Jimmer Fredette has played the same way all his life.

His high school coach, Tony Hammel, said Fredette was always a cut above the pack. The Brigham Young point guard has been sinking baskets since he was in kindergarten.

‘He was just a small, chubby kid that loved basketball,’ Hammel said.

Fifteen years later, the only thing that’s changed is the hype.

‘Jimmermania’ has arrived.

The shooting sensation has put BYU (18-1) on the national landscape. Fredette has gotten the country’s attention, whether by making shots from anywhere on the court, scoring a season-high 47 points in a game at Utah or leading his team to the No. 9 ranking.

He also leads the nation with 26.1 points per game.

Yet all this attention seems to be the biggest thing that has changed for Fredette. He has not made any major changes to his game or his attitude. The senior has always been a shooter, regardless of whether or not he has a swarm of media following his every move.

‘It’s something that is a little different from what I used to have,’ Fredette said. ‘But it’s something that’s great for our program out here at BYU to get a lot of national attention, so people know who we are, and for myself as well. I’m still playing pretty much the same way I’ve always played.’

That’s been the key for Fredette: playing the way he’s always played. When other kids couldn’t even reach the basket with their shots, Hammel remembers Fredette being able to hit 3-pointers.

The shot that has left so many Division I opponents reeling comes from his family, who taught him how to play basketball. He spent a lot of time working on the sport with his older brother T.J.

As he grew into his 6-foot-2, 195-pound frame, he learned to get the height required to make his now-famous jump shot over taller defenders. Throughout his high school years, he honed a fierce desire to get the ball in the basket.

Over Winter Break of his junior year in high school, his team was playing in a tournament in Albany. Down by one, with three seconds left, Fredette held the ball in his own end of the court.

‘He took it the length of the floor and nonchalantly hit a jump shot 3-pointer, and we won the game,’ Hammel said.

In a similar display five years later — albeit on a much grander stage — Fredette made a buzzer-beating 40-foot shot to end the first half of BYU’s 104-79 rout of rival Utah on Jan. 11. After the ball swished through the net, he walked calmly toward the locker room, seemingly oblivious to the eruption of cheers breaking out throughout the Jon M. Huntsman Center.

Yet even with the increased hype surrounding his All-America play, Fredette said he is still looking to refine his game.

Specifically, he said he wants to improve his point-guard skills. Prior to his junior year with the Cougars, he was a shooting guard, so he has been getting used to handling the ball more and acquiring an instinctive sense of where to pass the ball.

Playing the point is a skill that, at his height, he needs to learn in order to play at the next level.

‘He’s better suited for point guard,’ Hammel said. ‘I think he’s more dangerous when he has the ball in his hands, and as a point guard, you have the ball in your hands at all times.’

Fredette trained on the USA Select team this past summer, playing against the team that won the FIBA world championship. There, he trained with NBA players such as Rajon Rondo and Stephen Curry.

Curry also made the transition from shooting guard to point guard in his senior season at Davidson. Fredette gained some valuable experience in the gym with those guys, and it is paying off this year.

‘To be able to play at that level,’ Fredette said, ‘and to know that you kind of belong and are able to compete and make good moves and still play basketball against these guys is really a confidence booster within itself.’

So far, Fredette has risen to every challenge he has faced. Even in BYU’s only loss so far this season to UCLA, he had 25 points, a game high. He is putting himself in Player of the Year discussions.

He has become so well known for making shots anywhere on the court that his name is now synonymous with successful 3-pointers. Syracuse guard Scoop Jardine went so far as to commend opponent Dion Dixon from Cincinnati on his ‘Jimmer Fredette 3s.’

So as ‘Jimmermania’ rages on, Fredette can sit back and enjoy the attention. Even if he is just doing what he has always done.

‘I’m having a great time,’ Fredette said. ‘Best time of my life.’

The Pearl-less Volunteers

Four games into Tennessee head coach Bruce Pearl’s suspension, the team cannot form a true identity.

Losses to some unimpressive opponents, including Oakland and Charleston — both at home — seem to indicate that the Volunteers are floundering. Yet impressive victories over Big East opponents Pittsburgh and Villanova confound that evidence.

It leaves Volunteer fans, as well as the nation, wondering whether Tennessee is a contender or pretender.

A buzzer-beating victory against Georgia Tuesday seems to indicate a scrappiness that could make the team a threat in the future. Its upcoming game against Connecticut — a game Pearl can coach because it isn’t a SEC game — could help define a path for this team’s up-and-down season.

Game to watch: No. 11 Texas at No. 2 Kansas

Kansas is working on the longest current home winning-streak in college hoops, with 69 consecutive wins inside Phog Allen Fieldhouse.

But despite an undefeated record and a No. 2 ranking, Kansas remains relatively untested, facing only one ranked team this season. A game against Baylor Monday that was supposed to test the Jayhawks turned out to be an easy victory thanks to twins Marcus and Markieff Morris, along with the Bears’ disappointing season thus far.

Texas has faced some challenging opponents and currently has a 3-2 record against ranked teams. Still, this game should prove to be the toughest test of the season for both teams.

alguggen@syr.edu