RUSTON ââ'¬" Tyler Summitt has a first-hand appreciation for walk-ons.

He lived that life for two years during his days in Knoxville, playing for coaches Cuonzo Martin and Bruce Pearl and the Tennessee Volunteers.

Summitt, the second-year Louisiana Tech Lady Techster sideline stroller, lived the less-than-glamorous life of a walk-on; the same rigors of practices and workouts and long days, minus the spotlight and publicity of the more high-profile players.

LA Tech senior guard Ruby Richie knows too. The local Cedar Creek High School product began her college basketball career on the Division II level before transferring back home, where she became a walk-on with a Lady Techster program she grew up admiring.

Ruby would eventually earn a scholarship down the road.

"Ruby and I had a conversation a few weeks ago about how the paths we took were very similar," Summitt said. "I grew up watching the Tennessee Vols, and she grew up watching the Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters. I got to play at Tennessee as a walk-on and got to be a part of the program that I grew up watching. It's very similar to what she has experienced at Louisiana Tech. We have a lot in common."

Coach and player both understand the road of the undersized and often overlooked.

"They (LA Tech) were looking, but Ouachita Baptist University offered me a scholarship so I went there for a year," Richie said. "I played my freshman year. They recruited me at point guard and moved me to shooting guard. I just didn't feel like its where I belonged."

So following her freshman season, Richie contacted then-LA Tech head coach Teresa Weatherspoon about the possibility of joining the Lady Techster program. Spoon welcomed her with open arms.

"I was talking to my mom about moving back home and I started talking to coach Spoon," Ruby said. "She told me if that's what I want to do they would have a spot for me. She gave me the option to walk-on. I got my release and I came here. My journey to Tech became a reality."

The journey had only just begun.

Ruby red-shirted during the 2013-14 season due to the NCAA Transfer Rule. She used the year to make the transition from the Division II level to a higher level of competition, something she didn't take for granted.

"Here it was a lot faster," Ruby said. "Ouachita Baptist is the next level, but it's not Division I basketball. I often talk about how different Division I is from Division II. It really is night and day. It was a nice year to get a feel for this level."

So with a year of acclimating to the Division I game, the 5-foot-6-inch shooting guard was set to suit up for Teresa Weatherspoon. It didn't happen.

Instead, she became a part of history. Ruby, along with the rest of the members of the 2014-15 LA Tech squad, will forever be remembered as Tyler Summitt's first team.

"It was very difficult," Ruby said, remembering the time between Weatherspoon's dismissal and Summitt's hiring. "We felt empty for a while. I felt like we didn't have a team. Everyone was doing whatever; we didn't have any structure."

Little did Ruby and Co. know, but structure was well on its way. Its name was Tyler Summitt.

"You could tell he was serious about holding us accountable for what we were doing," Ruby said. "He had a lot of the same rules, but he enforced them. We knew that if we weren't in the first three rows of class or we were late we were going to have punishment for it. The previous year it was hit or miss. He came in and put his foot down, and we forgot that he was 23."

The transition from one coaching staff to another one ââ'¬" with totally different philosophies ââ'¬" was not an easy one for the remaining players. Some fought it and didn't survive. Some initially resisted, testing the waters and then succumbed. And then a few, like Ruby, bought in immediately.

Her attitude, work ethic and perseverance are what caught the new coaching staff's attention from day No. 1. And it eventually turned into significant playing time on the court, something that came as a surprise to her.

"As a walk on I was very surprised I got to play," Ruby said. "I just came in and worked hard and did what they asked me to do. We would get to game time, and he would call my name and shock would go through me.

"It was a dream come true. I wasn't expecting it at all. For me to get that amount of playing time was an experience of a lifetime and something I will never forget."

As a junior, Ruby saw action in 30 games, making five starts. She averaged just over two points per game with a career-high 16 points in the Lady Techsters home win over Nicholls State in December.

The contribution on and off the court paid off for her heading into this season.

