Drew Snively was completely caught off guard by the question he got a few weeks ago.
After considering some offers to play college basketball, he was ready to attend Indiana as a regular student later this month.
But his former AAU coach called to deliver a message.
“Coach (Drew) Adams at IU just called me and wanted to know if you wanted to walk-on,” Mike Fox told Snively.
A simple and enticing question, but if he said yes, Snively’s next four years were about to get much harder.
Countless hours at practice, the physical demands on his body, long road trips — all while accepting the reality all walk-ons must confront — the playing time will be sparse.
Snively says he consulted with current IU walk-on Ian Stephens, who comes from a similar background as another very talented central Indiana high school player who had some opportunities to play in college.
Stephens participated in every facet of the IU open practice we attended last week. His reward — he got his nose bloodied. And now he’s here in Puerto Rico for their summer trip. Being a walk-on is a major time commitment, especially for someone like Snively, who says he wants to major in IU’s highly demanding business program.
But ultimately, the 6-foot-4 Zionsville, Ind. product knew there was only one answer.
“I felt like I couldn’t say no,” Snively said.
The opportunity means something more for Snively, who posted “childhood dream” when he announced Wednesday his commitment to be a walk-on at IU, along with this photo:
Snively’s parents didn’t go to Indiana, but his grandparents immersed him in IU basketball as a child, shaping his interest in the program with gestures like giving him the floating heads calendar each year. He says he’s been a fan of the program since he was eight years old. It’s a story similar to his fellow IU freshman Trent Sisley, who Snively has been a teammate of on AAU teams.
Snively is going to fall in the category of walk-on who can really play and help Sisley and the rest of this 2025-26 team behind the scenes when he joins them in a couple weeks. As a senior at Zionsville H.S., Snively averaged 12.8 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.8 assists. As a junior he averaged 17.8 points and shot 40% from three. A three-year starter, he scored 929 career points and shot 37% from three for the Eagles.
With a different role at IU, Snively says he embraces the opportunity to compete every day in practice and help the team get better.
And now he’ll follow in the footsteps of multiple former Zionsville players in the last decade who have walked-on at IU. Nate Childress was with IU from 2019-2023 and Hogan Orbaugh in 2022-23. Both are from the suburban town just northwest of Indianapolis. Jackson Tharp, also a walk-on from Zionsville, played for IU in 2016.
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