DENVER – Mitch McCarron was passed over for an Australian national team for an international tournament, didn't have his scholarship to the Australian Institute of Sport renewed and couldn't seem to find an American college that would offer him a scholarship to play basketball.
 
"I had these big ambitions and these big dreams, and I wanted to keep chasing them," McCarron said. "My parents were huge in supporting me and saying, 'You're just going to go a different path.'"
 
That's where MSU Denver, and its historic connection with Australian players, came in. Australian coach Damian Cotter got in touch with then-Roadrunners Coach Derrick Clark and reported back to McCarron.
 
"(Cotter) said, 'There's a program that I think you should really consider,'" McCarron said. "He said, 'They're Division II, but if you have a look at who's gone there, maybe that will give you some more confidence about why it's a good pick for you.'
 
"So I'm incredibly grateful to Coach Clark, because he took a leap of faith on me. He was just trusting his friend that the kid was going to be OK."
 
McCarron, obviously, was more than OK. He put together a legendary three-year MSU Denver career that included a trip to the national championship game in 2013, to the national semifinals in 2014, and a conference championship in 2015 in which McCarron earned National Player of the Year honors.
 
"Not to create a whole 'it's-me-against-the-world-thing,' but I did have to treat it that way and I had to put the work in because clearly I wasn't being seen in the same light as the other guys," McCarron said.
 
"By the time I finished college, I was such a different player. I'd grown up. I'd like to say I'm a late bloomer in terms of the athletic and strength side of things.  finally caught up there, and then all the time I'd put into the fundamentals and skills culminated into the player I was."

Now, on April 20, McCarron will be inducted into the Roadrunners Athletics Hall of Fame along with Clark, Australian players from an earlier era in Luke Kendall and Mark Worthington, and the 2010-11 MSU Denver women's basketball team that won a regional championship.
 
The ceremony will take place at the Tivoli Turnhalle on the MSU Denver campus. Tickets are $50 for adults and $25 for kids 12 and under. The evening starts with a 6 p.m. social, followed by dinner at 7 p.m. 
 
McCarron did have a Division I scholarship offer from Southern Utah, but that program backed off and retracted its off. So, after successfully making another Under-19 national team for a tournament in the summer of 2011, McCarron agreed to the Roadrunners' scholarship offer. He'd never been to Denver before reporting for classes.
 
"Once I was going down the list of names … guys like Luke Kendall, Mark Worthington, David Barlow, Jesse Wagstaff … they'd all gone to Metro State," McCarron said. "There was a bit of a knock on Division II, just because everyone else was going Division I. But the more research I did, I thought it sounded like a great environment.
 
"And if it was good enough for those guys, it was certainly good enough for me."
 
Clark, other than a little bit of grainy video footage, had never seen McCarron play.
 
"It was pretty evident within the first week of him being on campus, watching him going up and down the floor, that he was very talented," Clark said.
 
But nothing was coming for McCarron, who was ready to be part of the 2011-12 team. One more setback, just before the season was set to start, awaited. Because he had played briefly in a semi-professional league in Australia, the NCAA took away a year of eligibility from him, even though he hadn't been paid, and he wasn't allowed to play in games that year.
 
"All of a sudden the one thing I had was taken away," he said. "Because even when I had struggles in basketball, I just played more basketball – I would go shoot, or go play, and it would make me feel better.
 
"But, in order to make the Under 19 National Team I thought I needed to be in great game shape, and I thought I needed to play in a state league that was semi-pro. … I ended up making the (National) team, so I have no regrets."
 
So McCarron simply spent the 2011-12 season torturing his teammates in practice as the star player of the scout team.
 
Said Clark: "It was like having a fat ribeye steak that you can't eat sitting there right behind the glass. Your mouth is watering. He was the best player we saw all year – no disrespect to our opponents. Every single day we had to figure out how to stop him, because he had the green light on the scout team. He caused a lot of havoc in practice."
 
A master motivator, Clark used McCarron to make his teammates better.
 
Like the time, after a rare loss, when Clark instructed McCarron to drive and get into the lane (the "paint") on every possession at the next practice. Failure to do so would result in McCarron doing extra running.
 
"Then," McCarron said, "before we started practice, he told the team, 'Every time they (scout team) get in the paint, you guys are going to run.' I was like, 'Oh man, I'm not going to be anyone's friend after practice.' But I also didn't want to run.
 
"If you're going to be on a really good team, you can't hold back. You've got to make your teammates better, and that's what made us so good – every practice everyone was trying to kick each other's ass."
 
The Roadrunners did plenty of tail-kicking the following season.
 
With McCarron eligible to play, he was one of five players who averaged in double figures as MSU Denver went 32-3 and reached the national championship game.
 
"That year was the easiest offensively because we had so many weapons," McCarron said. "The defensive scout would try to take away one guy, and someone else would hurt them. When you have that kind of unity, that kind of trust in everybody … that's a really fun team to play for."
 
The highlight was the national semifinals win over West Liberty (W.V.), a high-scoring juggernaut ranked No. 1 in the country.
 
"The media had said how great West Liberty was and talked about how many points they scored, how they'd been crushing teams and full-court pressing teams all year," McCarron said. "But we felt comfortable in that game style because we pressed as well – full-court man-to-man every day in practice.
 
"I just remember celebrating with the boys in the locker room afterwards. And then there was a break (before the national championship game), and we went home and I just remember how happy everybody was."
 
From the ultimate high to the lowest of lows, heartbreak followed eight days later as Drury (Mo.) outscored the Roadrunners 7-0 in the final 3:37 to steal the national title in a 74-73 decision. MSU Denver led 39-22 in the first half.
 
