Provo » Al Fredette came home from his work as a financial planner in the tiny upstate New York town of Glens Falls one summer day to find his two sons, 9-year-old Jimmer and 16-year-old T.J., playing basketball in 90-degree temperatures on a small slab of concrete in the back yard.

But the brothers weren't playing a real game of basketball. Jimmer was dribbling the ball, and T.J. was doing all he could to steal it, get Jimmer to pick up his dribble, or knock little brother off the cement patch. The father said it looked like some form of torture, but Jimmer was enjoying every minute of it.

Jimmer is now the star junior guard on BYU's No. 14-ranked basketball team and a leading candidate for the Mountain West Conference's Player of the Year award. Because he scored a school-record 49 points against Arizona, is averaging a league-leading 20.7 points a game and has helped BYU to its best regular-season in school history, many in Provo are saying he's the best Cougar player since Danny Ainge.

"Danny had a great BYU career, but what he did after BYU was something pretty special, too," BYU coach Dave Rose said. "I think that Jimmer is on that path, yeah."

Hampered by a bout with mononucleosis in January and a stomach ailment last weekend, Fredette's season has been alternately rocky and rewarding.

It continues Saturday afternoon when the Cougars wrap up the MWC regular season with a 4 p.m. MST game at TCU.

The journey began more than a 1,000 miles away with an older brother that, Fredette said, "wouldn't let me be average and would not let me get anything easy."

The beginning

T.J. Fredette, now a 27-year-old aspiring rap music artist (yes, an LDS rapper), was a decent basketball player himself in high school and at Adirondack Community College near Glens Falls.

But he says he saw much greater potential in his little brother almost from the time Jimmer could walk.

"His competitive nature was off the charts. It was just crazy. I thought, I gotta capitalize on this. He's got something special," T.J. said.

Everyone in the town about four hours outside New York City called him Jimmer, the nickname his mother, Kay, stuck him with because his given name, James, sounded too formal.

"I love it," he said. "Opposing crowds have fun with it, but that's OK. It's distinct, unique."

T.J., however, saw his little brother as a potential basketball superstar, and dedicated his life to making that happen.

Jimmer began playing ball with T.J. and T.J.'s friends when he was just three or four years old, "and they showed me no mercy," he said.

When it was light outside, or not snowing, the boys would play for hour on the concrete slab.

Or they would go to a church with a gymnasium in it some 15 minutes away, and play there.

Al Fredette converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, when he was 18. He raised his daughter, Lindsay, now 29 and living in Taylorsville, and two sons in the faith, although Jimmer's mother has remained a lifelong Catholic.

Both sides of the family, the Fredettes and the Tafts, were heavily involved in athletics.

Al Fredette played football and basketball in high school, then safety in football for Central Connecticut University.

Jimmer's uncle Jim, on his mother's side, played basketball at CCU and later became a personal trainer who helped increase Jimmer's endurance and athleticism.

T.J. Fredette was so driven by helping his brother succeed that he wrote up a little contract saying that Jimmer would "make all the necessary and proper sacrifices that I need to do to reach my ultimate goal of the NBA." Both brothers signed it in front of a witness.

"It is kind of corny, but I put it right above my bed, and I looked at it every day when I woke up. And it just reminded me that that is what I wanted to do. I loved it, and it kept me motivated to reach that goal," Jimmer said.

When there wasn't a game to be had, the brothers would invent ballhandling drills and other drills at the church, all designed to help Jimmer improve.

Running the gauntlet

One of those unorthodox drills was called The Gauntlet.

"T.J. would be at the end of the hallway at the church, or hiding in a room in the hallway, and it would be totally dark, except for the light in the foyer at the other end," Jimmer said. "I would try to dribble the ball the whole way, not being able to see the ball at all, and I would have to obviously keep my head up. He would jump out and try to steal it. If I lost the ball, I had to go back and start over."

Sometimes friends and cousins were enlisted to make the gauntlet even more difficult to complete.

"It's probably why I can dribble OK in tight spaces," Jimmer said.

Another drill had no name.

"T.J. would say, 'you have to get used to contact. You are a sturdy kid, but you have to be able to go strong to the hoop and score. So I would drive into the lane and he would hit me or foul me hard. I would have to make five straight shots while being hit, or he would make me do it over again."

The drills paid off. Jimmer Fredette became the seventh-leading scorer in New York schoolboy basketball history with 2,404 points.

He led his team as a senior to a 25-2 record and the Class A state championship game, averaging 28.8 points per game.

Nearby college basketball powerhouse Syracuse recruited him some, but never came through with a full scholarship offer, and Jimmer eventually chose BYU over offers and/or interest from smaller area schools such as Siena and Fordham.

"I came out to Provo for a visit and I liked it. My sister came here for college, so I was already familiar with it," he said. "Obviously, my faith helps out a lot, being here with people who have the same values that I do."

Developing toughness

Rival coaches such as San Diego State's Steve Fisher have said that Fredette's mental toughness makes him special. "He's never rattled," Fisher said.

Playing behind bars will do that to a young man.

When Fredette turned 18, he began going to prisons in upstate New York with T.J., his father, his uncle and other friends to play games against inmates at the Mount McGregor Prison in Saratoga and the Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Comstock.

"They would have grandstands, and all the inmates would come in and watch, and the guards would be on the sidelines with their guns and everything just so nothing got out of hand," Fredette said. "They didn't like us at first, but they would start to like us because we played hard, but clean. The inmates would bet cigarettes and stuff like that on the games, so you played as hard as you possibly could. There was a fear factor.

"It definitely made you a lot tougher mentally. It was a great experience."

Football also taught Fredette toughness. He was an all-state receiver and outside linebacker his junior year, and received substantial interest from Penn State and other college football programs.

However, he decided not to play his senior year after signing early with BYU.

"Some people in town were upset I didn't play," he said. "But I felt like I owed it to BYU not to get hurt."

The mission decision

Choosing BYU was easy, but not long after Fredette arrived in Provo, he faced a difficult decision -- this one even more personal.

When young Mormon men turn 19, they are encouraged -- but not required -- to serve two-year missions for the LDS Church.

Having averaged 18.5 minutes and 7.0 points a game his freshman year, Fredette said he agonized over the decision upon turning 19 in late February of 2008 just as he was shining in BYU's first-round NCAA Tournament loss to Texas A&M.

"I was thinking about a mission. It is something I talked to my family about a lot," he said. "I just felt like I should be here, playing basketball, and obviously it has been a big dream of mine to play professional basketball. So I decided to not go on one, and continue to play basketball.

"It is not like I try not to spread the word as much as I can through all my successes and everything, though, and people have been really supportive."

None, though, as supportive as his brother -- for as long as Jimmer can remember.

drew@sltrib.com