Fred VanVleet

High school career

VanVleet played for Auburn High School in Rockford, Illinois, where he was an All-State first team selection by the Chicago Sun-Times (Class 4A), Associated Press (Class 4A), and Chicago Tribune as a senior in 2012. In 2012, VanVleet helped lead Auburn to a 22-game winning streak which resulted in the school's first Illinois High School Association (IHSA) final four since 1975. He led the Knights to a 3rd-place finish in the IHSA state tournament.

Van Vleet remained loyal to his local Rockford Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) club team rather than accept offers to more high-profile teams in Chicago. Van Vleet did not feel it would make a difference in his recruiting: "As long as you're leading whoever you're playing with, the coaches are going to see that. If they see you competing and winning with guys maybe I shouldn't be winning with, that's maybe even an advantage for me." He received basketball scholarship offers from Colorado State, Northern Illinois, Southern Illinois, Drake, Detroit and Kent State. His stepfather felt that he was being overlooked by many Chicago metropolitan area schools because of his decision not to join a Chicago AAU team. He cut his list down to Kent State, Northern Illinois and Wichita State. When he accepted an offer to play for Wichita State, he became the only member of the national class of 2012 Rivals.com top 150 to attend a Missouri Valley Conference school.

Freshman year

As a freshman, VanVleet contributed double digit scoring twice (versus Gonzaga and Ohio State) in the 2013 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament from off the bench as the 2012–13 Shockers team reached the final four. Against Gonzaga, his 13 points included basket with 1:28 remaining that helped the Shockers secure only the fifth sweet sixteen appearance by a number 9 seed since the tournament went to 64 teams in 1985. His 12 points against Ohio State included a late basket that helped the Shockers become the fifth team with a seeding higher than eight to make it to the final four since 1979 when seeding began.

Sophomore year

He broke out as a sophomore, as expected. On January 8, he posted 10 assists against Illinois State. On January 23, 2014, he was selected to the 23-man Oscar Robertson Award midseason watchlist by the United States Basketball Writers Association. On February 13, he was named one of the 30 finalists for Naismith College Player of the Year. On February 17, Vanvleet was selected as one of 23 finalists for the Bob Cousy Award. When the Rockford native returned to the Chicago metropolitan area on February 19 to lead Wichita State against Loyola, he went 6-for-6 from the field and 10-for-10 on his free throw attempts for a game-high 22 points and added 8 rebounds and 6 assists to help Wichita State raise its record to 28–0. On February 28, he was named one of the 10 semi-finalists for the Naismith Award.

VanVleet helped lead the 2013–14 team to the first 31–0 regular season in NCAA Division I men's basketball history. As a result, he was named to the Missouri Valley Conference All-Conference first team and selected as the Missouri Valley Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year. He was also selected to the 2014 Missouri Valley Conference Most-Improved Team. Following the 2014 Missouri Valley Conference Men's Basketball Tournament, VanVleet was a 2014 NCAA Men's Basketball All-American second team selection by Sports Illustrated and Bleacher Report, third-team selection by the Sporting News and the NABC. He earned honorable mention recognition from the Associated Press. On March 11 VanVleet was named to the all-District VI (IA, MO, KS, OK, NE, ND, SD) team by the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA). VanVleet was listed on the National Association of Basketball Coaches Division I All‐District 16 first team on March 12. VanVleet was named as one of six finalists for the Cousy Award (along with Kyle Anderson, Aaron Craft, Tyler Ennis, Shabazz Napier and Marcus Paige). Following his sophomore season, he delivered the commencement address at his high school alma mater and became a highly demanded public speaker.

Junior year

VanVleet was Preseason All-American first team selection by USA Today, Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, Bleacher Report, CBSSports.com, Sports Illustrated, and Associated Press. He was a second team selection by Athlon Sports, SB Nation, and NBCSports.com. In its preseason top 100 player ranking, VanVleet was listed at number 5 by ESPN. VanVleet was named to the 36-man Bob Cousy Award Preseason Watch List. He was also listed as a John R. Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 candidate and a Oscar Robertson Trophy Watch List selection. VanVleet was also included in the early December Naismith Award top 50 watch list.

On November 14 VanVleet tallied 7 steals in the opener against New Mexico State, which tied a school record. On December 3, against #25 Utah VanVleet, helped Wichita State recover from a 9-point deficit in the final 2:45 of regulation with 8 points (including two three-point shots in the final 1:15) and an assist on a three-point shot, but with 7 seconds remaining in overtime and Wichita trailing by one, he missed the front end of a one and one. In his return visit to Chicago and the Gentile Center to play Loyola on January 11, he again was perfect from the field with a 5-for-5 performance and added a career-high tying 10 assists (as well as 6 rebounds and 3 steals) for his first career double-double. VanVleet, however, snapped his perfect streak of 20 free throws made in his home state with a 3-for-4 performance. In the rematch against Loyola on January 28, VanVleet posted a career-high 27 points. On February 7, VanVleet posted the first triple double for Wichita State Shockers men's basketball in 43 years with a 10-point 10-rebound 11-assist 4-steal performance against Missouri State. On February 16, VanVleet was Missouri Valley Conference Co-Player of the Week (with Seth Tuttle). On February 26, VanVleet broke the all-time Wichita State career assist record against Evansville with 431 assists, surpassing Warren Armstrong who had 429 and Toure Murry who had 430. VanVleet was one of 17 finalists for the Cousy Award. The Shockers defeated Northern Iowa on February 28 to win the Missouri Valley Conference regular season title. In the opening game of the 2015 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament for the Shockers, VanVleet matched a career high with 27 points against Indiana. He finished the tournament with 17-point and 25-point performances against #2-seeded Kansas and #3-seeded Notre Dame, respectively.

