For the junior who spent his entire childhood in Lawrence — playing basketball at Southwest Middle School and Free State High before joining the Jayhawks — Manning’s front-row seat to the Kansas program allowed him to experience moments not every young baller gets the opportunity to enjoy.

Manning’s father, Danny, was a former Kansas great and KU assistant now serving as head coach at Wake Forest.

Thus, Evan had great seats to most games and often traveled to the high-profile road games. He attended his share of KU practices and got to know some of the best players and biggest names to come through Allen Fieldhouse on a personal level.

But while Manning marveled at every shot made by Sherron Collins and rebound ripped down by Thomas Robinson, some of his closest connections were developed with players whose role he now occupies on the end of the Kansas bench.

The first such connection came when Manning was in second grade. Every time he walked into Allen Fieldhouse for a game or a practice, one player always made time for him, with a handshake, a high-five or simply a smile.

“I remember back when my dad wasn’t even coaching and I would come to the games,” Manning recalled. “Stephen Vinson was a guy who always would say ‘What’s up?’ to me. I’d walk by the bench, and he’d always give me a high-five, so he was my favorite player for the longest time.”

Back then, Manning did not spend too much time thinking about his own basketball future. He loved to play. He loved to soak up as much knowledge from his father as he could. And he loved the Jayhawks. But the idea that he one day would fill the same role that Vinson — a Lawrence High graduate — had was never in the picture.

Now that it has become his reality, Manning said he has to focused on keeping things simple.

“I go out there, and I know my job is get the ball moving from side to side and make sure we get a good shot every possession,” he said. “That’s just basketball. That’s my job. It was at Free State. It is here, so …”

So, regardless of whether coach Bill Self calls on him to play more minutes while freshman Devonte’ Graham or sidelined or if he retains his role as a walk-on who only checks in late in the game, the 6-foot-3, 170-pound, junior guard vows to prepare for games as he always has.

“It would be more exciting,” Manning said of playing more. “But, at the same time, you gotta go at it with the same mind-set as always. You have to be ready to win every possession, and that’s what I’m gonna try to do if I do get more opportunities. Coach does a good job of giving us all confidence. It’s a simple game. Whenever you make the simple play, something good will happen. That’s the great thing about our offense: There are so many options. You hit the open guy, and then the next option will be open. It’s basically just playing basketball, having fun and competing with your teammates.”

As for whether he has found a way to fill the role that Vinson once did for him, Manning said he made it a priority to keep that part of the walk-on tradition going.

“Coach (Jerrance) Howard’s son, J.J., is one of my favorites,” Manning said with a grin. “He’s gonna be a stud.

“But there are a bunch of kids you see around here, who come to our camps and you always meet ’em at camps, and they go through the autograph line and say, ‘Hey, remember me?’ and you actually do remember. ‘Yeah, you’re the kid who was wearing the headband at camp,’ and stuff like that. It’s just a lot of fun.”