"We were up by so much and I felt like we were dominating the game," McCarron said. "They were a really good team, with good players and they were well-coached, but I did feel like we had the upper hand. But they got hot at the right time, and credit to them, they were the better team at the end of the day.
 
"I remember afterwards in the locker room looking around, and everyone was just emotional. It wasn't about blaming anyone. You couldn't help but feeling like you didn't do enough as an individual. What more could I have done that I didn't do?"
 
The Roadrunners were loaded again the following year, and went on a redemption tour that included a 3-1 record in exhibition games against Division I teams and a 29-game winning streak.
 
"Ironically, that year felt like more of a grind," McCarron said. "We were trying so hard to go another step after losing in the final. We were just constantly reminded of that, not just from the coaches but by ourselves. We were chasing this goal, and we were never satisfied – which was an awesome thing when you look back. We'd crush a team, and it just wasn't enough. That's probably why we played such good basketball. We were super consistent.
 
"Everyone in our group was hurt – really hurt – from the year before, and even the new guys felt quickly just how authentic that was."
 
But the Roadrunners fell 71-69 to Central Missouri in the semifinals, on a basket with one second left. Their season ended with a 32-2 record.
 
National Player of the Year Brandon Jefferson and others ended their careers in that game, but McCarron and others, including forward Nick Kay, had one more season left.
 
A mindset change was required, though, for McCarron.
 
"I would have to tell him, 'Hey, Mitch, it's OK to be the guy,'" Clark said of a frequent theme throughout McCarron's career. "His personality isn't one to go in and dominate. He's such a team guy, and that's the way they play in Australia, it's more about the team. That's not good or bad, that's just how he grew up playing the game. From Day One, I had to tell him, 'You're a star, and it's OK to shine.'"
 
After averaging 14.6 points per game for this first two seasons, McCarron pumped in 20.2 per game as a senior.
 
"It was kind of an awesome year," McCarron said. "Because aside from Nick and myself, we saw some guys who had put a lot of work in over the previous few years get rewarded with some playing time and some opportunities. What probably would be labeled a weaker squad on paper got huge performances from guys who just hadn't played a lot in the past."
 
The Roadrunners were 26-6 overall and won the RMAC regular-season title with a 19-3 record before being upset in the first-round of the NCAA Tournament.
 
"I was happy for guys," McCarron said. "All the accolades and trophies are great, but if you don't enjoy doing it with the people around you … you learn that as you get older, and that's why you always cry after you lose your last game, because it's about the people you've put in the work with over the years."
 
What stood out to Clark was what seemed like a typical McCarron game in the RMAC Tournament against Colorado Christian.
 
"I'm thinking Mitch is having a good game, very efficient," Clark said. "He's very athletic and he'll have one or two plays that make you jump out of your seat, but otherwise he does things in such an economical way that it's hard to know what his stats might be. But I looked at the stats after the game, and he's got a triple-double (11 points, 11 rebounds, 13 assists). That sums up Mitch."
 
Shortly thereafter, McCarron became the Roadrunners' second straight National Player of the Year.
 
"It felt a bit weird to be honest," McCarron said. "(UCCS star) Derrick White (now with the Boston Celtics) was dominating. Even Nick Kay was so valuable for our team at both ends of the floor, and so consistent – our stats were borderline even.
 
"I never felt like I had separated myself or that I was the guy in the limelight, and I never tried to carry myself that way. I was just doing my job, and my job that year was to be more aggressive and score more."
 
Off the floor, McCarron was also a two-time Academic All-American, including a first-team selection as a senior. Academics had been difficult for him in Australian due to the time commitment for basketball that was required at that time.
 
"It just didn't leave a lot of time to sit down and learn, he said. "I graduated from high school, but there were points where I wasn't sure I could do it. Then when I went to college, it was a complete sigh of relief. I could actually manage my schedule.
 
"I know when I've got class, I know when I've got practice, I know when I've got weights, and here's a block of time where I can smash out schoolwork. That, to me, is where I felt like I started to become an adult."
 
He's continuing his professional playing career in Australia and New Zealand and has played elsewhere as well. He's also made just about every Australian Senior National Team, with the exception of the World Cup and Olympics rosters, far outshining his peers who were chosen for that original national team.
 
And now McCarron is ready to take his place in the MSU Denver Athletics Hall of Fame.
 
"I look back to when I was coming to Metro, looking at the names of the people who had gone there, and I was like, 'Man, those are such incredible players, I would be so lucky to ever get close to what they're doing in their professional careers,'" McCarron said. "And while I have missed out on World Cups and Olympics, I've gotten so much further than I ever would have dreamed of. I put that down to my experience at MSU Denver and I'm thankful to all the coaches, the players and the university itself. To be inducted into the Hall of Fame is extremely special to me."
 
He lives in Adelaide, Australia, with his wife, former MSU Denver soccer All-American Abby Rolph and their son Oslo (2 ½) and daughter Kora (who's approaching her first birthday).
 
He plans to play a couple of more years – "Respect to the guys who play until they're 40, but it won't be me," he said – before moving on to the next phase of his life.
 
"I'd love to be around for my kids and see what they're doing as they go through their journey," he said. "I remember how hectic mine was, and how much effort and time my parents put in, and I got the rewards for that with the experiences I'm having. So I'd like to do that for my kids as well if they choose to take up sports.
 
"But I'm also open to working. Coaching is a natural transition for me. I love coaching. I'd love to learn more and develop my coaching skills."