Here's Chad Ford's take on Alexander from ESPN:
Joe Alexander, F, West Virginia
[+]
EnlargeAP Photo/Jeff Gentner
Joe Alexander thrived when Bob Huggins came to Morgantown.
Alexander could very well be the sleeper in the 2008 NBA draft. At the beginning of the year, he was barely on NBA radar screens. Now many teams consider him a potential lottery pick.
How could a 21-year-old junior playing at West Virginia come out of nowhere to make such a splash in the draft? It's par for the course for Alexander, who spent most of his life growing up and playing ball in China. Alexander's father, Steve, worked overseas and Joe practiced his trade shooting jumpers at an international school in Beijing.
Steve said that Alexander would spend hours in the basement dribbling a basketball with headphones on. One time, he and his wife left to go shopping. He yelled at Alexander in the basement and told him they'd be right back. Three hours later they returned and Alexander was still in the basement, dripping with sweat, still dribbling the basketball.
"Joe didn't really have a girlfriend in school," Steve said. "If he could've dated his basketball, then I guess, he would have dated. Basketball has always been his one true love."
At 16, Alexander came back to the United States to play high school basketball in Maryland, but was lightly recruited his senior year and enrolled in prep school to try to get more buzz.
"I had two sons that were excellent players but just weren't recruited because they grew up playing ball overseas," Steve said. "I knew Joe was a prodigy and we needed to find a way to get him in the system."
Alexander struggled his first two years at West Virginia, where the super-athletic forward was basically relegated to the role of jump shooter. But when Bob Huggins became the head coach at West Virginia, Alexander's role and life changed forever.
"Coach Huggins really taught me the game, he pushed me to be tougher, more aggressive and to broaden my game," Alexander said.
The results were impressive. By March, Alexander was dominating the Big East. He had 32 points and 10 rebounds versus UConn, 32 and 6 versus Pitt, 29 and 10 versus St. John's. Another 34 and 7 versus UConn in the Big East tournament. Two strong performances in the NCAA tournament had scouts starting to talk about Alexander as a legitimate first-round pick.
Since the tournament ended, his legend has kept growing. For the past couple of weeks, reports out of Abunassar's gym have said that Alexander's athleticism was off the charts. He was an untapped treasure who was getting better and better by the day. By the time I hit Vegas, I had four different GMs call me to tell me he was going to be a lottery pick.
Could he live up to the hype? Yes, mostly.
Alexander's athleticism is jaw-dropping. He has a huge vertical jump and explodes off the floor. He has a little scar on his forehead just above his eyes where he hit his head on the rim in a dunk contest.
Joe Alexander's March Madness
Something clicked for Joe Alexander when the calendar turned to March. Over the first 27 games of the season, the West Virginia forward had averaged 14.5 PPG.
But after March 1, Alexander stepped up his game when it counted most, averaging 23.9 PPG. During that span, he ranked fourth in the nation in scoring among those who played at least six games.
NCAA Scoring Leaders Since Mar. 1 (min. 6 games)
PPG
Stephen Curry, Davidson
28.9
Michael Beasley, Kansas State
26.3
Rob McKiver, Houston
26.0
Joe Alexander, West Virginia
23.9
O.J. Mayo, USC
23.7
Where his leaping ability is really impressive is on his jump shot. He gets unbelievable elevation on his jumper. His jump shot is really a jump shot. With his huge leaping ability and high release -- it's virtually impossible to block.
Alexander showed excellent range on his jumper, draining NBA 3s with ease and showing a solid ability to shoot off the dribble. He still scissor-kicks a bit when he shoots which can throw him off balance, but as he smoothes out his form, he looks to be a deadly shooter.
People looking at his shaky 3-point shooting percentages in college might disagree with that assessment. He has not been a very accurate 3-point shooter in games.
That held somewhat true in a three-on-three matchup that pitted
Alexander versus Florida's
Marreese Speights. Alexander struggled with Speights' height advantage and missed the majority of his shots. However, he warmed up a little at the end and hit a few big shots down the stretch for his team.
Alexander's problem, both during the season and in the scrimmage, is that he gets rushed in a game setting at times and he doesn't always pay attention to detail. All of that can be corrected and Alexander showed this year that he's learning. He came back in the afternoon workout session determined to play better and rarely missed a basket.
Alexander continues to add strength while keeping off the fat. He had just 6 percent body fat and, according to Abunassar, is one of the strongest kids he's working with. He measured out well with a height of 6-foot-7¾ in socks and 6-foot-9 in shoes. He also has great speed running up and down the floor. His lateral quickness is also excellent.
The other thing to like about Alexander is his aggressiveness. He can play a little nasty at times, shows a lot of competitiveness and isn't afraid to take on anyone. In a light moment, he started sizing up his competition in the draft and predicted he would beat them in team workouts.
Alexander still needs to work on his consistency and ball handling but he's a very intriguing prospect. He should provide direct competition to the other two top small forward prospects in the draft -- Italy's
Danilo Gallinari and Syracuse's
Donte' Greene.
It will be interesting to see where teams go. Gallinari is the anti-Alexander. He's got high basketball IQ without the elite athleticism of Alexander. Greene is in a similar situation with Alexander -- an athletic small forward still trying to get a feel for the game.
An informal poll of a few GMs I spoke with had Gallinari first and then a split between Alexander and Greene as the second small forward off the board. Look for teams like the Blazers at 13, the Suns at 15 and the Raptors at 17 to take a long look at Alexander.
