LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Kyle Alexander arrived on the University of Tennessee campus in the fall of 2015, too small. Admiral Schofield, too big.
The two, along with Shembari Phillips and walk-ons Lucas Campbell and Brad Woodson, were part of basketball coach Rick Barnes' first recruiting class in Knoxville. Alexander was committed to Texas when Barnes was the coach there and, as a 6-foot-9, 195-pounder, was expected to redshirt. Schofield was a late bloomer and had picked Tennessee while then-head coach Donnie Tyndall was still the leader, but he stuck with his commitment during the coaching change.
Phillips departed after two seasons for Georgia Tech, which left Alexander and Schofield the two lone scholarship seniors in 2018-19. That chapter came to a close in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA tournament on Thursday night, when the Volunteers overcame an 18-point deficit to take a second-half lead against Purdue, only to fall 99-94 in overtime at the KFC Yum! Center.
The two were polar opposites - Schofield the outspoken one, Alexander the quiet one. Plus there was the difference in upbringing, as Alexander grew up in Canada while Schofield hailed from Chicago, so there was a lot that Alexander didn't know upon his arrival in Knoxville.
"No disrespect to my parents because they did a great job raising me, but I was kind of a sheltered kid," Alexander said Thursday night while wearing a towel over his head. "I didn't experience a lot, so I got to college and Admiral really introduced me to a lot of American restaurants, American rituals.
"The first day I got on campus, he and Shembari asked me if I wanted to go to (Raising) Cane's to get some lunch, and I just looked at him because I wasn't a talker.
"The person he's made me become and I've gotten so close to him and his family, and they were all just mentoring me and were close to me during the process."
They went through the battles. Those first two seasons in Knoxville weren't fun because there was a lot of losing involved. They stood 31-35 after their sophomore seasons and had run much more for losing than they would have liked. Schofield, looking to be a program-changer, took to the gym that offseason to develop his game. Alexander was there alongside, trying to develop. Lamonte Turner, who was already on campus by the time the two got there but had to sit a season out, joined later, along with Jordan Bone, Jordan Bowden and Grant Williams.
But Schofield and Alexander were the trendsetters. Who was first? It didn't matter.
They were there, and the results soon followed. The Vols won a combined 57 games this season and last. They shared the 2017-18 Southeastern Conference regular-season championship. They had a 19-game winning streak this season and ascended to the No. 1 spot in the country for a month, part of a program-best-tying 31-win season.
They finished 4-2 against Kentucky in those two seasons, including a dramatic comeback victory in the SEC tournament semifinals on March 16.
"I think we've got something special," Schofield said after Thursday's season-ending loss. "I think that the biggest thing that you have to appreciate is just the culture that we built at Tennessee, winning culture, and I just really appreciate it. I'm just sad that I have to go out on this note, but I think the biggest thing I can say is we left this program winning. Us four seniors, we left this program winning. That's the biggest thing.
"We really came from the bottom, and to make it to the Sweet 16 is a dream come true. Came up a little short, but at the end of the day I remember when we were losing 19 and 16 games and no one believed in us. I remember when we could barely get 17,000 in the arena. This year we averaged around 20,000.
"God's been amazing this year. He's been amazing all my four years here, and it's just a blessing to be able to call myself a Tennessee Volunteer."
Next season there will be a new crop of players. Guard Josiah James comes in as a highly regarded prospect, as does local product Drew Pember, who just helped Bearden win a state championship. D.J. Burns, another esteemed recruit, is available after having spent this season as a redshirt. Bone, Bowden, Turner and Williams will be seniors, although Bone and Williams likely will have NBA decisions to make.
But it all started with the brash kid from Chicago and the quiet kid from Ontario. They helped put it together, and while there may be better Vols teams down the line, they won't be more memorable than the one whose season ended Thursday
"I just want us to be remembered as a team that worked hard - a team that didn't have much to start with but worked to be something great," Alexander said. "We left this place better than we found it, and started a legacy as a program that can be remembered for great basketball."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.