Cliff Alexander may be one and done at KU, but not how many expected

On a chilly early morning in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago, a high school basketball player stood near the sidewalk and waited for his coach.

Cliff Alexander had waited here for close to four years, amidst the heartbreak that had enveloped this strip of hollowed out streets on the west side of Chicago. He was 6 feet 8, with broad shoulders that could barely be confined by his favorite T-shirts, and in the right angle and lighting, Alexander could pass for a 30-year-old man. But on this morning he was still just a teenager who required a ride to school.

A few minutes later, Mike Oliver, the head basketball coach at Curie High School, steered his car toward the curb. Together, they made the commute 25 minutes south to the school, located in the Archer Heights neighborhood near Midway Airport.

Oliver, a staple in the Chicago basketball scene, had driven Alexander to high school for most of his four years, and he had also overseen a remarkable transformation. Four years earlier, Alexander had never played a minute of organized basketball. By spring 2014, he was headed to a blue blood college program at Kansas, and then, if everything went right, the NBA.

“One and done,” Alexander said, on the day he picked a KU hat off a table and signed with the Jayhawks. “Then (I’ll) come back and get my degree.”

By most any definition, Alexander earning a college scholarship was a success story. His father, also a former Chicago prep standout, had spent part of Alexander’s childhood behind bars. His mother, Latillia Alexander, has scrapped to support a household full of children. The oldest child in a family of seven kids, Alexander was headed to an idyllic college campus to play for a future Hall of Fame coach.

“I can’t wait to get to Kansas,” Alexander said last spring, standing in a practice gym in Chicago.

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Nearly one year later, that optimism has all but faded away in the midst of a frustrating freshman year. Alexander now sits in limbo, sidelined as the NCAA investigates potential impermissible benefits received by his family through a third party. His NBA stock has taken a sharp decline. His play has been defined by uneven performances, inconsistent effort and an awkward transition to the physicality of the college game.

“He just caught it and mauled people in high school,” KU coach Bill Self says, “and you can’t do that obviously at this level.”

As the days pass, the likelihood increases that Alexander will never play for Kansas again. The NCAA investigation has slowed to a crawl as the Alexander family remains quiet. Alexander has yet to be interviewed by NCAA investigators. And as the calendar pushes toward March, Alexander may be presented with limited options.

Last year, those close to Alexander envisioned a one-year stop at Kansas and a place on the stage at the NBA Draft. Now Alexander could be forced to head to NBA just as his stock has dipped, a decision that, based on the NBA’s strict rookie salary scale, could cost him millions.

If the Alexander family is concerned about the future, they have given no public indication. When reached by The Star on Tuesday afternoon, an attorney representing the family in the NCAA investigation declined to comment on the status of the case.

“I don’t have any update for you,” said Arthur McAfee, a Washington D.C.-based attorney. “Our side is doing just fine.”

To understand how a consensus top-five recruit ended up here, perhaps it’s best to start at the beginning.

Back home in Chicago.

On a spring day last year, Alexander stood inside a gymnasium on the west side, his thumbs tucked into his waistband.

It was early April, and in two days, Alexander would take part in the McDonald’s All-American Game in his hometown. NBA scouts lined the sideline of the gym, watching the best high school prospects in the country. But as practice concluded, and Alexander sauntered over to a side court to film some dunks for a video crew, he thought about the past.

He spoke about the morning drives with Oliver, and the days in a cramped household, and the reality of life in North Lawndale, where Alexander often bypassed trips to the local gym or park, because who knew what trouble might come of it.

“It’s Chicago,” Alexander said, his voice trailing off.

He remembered his early days playing AAU basketball for a program run by Reggie Rose, the older brother of Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose. In those days, Alexander was more or less unknown outside the territorial clique of Chicago hoops. While future Duke standouts Jabari Parker and Jahlil Okafor, both Chicago natives, were christened as the Next Big Thing, Alexander was something of a secret. Oliver, though, believed he had found something special, a specimen to mold, a prospect that could rival Okafor.

By last April, Oliver had been proven right. The hype around Alexander had swelled. Scouts saw a teenager who could potentially be a prototypical NBA power forward.

“He was just like this dunking machine,” said an NBA scout who monitored Alexander in high school. “He was just this long, athletic, physical, aggressive guy.”

On the day Alexander signed with Kansas, he was flanked by his parents, a joyful day that included some harmless controversy when Alexander deeked Illinois fans by first reaching for an Illini hat before reaching for a Kansas one. For the most part, Alexander said all the right things. Kansas felt like family. And he had built a strong relationship with KU assistant Jerrance Howard, who had recruited him since the early days.

But a few months later, as NBA scouts watched him practice in a Chicago gymnasium, Alexander made no bones about what attracted him to Kansas.

