KNOXVILLE – Tennessee led Auburn early in the second half last week when Kyle Alexander pulled out a shot many in attendance had never seen.
The Volunteers’ freshman center from Canada caught the ball on the block, spun to his right and let fly a rainbow of a shot.
Swish.
“He hit a shot today,” fellow freshman Shembari Phillips said after that game, “that he’s been working on just about all semester, or since we got here, really.
“We were happy for him, because he works on it. We witness him working on it every day.”
In an up-and-down season Alexander often has been a bright spot for Tennessee, and his development during his first year in college – it’s just his fourth year of playing basketball at any level – has been encouraging for the Vols.
The 6-foot-9 rookie entered the starting lineup four games ago, and in his last three games he’s scored 13 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and played an average of nearly 19 minutes.
The reason he’s playing and drawing consistent praise from first-year coach Rick Barnes, however, goes beyond his contributions to the box score.
“He’s probably helped us more than we probably wanted him to,” Barnes said Tuesday. “We thought we would get some more out of some other guys on the front line that we haven’t. What he’s done, and the reason he’s played – and it’s not like he’s been, if you look at his numbers, overwhelming there – is he’s trying to do what we need done at that position.
“That’s what you like about him. He’s really trying to do the things we ask, that we think it’s going to take to win. Sometimes he gets overmatched physically, (but) there’s no doubt we think he’s got a terrific future.”
Alexander is the definition of a project given his slender frame and inexperience.
Though he comes from a basketball family – his father was a Niagara standout and his oldest sister starred at Syracuse before moving on to the WNBA – Alexander played mostly soccer and volleyball before delving into basketball.
He admitted Tuesday he didn’t expect to have a “major role” for the Vols as a freshman, but he’s happy to be exceeding his expectations and impacting his team.
“I think I’ve definitely had my games where the coaches told me I played well, and then definitely games where I’ve had the coaches tell me that there’s some things I need to improve on,” Alexander said. “I haven’t been really consistent in the last couple months, so I’m working on right now being consistent and giving the team something they need every single night.
“In terms of my progression, as long as I’m on the floor and I’m playing I think I’m always getting better.”
Most of Alexander’s contributions have been defensively. He had 11 rebounds and six blocked shots in the loss at TCU. He’s had seven games with at least five rebounds this season.
Barnes and his coaches want Alexander to score more and look to score more.
“I’m working on the low-post presence, working on my shots around the basket,” Alexander said. “That’s where our team needs something right now, is somebody they can throw the ball into on the inside. I’ve been making an impact defensively a little bit right now, so if I can add something on the offensive end I can really help contribute to the team a little bit more.”
Once Barnes and his coaches saw how well Alexander ran the floor and how hard he worked, they knew he would help Tennessee this season.
Alexander did have to navigate a preseason lull when the adjustment to college and basketball “flooded him all at once,” as Barnes put it, but it’s clear Tennessee’s staff views the lanky freshman as one of the program’s building blocks.
“What you see in him and what you like about him as a coaching staff is he listens, he wants to do it (and) there’s a lot of things that he’s done well for a guy that’s only played two years,” Barnes said. “He knows he’s got a long way to go. He’s got to still develop a real feel for the game offensively. As he gets stronger, it’s going to change so much of how he plays.
“The fact is he wants to be a good basketball player, he wants to be a great teammate and he’s willing to put in the time that you have to do to not only do that, but be a good student, too. He takes it very seriously. Everything about Kyle Alexander, he takes very seriously.”
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.