The University of Arkansas basketball program has several reasons to believe it will make ESPN 4-star shooting guard Trey Alexander’s top seven when he announces his list at the end of the month.
Alexander, 6-5, 185 pounds, of Oklahoma City Heritage Hall, has approximately 18 scholarship offers from Arkansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Auburn, Florida State, Texas A&M, Wake Forest, Georgia and others.
His main contact with the Razorbacks is assistant Corey Williams.
“He’s a real cool guy,” Alexander said. “He’s been a very good recruiter. He’s been texting me, calling me nearly everyday making sure they want me. He’s been real good.”
Williams sees Alexander excelling at Arkansas.
“He’s been telling me I could be the next good basketball player to go to the NBA from Arkansas,” Alexander said. “He told me they’ll put the ball in my hand and let me make plays.”
Alexander said he talks to Coach Eric Musselman “a lot” and also to associate head coach David Patrick and assistant coach Clay Moser. He’s in communication via social media and text messaging with special assistant Hays Myers and director of student-athlete development Earl Boykins.
He said it’s not the norm to talk to so many staff members like he does with Arkansas.
“No it’s not, that’s how I can tell they’re very interested in me,” Alexander said. “That gives me a lot of confirmation that they actually mean what they say.”
Alexander has been a target of the Hogs since Musselman’s arrival at Arkansas. He received his offer from the Razorbacks nine days after Musselman’s hiring and has since made two unofficial visits to Fayetteville.
He has a connection to former Razorbacks track and field great and Olympic triple jump gold medalist Mike Conley. Conley’s wife Regina’s niece is Alexander’s mother.
Alexander averaged 25 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals as a sophomore and 27 points, 9.9 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals a game as a junior.
ESPN national recruiting director Paul Biancardi also rates Alexander the No. 11 shooting guard and No. 40 overall prospect in the nation for the 2021 class.
“He’s a confident and effective three-level scorer,” Biancardi said. “Alexander has good positional size with scoring ability. One of his best parts of his game is how he can create space with his dribble to get a shot off. With range and accuracy, he is a legitimate long distance shooter behind the arc. Equally impressive is how he finds the open pocket of space for his pull-up jump shot. When he locates a driving lane he will take it in and finish.”
Alexander is attracted to Arkansas because of Musselman’s vast NBA background. He also likes the NBA experience of Williams, Moser, Patrick and Boykins.
“It definitely helps a lot,” Alexander said. “They have definitely been a big deal because other people go to some other college and they’re like ‘OK, how can you help my game to the next level’ and of course everybody thinks they know but not everybody has been at that level to actually show you like this is what they’re going to do in the pros. This is how the practices go. This is what they do for player development in the pros. To actually have someone that’s been there, worked with pros, been a pro is a big thing and actually coached the pros is a big thing also.”
Recently SkullSparks reported Musselman generated the most interactions on Twitter among all head coaches in college basketball in July. Alexander said that and the other Arkansas social media accounts are very informative.
“Their interaction on social media is actually a big thing,” Alexander said. “A lot of coaches don’t really like to put themselves out there like that but the fact that coach Muss is one of those open minded guys, he’s being more of one of those coaches that’s very outgoing in willing to speak to his players and be all over social media about how proud he is to be a part of that organization or that college is very big. The pride shows.”
Alexander said Razorbacks fans on Twitter have made a big impact on him. When he announced his scholarship offer from the Hogs, the fans showed him a lot of attention.
“I know they’re very big on their players,” Alexander said. “They support their players in whatever they do. I have like a thousand something likes on my twitter post about me getting offered from Arkansas.”
He knows his timeframe for his college decision.
“I want to make my decision by the end of this year,” Alexander said.