Robert Eppinger never thought it would take this long.
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He never thought he would be 20 years old before he finally signed a letter of intent with an NCAA Division I basketball program.
Back in the spring of 2005, the question was where, not when.
Eppinger had just helped lead Rockford Jefferson to fourth place in the Class AA state tournament as a junior, and a handful of big-time programs were ready and willing to accept his oral commitment.
That, however, was before an awful decision started the 6-foot-8-inch power forward on a journey that ended April 26 when he signed with Illinois-Chicago.
“It felt real good,” he said of signing during an interview Wednesday at Highland Community College, the fourth school he has attended in four years.
“It felt like a relief to talk about going to a university after all I’ve been through.”
His problems started in May 2005, when he and a teammate went to Rockford East and got into a fight that involved what Eppinger said were shoes that had been stolen from him.
He was arrested, pleaded guilty to battery and was sentenced to 40 hours community service, 12 months court supervision and a $250 fine.
Rockford’s school board also voted to expel him.
Eppinger figured that he would enroll at another Illinois high school, perhaps in Chicago, but he soon learned that under Illinois High School Association rules he would be ineligible to play at any IHSA member school.
That shook Eppinger, who calls basketball “my life.”
“At that point I was a little desperate,” he said.
He also was embarrassed by seeing news of his fight in newspapers and on the Internet.
“A lot of people expected a lot of me, and I expected a lot of myself,” he said. “That’s why I had to get back on the stick and pray to God just to give me a second chance.
“A second chance is the best thing you can give somebody.”
Eppinger got one at Minneapolis Henry. Larry McKenzie, then the school’s coach, had known the player for several years through club basketball events and regarded the fight as an isolated incident.
Eppinger and his family moved to Minneapolis for his senior year. He played well there, but his trouble had scared off big-time schools and he committed to Fresno State in February 2006.
Eppinger, however, fell short of the standardized test score he needed for initial eligibility and wound up enrolling at Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa, Iowa.
He said he didn’t feel comfortable at Indian Hills, and last summer he transferred to Highland, where coach Pete Norman has built a junior-college power about 30 miles west of Rockford.
Norman warned Eppinger it might be tough back in the Rockford-area spotlight, but Eppinger welcomed a chance to show people who he really is.
“It was like I was some type of bad person,” he said. “I wanted to prove I’m not that, that I’m a good person.”
Eppinger is quiet by nature but openly discussed what he calls his “dumb mistake” and how it changed him.
“It made me grow up,” he said. “It made me change my whole perspective about life.
“I took life more seriously.”
McKenzie, Indian Hills coach Jeff Kidder and Norman all confirmed that, saying Eppinger did his schoolwork and stayed out of trouble.
“We had absolutely no problems,” McKenzie said. “He was a model citizen for us and did everything we asked him to do. He was a team leader.”
Norman said he was comfortable taking Eppinger mainly because the player was honest in admitting his mistake.
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“He has been a tremendous person since he’s been here,” Norman said.
“As a coach I would take a player and person like him any time.”
UIC coach Jimmy Collins said the reports he got about Eppinger were good enough that he hasn’t brought up the fight with him.
“He’s just a kid trying to get his life together,” Collins said. “When I talked to him, he was a kid who wanted to pursue a career in basketball and get an education.”
UIC beat out Arkansas-Little Rock for Eppinger, a tough, aggressive, hard-working inside player who averaged 13.3 points and 7.3 rebounds per game at Highland.
Three years after the fight that helped send him on his circuitous road to Chicago, Eppinger hopes he can finally put his past behind him.
“That’s old news, man, that fight stuff,” he said. “Going to UIC is about playing basketball, winning games, having fun and getting to that [NCAA] tournament.
That doesn’t mean, though, that he will forget that past.
“What I learned is one day you can have it all and one day it can all be gone,” he said. “It was almost gone for me, but I didn’t let that happen.
“A lot of players could have given up. I couldn’t let that happen as long as it was about getting to the next level. I’d do whatever it takes to get there.”
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