“Bill Self,” Alexander said. “He’ll get me ready for the next level.”

For better or for worse, Alexander had claimed the label of a one-and-done college player.

“He’ll be at Kansas one year and then he’ll be out,” Nick Irvin, one of Alexander’s AAU coaches, said on the day he signed with Kansas. “That’s how good Cliff is.”

On an afternoon in January, Clifton Terry leaned back against a bleacher inside Allen Fieldhouse and smiled.

It was Jan. 31, just a few minutes after Kansas’ 68-57 victory over Kansas State. It was a good day, Terry said, but he couldn’t help but be a little discouraged. Alexander had gone scoreless while playing 19 minutes, and after averaging 14 points in two games just two weeks earlier, his up-and-down season had continued.

“You always want your kid to play better,” Terry said.

As Terry said this, he stood at his normal perch, wearing his usual pair of yellow-tinted sunglasses while sitting the top row of the family section above the visitor’s bench. During Alexander’s freshman season, Terry had become a constant at Kansas games — both at home and on the road. At the Champions Classic in November at Indianapolis, Terry, sitting near the Jayhawks’ bench, stepped toward and aisle and yelled at an official before an usher gently asked him to return to his seat. He also traveled to watch Kansas play at Georgetown, and saw close to 10 gamest at Allen Fieldhouse.

“You only get one chance to watch your son play college basketball,” he said in January.

A former standout at John Robeson High School in Chicago, the 6-foot-7 Terry had a brief career at Kennedy-King Community College before declaring for the NBA Draft in 2001. He went undrafted, and spent part of Alexander’s childhood in an Illinois prison, according to public records. But he returned as Alexander finished up at Curie.

This year, Terry been there for all the flashes of promise and moments of consistency. Before he was sidelined by the NCAA investigation, Alexander was averaging 7.1 points and 5.3 rebounds per game. He had moments where he appeared poised for a breakout, including a 15-point, nine-bound performance at Texas. But he scored in double figures just once in nine games before being forced to the sideline.

“This is all different for high school kids,” said KU assistant coach Norm Roberts, who works with the Jayhawks’ big men in practice. “People scout you. They’re going to take away what you do well. If they know that you are a right-hand jump hook guy, that would mean teams will take that away. They will play definitely on your left-hand side and won’t let you turn to that shoulder.

“Now you’ve got to come up with a counter move, or you’re not going to score.”

Both Roberts and Self say Alexander’s development was stunted by a foot injury last summer that kept him out for most of the offseason. He came to Kansas raw, an unfinished product that needed to refine his low-post game and learn how to use angles and footwork to score against tall players. The injury slowed the process.

“These are all things he’s learning,” Roberts said. “Because he didn’t have to go against the big bodies.”

In the days before the NCAA issue came to light, Roberts compared Alexander to former Kansas star Thomas Robinson, a raw athlete who barely played his freshman season before developing into an All-American his junior year. Thing is, everybody expected Alexander to be Robinson right away.

“The way high school basketball is, the way college basketball is today, there is no patience,” Roberts said. “Everybody wants it to happen now. Right now. It’s probably tough on the kids, but it’s just the nature of the business.

On Wednesday afternoon inside the Sprint Center, Self stood outside the Kansas locker room and provided his latest update on Alexander’s status: “No new news, whatsoever.”

It’s become a common refrain.

The details in the case remain elusive. A Uniform Commercial Code filing in the state of Illinois, filed last August, has connected Alexander’s mother, Latillia, to a Ludus Capital, a Florida financial firm that offers loans to professional athletes and agents — a connection first reported by Yahoo! Sports. But for now, it remains unclear whether the filing involved a loan based on Alexander’s future earning potential.

For now, the NCAA has yet to interview Alexander — though sources familiar with investigation told The Star on Wednesday that there was no reluctance on the Kansas side for Alexander to speak.

“Whatever happens, we’ll deal with it,” Self said last Saturday while expressing frustration in the lack of cooperation from all sides in the investigation.

“He’s sad. He’s down,” Self says of Alexander. “But his attitude has been great. You know, he’s probably practiced better than he ever has, (darnit), here of late.”

If Alexander winds up in the NBA Draft, multiple NBA scouts interviewed for this story said Alexander would still have a chance to be drafted in the first round. But one scout suggested that Alexander would have a chance to be drafted significantly higher if he returned.

“His stock has obviously taken a big dive,” one scout says. “The guy has had a lot go against him.”

For now, Kansas waits, Alexander sits, and Self prepares for a postseason without a key big man. In the end, Alexander may just meet his goal: He may be one and done.

This story was originally published March 11, 2015 at 7:24 PM with the headline "Cliff Alexander may be one and done at KU, but not how many expected."