Bradley freshman follows Fred VanVleet’s progress from Rockford to college basketball

Somewhere in the midst of signing autographs, Fred VanVleet considered the power of setting a good example.

Basketball mattered, of course, as the vehicle to grab attention. Staying in school, staying out of trouble, avoiding the life-sapping issues of crime, drugs and poverty in Rockford, Ill., mattered more.

VanVleet set out to be a role model by working, by fighting the perception that kids from Rockford failed and by telling them in his quiet, firm manner how to accomplish their goals.

“The power is really in your hands,” he said when he spoke at Auburn High’s graduation in 2014. “Your entire future is in your hands. You get to define your own success. You get to choose how you go about getting that success.”

On Sunday, VanVleet will play against somebody who listened.

Wichita State (7-5, 1-0 Missouri Valley Conference) plays at Bradley (2-12, 0-1). Braves freshman guard Antoine Pittman, also a Rockford Auburn graduate, is following the same path pushed and inspired by VanVleet.

“He told me to never take a back seat to anybody and to make the best of it,” Pittman said. “There’s a lot of guys in Rockford that could have did this and could have did that. I don’t want to be one of those guys. I made it out of Rockford and I want to continue to do good things to represent my city.”

VanVleet and Pittman played for the same AAU team and ran in the same basketball circles for roughly 10 years. They worked out together and played pickup games, along with Northern Illinois freshman Laytwan Porter, also from Auburn High. Chicago State freshman Delundre Dixon is a third Auburn alum playing NCAA Division I basketball and that trio led Auburn to a 29-2 record last season.

They are the first Rockford athletes of the VanVleet generation.

When VanVleet goes home for Christmas, his first stop is at Auburn’s Dolph Stanley Gymnasium to watch a morning practice. Coach Bryan Ott counts on VanVleet talking to the team after, warning them when they’re not playing hard and counseling them on the off-the-court moves necessary.

“That makes a huge impression on high school athletes, when it’s guy whose had that career, who they’ve seen on TV, share his wisdom,” Ott said. “He helps hammer home the point of what it’s going to take to get to that level. He’s been an inspiration to any kid in Rockford, whether they go to our school or not, as far as what is possible.”

Rockford, a city of around 150,000 in northern Illinois, is saddled with one of the nation’s highest violent crime rates, according to FBI statistics, for medium-sized cities.

“Rockford, it’s a hard place to grow up,” Pittman said. “There’s a lot of negativity everywhere. It’s easy to get caught up in that stuff.”

VanVleet’s father, Fred Manning, was killed in 1999 in a drug deal in Rockford, when his son was 5. There is, Ott said, no shortage of athletes with talent. The problem is that too many of those athletes lack the grades or behavior to go to college.

“I just want them to succeed and have awesome careers,” VanVleet said. “They got the first step out of the way, which is getting out of Rockford and going to school. As long as they stick with it, and don’t be idiots, they’re already successes to me. Going to school and getting a degree is a success where I’m from.”

VanVleet used his brothers, mother and stepfather as his guidance, discipline and inspiration. VanVleet watched athletes on TV serve as role models and wanted to do the same for the people he lived with.

“I was signing autographs as a junior and senior in high school, just seeing some of the younger kids and how they gravitate towards me, I kind of woke up and was able to realize I could have an effect,” he said.

Pittman watched VanVleet play. He watched how he behaved on and off the court. With VanVleet leading the way, Auburn won its first conference title in 33 years in 2011 and finished third in Class 4A in 2012.

“He was just different,” Pittman said. “He carried himself different from everybody else. He wanted to be great. He doesn’t want to be one of those ‘woulda, coulda, shoulda’ guys. Fred’s not one of those guys. He’s going to make it.”

VanVleet’s success show college coaches that Rockford athletes can thrive. His constant attention to his hometown shows those athletes that somebody who lives in their neighborhood, plays in their gyms and parks and knows their circumstances can provide a map to better things. Ott, as a coach, can hand out plenty of adult-filtered advice. It means something more when it comes from an athlete who walked the same halls at Auburn High on his way to the cover of Sports Illustrated.

“When you see it, you can believe it,” Pittman said.

All of the Rockford roots become secondary when Sunday’s game starts. VanVleet is the All-American point guard running the MVC’s dominant force. Pittman is a freshman with eight starts and an 8.0 scoring average. He likes to do what he can to pattern his game after VanVleet’s, while understanding the differences.

“He’s always making plays for his teammates first and then himself,” Pittman said. “He knows how to win. I can’t do as much as him, not yet. I’m still learning. I’ve got to put in a lot more work.”

It is fitting that the first meeting of college basketball’s Auburn alumni association takes place in Carver Arena, 137 miles south of Rockford. That is where Auburn placed third in 2012 for the highlight of VanVleet’s high school career. Ott and his family will be there as will many other friends and family from Rockford.

On Sunday, some of the best Rockford can offer is on display and both VanVleet and Pittman hopes another generation is watching.

This story was originally published January 2, 2016 at 12:14 PM with the headline "Bradley freshman follows Fred VanVleet’s progress from Rockford to college basketball."