Mario West was a "recruited" walk-on.
Georgia Tech wooed him, but Hewitt said he couldn't offer a scholarship right away. His promise was that if things worked out, West would go on scholarship after his sophomore season.
But one day during West's freshman year, Hewitt saw West dive for yet another loose ball and decided not to wait any longer. He says he blew his whistle, stopped practice and said, 'Okay, you got it." The way the rules work, he was not able to put West on 'ship in midseason, but he did go on scholarship after his freshman year -- a year early.
BTW, last weekend at Operation Basketball, I read that Hewitt got tired of being asked about the loss to Thaddeus Young and Jarvis Crittenton and finally told reporters that he thought Tech would miss West as much or more as either of those two defections.