball walk-on to his résumé, making him a two-sport athlete.

Walk-ons, the human crash dummies for the starters to run laps around, are critical to any basketball team, but they aren't handed any undue glory or mentioned specifically by name.

"It's a different perspective on competing, and it's something I look forward to," Norwood said near the start of his walk-on experience. "However I can help the team, help this team get better."

It was never a point of grave concern, but Penn State's five-man scout team, lacking a substitute, was starting to suck wind as the Big Ten season rolled on.

"Our walk-ons have done a great job; we just thought they needed a little bit of a break," Penn State men's basketball coach Ed DeChellis said. "They were getting worn out as well. I think [Norwood] adds a little bit of a different speed to the scout team right now that was maybe not there for us every day."

After two seasons as Penn State's second-leading wide receiver on the football field, Norwood's role on the basketball team is to firm up the scout team. In preparation for the Indiana game two Saturdays ago, he joined the unassuming ranks of Highberger, Leiner, Scovill and a couple of scholarship players donning red practice jerseys.

Starters, still in their blue practice attire, then had to scrimmage against their ragtag teammates as if they were the enemy; as if they were the Hoosiers.

"Basically, you look at it like you do anything you can to make the team better," Scovill said. "If you are not playing, if we win a championship and you win a game, you are still a part of that."

If you saw Scovill, Highberger or Leiner on the street, you probably wouldn't recognize them as Penn State basketball players unless they were joined by a pack of their abnormally tall scholarship buddies.

The walk-ons look pretty average, with none reaching more than an inch or two taller than 6-feet, or 10 pounds on either side of 185.

On the other hand, many Penn State alumni would remember Scovill's father, Brad, a seventh-round draft pick of the Seattle Seahawks as a tight end in 1981. Brad Scovill never had a NFL career, but Clay has seen enough highlight tapes to know what kind of player he was and the work ethic involved in being a part of Division I athletics.

Practice is where Clay Scovill's greater successes have occurred, whether it's a steal off of an unsuspecting first-teamer, blocking a lazy shot, or crossing over a flat-footed defender. Any of which can be a scholarship player's nightmare. A walk-on's job is to check a starter's urge to slack, which means the walk-on can never slack off.

Essentially, a walk-on has to repress the urge for minutes, refocus every bit of his energy toward something outside the realm of self-importance and let the scholarship players represent them during games.

"I know my role. I know what I have to do to make the team better," Highberger said. "While some guys, theirs is to play in the game, mine is to come out here and bust these guys' tails in practice to make them better."

Highberger can only claim 38 seconds of regular season playing time in his Penn State career. The experience, during the waning moments of a 17-point blowout of Morehead State, was such a shock to his routine that he can't recall exactly what happened after stepping onto the floor.

"I told my dad I don't remember being in or anything," Highberger said. "Everything just went so fast. It was just awe-inspiring."

It is not like Highberger hasn't experienced greater athletic highs -- just not in front of so many people. About this time last year, Highberger would be finishing the final moments of a 2,096-point prep career in Blairsville, a speck of a town with about 3,500 people.

Like Norwood at State College Area High School, Highberger was a former two-sport star, and is believed to be the first Pennsylvania high schooler to throw for 4,000 yards as a quarterback and score 2,000 points on the basketball court.

Not to mention Highberger graduated second in his class with a 4.0 grade point average. Former Blairsville head coach Mark Rydbom, who would pitch Highberger to smaller Division I schools like Kent State for a scholarship offer, remembers his former player as a conscientious star who would serve lunch to mentally handicapped individuals at a church in Blairsville.

"I've told a lot of coaches, 'You aren't going to have to tell him to go to class and you are never going to have to bail him out of jail,' Rydbom said. "That's sometimes hard to find in today's society."

Now Highberger relishes the simplest -- and apparently most forgettable -- moments in front of Bryce Jordan Center crowds, which easily can reach twice the population of his hometown.

Blairsville is a tight-knit community where everyone follows local high school athletics, and Highberger was the centerpiece. With DeChellis' offer to become a walk-on with the Lions, though, the notoriety was not going to follow through college.

"In high school, I always thought the second team ... " Highberger paused. "I always realized how important they were, but I didn't really realize until now, to be a part of one, all of the work I put in makes a difference in the games. I always knew they were important, but not this important, how challenging it is to not play."

Leiner just loves being one of the guys. Personalities on the team range from the talkative Jamelle Cornley to the more subdued Geary Claxton. It's a mix that makes Leiner crave the moments where he can embarrass a scholarship player.

"Just developing all of the friendships with the guys, and when you do score on them in practice, you do a good move, it's fun to let them know about that," Leiner said. "Everyone is picking on each other, making fun of each other, making jokes, laughing. It's a really fun team."

For a few games last season, Leiner was granted the privilege of traveling to road games in suit and tie. This was an upgrade from the weeks before, when he was only allowed to practice with the team. Before that, he was a manager, setting up the water and Gatorade before practice.

Unlike Highberger and Scovill, Leiner is the purest of the walk-on archetype. He was playing basketball against other freshmen on the intramural courts before making it through the tryout process. The other two were offered spots on the roster before the season as long as they paid their own way as preferred walk-ons.

It took a series of major injuries for Leiner to get on the team. Then-true-sophomore guard Danny Morrissey missed the entire season when he blew out his knee. Then-true-freshman Maxwell DuBois broke his foot, missing the season. And Joonas Suotamo suffered a foot injury, and didn't return until mid-December of last year.

"Being a manager was not what I had been hoping for. I just wanted to help out in any way I could," Leiner said. "I just kind of thought it would be a good way to get my foot in the door. With the injuries that happened last year, I guess I kind of just fell into a good spot."

Practice players were suddenly in demand, putting Leiner all the way through the door, but he can never feel completely secure.

Walk-on Keith Hardin, a State College High grad like Norwood, didn't return this year after one season with the team. Leiner admits that he is still a little nervous when he enters games because he hasn't scored a single point in his Penn State career.

"It'll happen when it happens," Leiner said. "I'm not too worried about it. I just do what I have to do here and hopefully that is enough."

But walk-ons are a rare commodity, because they don't quite care about statistics. If they weren't unique, then not just Norwood, but every football player that was a quasi-competitive high school basketball player could be beating down DeChellis' door.

"It's tough. It's tough, not only physically but mentally ... but I know what I got myself into and everyone here knows it," Highberger said. "If it was easy, then everyone would be doing it."