Being a freshman and a walk-on player of a Division I men’s basketball team isn’t necessarily the easiest way to get playing time, but Xander McNally has managed to have both adequate playing time and the second most steals in the Sun Belt Conference.

“No walk-ons play anywhere basically, but there are exceptions like Drake which is a team-ranked 15th in the country and whose top two players are walk-ons,” said Joe Scott the head coach of the men’s basketball team at DU.

Of the 27 games DU men’s basketball has played this season, McNally has played an average of 24.6 minutes and hasn’t missed a game yet. Although he has played a significant amount of minutes in each game, he has only started in four of them.

However, McNally leads his team in both the steals and blocks categories, with 59 and 27, respectively. He is also second in offensive rebounds with a total of 23 so far.

“To me scholarships, walk-ons those are all labels but when you recruit you look for guys and always see if you can get another couple walk-ons,” said Scott. “If they can come and compete on a DI basketball team, they are not just a walk-on.”

McNally is one of two walk-on players, the other being Nigel Peter-Denman a freshman as well, on the men’s basketball this team this year. McNally is not on scholarship because he walked-on to the team yet he still chose to attend University of Denver despite a lack of financial support.

“I was getting recruited, but it was by DII and DIII schools,” said McNally of why he didn’t choose another college or university to play basketball for. “DU was a much better school and it has always been my dream to play Division I basketball.”

McNally only played on his varsity high school basketball team his junior and senior years and attended a private high school called Branson in San Francisco. His basketball team won the state tournament in both his junior and senior years.

McNally was inspired to try and make the men’s DU basketball team because the University of Denver seemed like it would be a good fit both academically and athletically for his desire to play basketball. He has chosen to major in the Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management program at DU.

At this point in the season all of the players on the team are most likely equal and treated the same way, but joining a new team as a walk-on compared to being recruited can sometimes prove to be a bit more challenging, he said.

“As a walk-on I had to prove myself more to the coach and the team,” said McNally of why being a walk-on player can be harder at first. “I have finally gotten to that level where the coach trusts me more because he has seen me play a lot now.”

Even the coaches have something to say about the gap between recruited and walk-on players.

“It is harder, you know, because we do make a judgment on you but the reality of it is its going to be very difficult,” said Scott.

“Xander is like anyone else on the team, once we get going we don’t treat anyone differently. Everyone is important and everyone is held to the same standards.”

Apparently, this difficulty is no big ordeal for McNally as he has achieved a secure playing spot on a division one basketball team.

“A lot of people say it is harder to be a walk-on, but I like the challenge,” said McNally of opinions that walking onto a team isn’t as easy as being recruited for one. “If I was given the spot on the team, I probably wouldn’t have work as hard as I did. I have also been lucky with the circumstances and am taking full advantage of it.”

McNally has not planned too much for the future of his basketball career other than admitting he would love to play all four years of college and hope nothing like an injury prevents him from doing so.

“I just want to play as much as I can, but I’m not really sure about the future. We will see,” McNally said.