Oklahoma State Drops Best 'Surprise Scholarship' Video Yet - Walk-On Gets Full Ride At Walmart, Where He Works Just To Pay For School

Goddamnit do I love these videos. I think there may not be a bigger myth in college hoops than walk-ons not being able to play. These dudes were all-state, all-conference whatever in high school 99% of the time. They work their ass off every day in practice to hopefully see a minute of action in a blowout where people just scream shoot any time they touch the ball. But the story about Dee Mitchell is even better (h/t CBS)

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But last fall, due to the pandemic, Mitchell thought his playing career was pretty much over. Two years removed from walking into Boynton's office to ask for a tryout, now he was walking in and saying he didn't think he could hoop anymore. The pandemic meant his mother lost her job, and if he was going to stay in school he had to find a job of his own to help pay bills for himself and his mom. 

"I'm like, 'Dee, if you want to play basketball, you have a place here,'" Boynton said. "'If you want to stay, you don't have to quit.'"

So Mitchell took a job at Walmart working 40 hours per week for $12/hour as a produce stocker. He does this job on top of 15 hours worth of classes per week. Mitchell sticks with the team as much as he can, opting to get up for 6 a.m. workouts every day, before either his Walmart shift or his daily class schedule, to stay focused on basketball fitness. This past semester Mitchell, a sports and coaching science major, finished with five As and a B. His work schedule has been so busy, he's only been able to be at three of Oklahoma State's games so far this season.

Sometimes you can't make this shit up.  From the date being 2 years to the day of him walking in and asking for a tryout to it happening at Wal-Mart and everything in between, just awesome. For some reason there seems to be onions in my room or something while I watch the video. Think about it. This kid, and I can't stress enough we're talking a college kid here, works his ass off, goes to class, gets workouts in and does it all just to pay for school. 

And I get it, surprise videos have kinda gone the way of dunks. They are all awesome, but you gotta do something different in order to really get my attention. This story has my attention. And you know what? If you don't get a little teary-eyed when he calls his mom you simply don't have a soul. That one cuts deep. 

Gotta be brutal going back to work for your shift though. How do you even do that? You just got the surprise of a lifetime, made the call you dream of making and then have to go stock some bananas. No idea how you get through the rest of that shift. Between this, Cade Cunningham, fighting the NCAA appeal, I'm all on the Oklahoma State bandwagon this year. They are a ton of fun to watch and now even have a better reason to cheer for them. Shout out Mike Boynton. Shout out Pokes. Shout out Lee Corse as awesome mascot with a gigantic head.