6/29/2020 9:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro
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Combo guard picked up hoops early with mother's support
By: By Paul Coro
When Chance McMillian was a little boy, he watched more basketball on television than cartoons.
Even when he was 2 years old, McMillian watched videos of Michael Jordan taking off from the free throw line in the 1987 NBA Slam Dunk Contest and tried to replicate the classic feat in his living room.
His mother, Judy Bowers, had bought him the Little Tykes hoop and he had been content to shoot on it until he saw Jordan. McMillian leaped off the ottoman for a dunk that broke the basket. A few days later, his grandfather replaced it and McMillian's next rim-hanging slam also broke that one.
That made Bowers send her son outside to their regulation hoop. McMillian figured out how to play there and at every subsequent stage until the 6-foot-2 guard became Vallejo (Calif.) High School's first Division I basketball product when he signed with Grand Canyon last year.
The Division I spot was the completion of pledge that McMillian made in grade school, when he wrote that he was going to be a college basketball player for an assignment about his future.
"That was a feeling I couldn't even describe," McMillian said of signing with the GCU. "I was just thanking my mom for how she helped me come through a long journey." McMillian, 2, with mom and siblings
Most basketball moms would be hard-pressed to match Bowers' commitment to her son. Already raising her daughter, Joy, and older son, Justin, who are 11 and 12 years older than McMillian, the single mother took over coaching the middle school basketball team and then became athletic director when that person quit during the school year.
Bowers has worked for San Francisco's public bus system for 25 years, spending the last 22 as a supervisor. She was working a 4:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. shift when she became the school coach/administrator in the afternoons. She brought McMillian to practices and games, where he shot on the regulation-height hoops with a standard-sized ball just like his early-morning sessions at home in Vallejo.
"I always wanted to play with my brother and sister," McMillian said. "I was 5 years old shooting on the regular baskets when I couldn't even get the ball to touch the net."
But when it came time for McMillian to play in a league, the shorter baskets were set up under the 10-foot rims but McMillian kept aiming for and scoring on the taller ones. Other kids were trying to figure out how to dribble and run simultaneously while McMillian was mimicking street ball star Hot Sauce's razzle-dazzle dribbling.
Bowers committed to every level for McMillian, putting him in club ball competitions across California, summer tournaments in Las Vegas and enrolling him in prep school at Golden State Prep in Napa last year.
"He definitely blossomed in this last year," GCU head coach Bryce Drew said. "He started to open a lot of eyes in the summer (of 2019) through AAU. He had some really, really good games against some good teams and then he carried that momentum into his year of prep school.
"When you go to a year of prep school, I think it's kind of like your freshman year. You really learn a lot. It gives you a year to mature. He had the skill and athleticism but it gave his body a chance to add muscle and strength, which really helped his game in his postgraduate year."
McMillian with mom, Judy Bowers
McMillian was already an NCAA academic qualifier out of Vallejo High School but he used the prep school year to add 15 pounds to his frame, putting him at 172 pounds when he arrived at GCU this summer.
"The prep school gave me a better idea of what college is going to be like with lifting weights and practices," he said. "I wanted to focus on myself and get bigger and stronger for college. Now, if I'm driving to the basket, I can bump them a little bit. The old me would probably fall back a little bit."
His siblings called to check on his progress academically and athletically when they were at college and watched videotaped games. Now, they will be able to watch him play for the Lopes on streamed or televised broadcasts.
McMillian made his choice to sign with GCU after attending "Jurassic University," the dinosaur-themed Midnight Madness basketball party that packed GCU Arena in October.
"I thought I was just going to walk into something normal or regular and it just blew my mind," McMillian said. "I feel like it's the spot. I can help us get to the (NCAA) tournament and blow it up."
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