TOWSON, Md. - A "baptism by fire" is one of those overused cliches in sports that originated as a military term to refer to a soldier's first experience under fire in battle.

When it comes to playing point guard, if you are a freshman without college experience who goes up against Kansas, Michigan, Virginia, Belmont and Massachusetts on the road along with Oregon State at home, that is as close to a baptism by fire as you'll see in sports.

Towson freshman guard Kris Walden was recruited to play point guard for the Tigers and signed in the early signing period in the 2010-11 season with former Coach Pat Kennedy.

By early April, Towson made a coaching change and when Walden arrived at Towson over the summer, he had to prepare for the jump from high school basketball to Division I along with a coaching staff that had not originally recruited him.

The Richmond, Va. native was expected to have some company in the backcourt. Even though guards Brian Morris and Josh Brown had graduated, Dre Conner and RaShawn Polk were expected to return to help out in the backcourt and combo guard Kelvin Amayo was supposed to join Deon Jones and Will Adams as highly-regarded newcomers.

Unfortunately, Conner, Polk and Amayo are not with the team and the Tigers were left with one of the most inexperienced backcourts in the nation. And Walden had to carry the load as the team's only pure point guard.

A three-year starter for Coach Vince Harmon and Henrico H.S., Walden was a winner and led his team to a 20-7 record by averaging 17.4 points and 4.0 assists per game. He earned first team All-District and first team All-Metro notice as a junior and senior. He also earned second-team All-Region honors two years in a row.

The 6-foot-1 guard was also an All-Academic first team selection and was invited to play in the 804 All-Star and the Elite Showcase Basketball Classic games.

In the team's media guide, Coach Pat Skerry refers to Walden as a "hard worker. He's strong. He can shoot the ball well and he's quick. He comes from good stock and is a very good student as well."

Most freshmen go through some difficult times, but usually they have an experienced leader to look up to. Unfortunately for Walden, he hasn't had another player on the team who has gone through the same growing pains at point guard. The only returning player from last year's team is redshirt sophomore Erique Gumbs, who's a 6-foot-9 post player, and senior center Robert Nwankwo is the most experienced player but was not with the team last year.

This season, Walden started out on a pretty good note by scoring 11 points against Kansas, but had five turnovers. Even though he didn't score against Michigan, he dished out five assists and turned the ball over just four times.

Then, Walden and the team went on a difficult stretch where he had 33 turnovers in four games, including 12 against Belmont. Teams were pressing and trapping the young Tigers, who have just three scholarship guards. Walden had to play most of the minutes at the point and when he sat, Jones had to backup Walden even though he is more of a small forward.

But after the UMass game on Nov. 30, the turnover numbers started to go down. Over the last six games, Walden had committed four or more turnovers just twice (against Coppin State and Northeastern). He also had four games of two or less turnovers, which is saying something considering he's the team's primary ballhandler.

After the Kansas game, Walden had enough issues trying to set up the game and beat the press; he never scored more than nine points until last Friday night.

One might say that Walden was comfortable playing in his home state of Virginia, but the experience of playing UMass, Michigan, Kansas, Oregon State and Belmont may have finally paid off.

Walden played the best game of his brief career last Friday night against No. 23 Virginia in Charlottesville, scoring 15 points with just three turnovers against one of the nation's top defensive squads. He also hit a career-high three 3-pointers in 35 minutes of action.

Walden averages 6.3 points per game and 2.9 assists per game. He's also third on the team by playing 31.6 minutes per game and is tied with Jones with a team-high 11 steals.

The Business Management major can also be found doing "Keeping Up With Kris", a video blog on the Towson Sports Network as part of TowsonTigers.com.