VanVleet was named an All-MVC first team selection following the regular season. He was also recognized by the Associated Press as an honorable mention selection for its All-America team.

Senior year

VanVleet was a selection to the 20-man Bob Cousy Award preseason watchlist, and the 30-man Lute Olson Award preseason watchlist. He was a second team selection to the Sporting News, Sports Illustrated and Athlon Sports preseason All-American teams. He was a third team selection to the CBS Sports, USA Today and NBC Sports preseason All-American teams. Lindy's Sports did not name an All-America team, but did rank all college basketball players by position and presented a top 25 list at each position. It included VanVleet as its second best point guard. In preseason top 100 player rankings Van Vleet was ranked 14 by ESPN and 17 by NBC Sports. He made the initial 50-man John R. Wooden Award watch list on November 17. On December 2, VanVleet earned recognition on the 50-man Naismith College Player of the Year watchlist and 33-man Robertson Trophy watchlists.

VanVleet, who was dealing with hamstring issues, rolled his right ankle and saw only 3 minutes of action in the season opener against the Charleston Southern Buccaneers on November 13. Although he played in the next game against Tulsa, he aggravated his hamstring in the game and was expected to miss the next few games. Without a healthy VanVleet, Witchita State fell to two games below .500 for the first time since the 2008–09 Shockers team and endured their first three-game losing streak since VanVleet was coming off the bench as a freshman for the 2012–13 Shockers as well as the worst start to a season (2–4) since the 2007–08 team. VanVleet returned to the lineup on December 5 against St. Louis to stop the losing streak. His 13.5 points, 5.0 assists and 4.0 rebounds averages in wins on December 9 over UNLV and on December 12 win over #25 Utah earned him Missouri Valley Player of the Week honors on December 14. He again earned Player of the Week honors on January 11 when he led the Shockers to victories over conference co-leading Evansville on January 6 and Southern Illinois on January 9 with 11.0 points, 8.5 rebounds, 7.5 assists and 2.5 steals averages. His 12 rebounds against Southern Illinois was a career high. VanVleet was named to the January 25, 20-man Oscar Robertson Trophy midseason watch list. On January 31, VanVleet made all 15 of his free throw attempts on his way to a career high 32 points against Evansville. The following day, he earned his third MVC Player of the Week honor. On February 3 in the 1500th victory in Wichita State Shockers men's basketball history and in head coach Gregg Marshall's school record-setting 221st victory, VanVleet notched a double-double with 12 points and a career high-tying 11 assists against Southern Illinois. He was named to the 35-man midseason watchlist for the Naismith Trophy on February 11. VanVleet was included in the Wooden Award Late season Top 20 Watch List on February 12. In the 2016 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, VanVleet led the team to victories over Vanderbilt and Arizona. Against Vanderbilt in the First Four round, he and fellow senior Ron Baker led an 11–0 run to break a 30–30 tie on March 15. The pair scored all 11 points in the run and tied with a game-high 14 points. On March 17, VanVleet and Baker led 11-seed Wichita State to a victory over 6-seed and AP Poll 17th-ranked Arizona. VanVleet posted a game-high 16 points, 5 steals and 4 rebounds. With four steals in his final career game on March 19 against Miami, Van Vleet brought his career total to 225, setting a school career record.

Following the regular season, VanVleet was named to the Missouri Valley Conference all-league first team (for the third consecutive season) and the MVC Larry Bird Trophy Player of the Year for the second time in three years. VanVleet was also an AP All-America honorable mention.

Toronto Raptors (2016–present)

VanVleet was not selected in the 2016 NBA draft after declining two offers to agree to play in the NBA Development League at $200,000 for two years by teams interested in drafting him in the second round. VanVleet signed to play in the 2016 NBA Summer League with the Toronto Raptors with the expectation that he will be in the Raptors' training camp. His summer league contract had a guarantee of three game appearances. On July 18, he signed a multi-year deal with the Raptors. At the time of his signing, the Raptors had 14 players entering training camp on guaranteed contracts, including point guards Kyle Lowry, Cory Joseph, and Delon Wright. VanVleet was competing with Brady Heslip, Drew Crawford, Yanick Moreira, E. J. Singler and Jarrod Uthoff for the final spot. On October 22, VanVleet remained on the roster when the team cut down to 15 players.

VanVleet made his official league debut on November 9, 2016, playing in only 26 seconds in a 112–102 win against the Oklahoma City Thunder. VanVleet posted his first two points in the Raptors' 19th game and his fourth appearance, which came against the Los Angeles Lakers on December 2. With Lowry sidelined for a night, VanVleet played with the second unit and posted career highs with 25 minutes and 10 points on January 17 against the Brooklyn Nets. On February 3, VanVleet established a new career high with 15 points in a 102–94 loss to the Orlando Magic. During his rookie season, VanVleet had multiple assignments with Raptors 905 of the NBA Development League. He was a member of Raptors 905's championship-winning team in April 2017.

National team career

VanVleet was among the 22 players selected to try out for the 12-man Team USA at the 2015 Pan American Games. He was among the 16 finalists for the team, but he did not make the final 12-man team.

Personal life

VanVleet is the son of Fred Manning, who was shot dead in 1999. Manning had played basketball at Guilford High School in Rockford. VanVleet's mother is named Susan, and his stepfather is Joe Danforth. He also has a brother named Darnell.

VanVleet was a sociology major at Wichita State.