"She was big for us last year, coming into games and playing a role," Summitt said. "We met this summer, and I told Ruby that I thought she had earned a scholarship based on what she had done for us. I really felt like she earned it and was really glad she was finishing out with us."

The walk-on tag was gone. Another hurdle cleared in Ruby's journey, although it wouldn't be the last one. Enter eight newcomers to the Louisiana Tech roster in 2015-16. Basically, a brand new team as Summitt's first recruiting class joined the Columbia blue club. The positive is the significant culture change. The negative; more competition for playing time.

Although Ruby has seen her playing time cut in this her senior season, she says the good definitely outweighs the bad.

"We're definitely more of a family," Ruby said. "It's easy for any of us to be together and have a good time. Last year you couldn't have two people in the same room without an argument breaking out. I think we've meshed really well to be so new with each other. It's really awesome to be a part of."

The difficult part is that of the competitor in Ruby Richie. Like most college athletes, she wants to be on the floor each and every game helping her team. However, she has accepted her role and put team before self.

"It was a real struggle at the beginning," Ruby said. "Coach Tyler and I met and Coach DeMoss and I met, and they told me my role was to be an encourager, a leader. It's been an emotional roller coaster this year, but I've accepted it and tried to do my best."

"It's a hard role to play but you have to be ready when your number is called, no matter when that may be," Summitt said.

The biology major tries to do her best in everything. She is a very strong student academically, with a desire to become a physician's assistant one day. She will be a success.

And while not as much energy has been spent on the court this year due to the decrease in playing time, it's allowed her to focus even more with another area of her life that she loves ââ'¬" fitness and nutrition.

"I've had this new found interest," Ruby said. "It's a recent thing, maybe in the last two years. I've always been in the weight room when I had to be, but now it's become more of an interest. I think I've had this obsession with trying to have my picture perfect body."

Casey Cathrall, who serves as the strength and conditioning coach for the Lady Techster and Bulldog basketball teams as well as a handful of the other sports, said Ruby is a beast in the weight room.

"Pound for pound she is the strongest athlete I have for all the teams I train," Cathrall said. "Strength to body weight, she would crush everyone."

"She is in the weight room all the time," Summitt said. "Her academics are so high that she doesn't have to go to study hall. When we are on the road and the team has study hall, we let the ones who don't have it do something else. You can always find Ruby in the weight room working out. Our strength coach Casey would be very proud."

He is.

"Discipline, consistency and humility; that's what makes her so good in the weight room," Cathrall said. "She was already a gifted athlete as far as her capability. She really didn't know how to lift properly when I arrived, but she was strong anyway. She had some injuries that limited her and affected her technique. The humility part is she could lift more but didn't do it well. So she backed down off the weight, worked on her form, stretched and foam rolled. She did all of the little things and then crushed through the plateau that she had hit for a period of time."

As with most athletes, Ruby has goals in the weight room just like on the basketball court. And she is getting close to reaching them.

"I want to bench 200 pounds by the end of the year," she said. "I reached my max of 185 and Casey asked me 'Are you satisfied with that?' I'm not. I just want to be able to say, I can bench 200."

Between eating right most of the time ââ'¬" "I still like to eat Mexican and pizza" ââ'¬" and spending most of her free time on the court and in the weight room, Ruby has also lost 16 pounds since the fall quarter began. She has increased her bench press by 20 pounds while also seeing increases in verticals, chin ups and back squats.

It has become a way of life.

"It's been tough and it's been weird, but I'm learning," Ruby said.

Being a local product, when Ruby steps on the court every home game she does so with plenty of fan support. However, she has no bigger fan than her mother, Vicki Caskey.

"My mom is very supportive and very active around Ruston and the community," Ruby said. "However, she always makes time for my games."

Vicki has even been known to surprise her daughter on road trips. When the Lady Techsters opened this season in Madison, Wisconsin against the Badgers, Vicki made the long trek cross country to support her daughter.

"I just looked up there and there she was," Ruby said. "It brought tears to my eyes."

It's obvious that Ruby has a special relationship with her mother, something else her and Tyler Summitt have in common.