Vitto Brown was listed among a distinguished group of student-athletes nominated for the 2017 Allstate NABC Good Works Team, as announced by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and Allstate Insurance Company on Wednesday.
The Allstate NABC Good Works Team recognizes players at all levels of college basketball whose charitable involvement and altruistic acts stand out amongst all other student-athletes participating in the sport.
A Life Sciences Communication major with a 3.154 cumulative grade-point average, Brown is a two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree (2015, ’16). The Bowling Green, Ohio, native was recognized with the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award in 2016.
Last year as a junior, Brown committed 22 hours of his time and appeared at 12 different events with the Badgers Give Back community outreach program. A talented singer, Brown has also taken time to share his talents with others and has volunteered to sing the national anthem at the All City Swim Meet, home basketball games and even at the Final Four in 2015.
Brown has been involved in campaigning for It’s On Us, which aims to keep women and men safe from sexual assault. Brown took part in a commercial shoot with fellow student-athletes to help the local Goodman Food Pantry promote Thanksgiving programs and encourage donation. Brown took part in a Veterans Day video with fellow student-athletes and sent messages of thanks. Brown has also volunteered time at the Great Kindness Challenge Assembly and Thankathon.
The past four years, Brown has volunteered with teammates at the program’s Shooting Down Cancer event, which was started by retired head coach Bo Ryan and his wife Kelly, but was carried on this year by new head coach Greg Gard and his wife Michelle. Brown and teammates appear at the event and interact with students as they aim to increase the donation that the Gard family will make to Coaches vs. Cancer/The American Cancer Society. This year, the event raised Gard’s donation to $19,228. The event has raised a staggering five-year total of $1,097,529.
On the court this season, Brown is shooting a team-leading 43.3 percent from 3-point range (minimum 17 attempts), which is remarkable considering he did not attempt a single 3-point field goal his first two years on campus. Over his career, the senior has played in 91 games and started in 42 contests, accumulating 470 points, 254 rebounds and averaging 44.7 percent field goal shooting and a 40.8 percent 3-point mark.
Athletic departments and sports information directors across the country nominated the 181 NABC and the 97 WBCA student-athletes for the prestigious honor. Two special voting panels, headlined by former Duke University basketball athlete, two-time NCAA® champion and seven-time NBA All-Star Grant Hill, and former Notre Dame basketball star, two-time Nancy Lieberman Award winner and current WNBA player Skylar Diggins, will select 10-member teams from both the NABC and WBCA, comprised of five student-athletes from the NCAA Division I level and five student-athletes from Divisions II, III and the NAIA. The final roster of 20 award recipients will be unveiled in February.
