FRISCO, Tx. -- Despite his lofty top-5 ranking, Cliff Alexander might be slighty underrated. While Alexander is the No. 5 player in the 2014 class -- according to Rivals -- he doesn’t command the media attention and exposure as some of the other top players in the class. Cliff is not a career EYBL player and has only joined the Nike traveling circuit full-time this season after a few EYBL events with the Mac Irvin Fire last year. This year, the 6-9 power forward from Curie High School has enjoyed running in the EYBL with the Mac Irvin Fire and is starting to get more national attention after a few strong weekends.
“It’s a great experience,” Alexander said of the EYBL. “It’s great competition that pushes me to get better and you have to come out here with great expectations and come out to win.”
The first two weekends of the EYBL, Alexander averaged 14.6 points, 12 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks per game on 60% shooting from the field without the help of the No. 1 player in the class, center Jahlil Okafor.
This weekend, Okafor and Alexander played together for the first time in the EYBL this season and the results were at times devestating. Cliff enjoyed how the new twin towers played together.
“It’s great, teams double (Jahlil) and they forget about me and I can get my shine on,” Alexander said with a smile. “He’s a true center and I’m a power forward. I get all of his misses; everything he misses I go and get.”
Cliff also acknowledged that he enjoys playing with Okafor so much that he’s discussed playing with the Whitney Young center in college. Also in the disscussion for that package deal according to Cliff: the nation’s No. 2 point guard, Tyus Jones.
“Yeah, me, Jahlil and Tyus have talked about it,” Alexander said of a package deal. “There aren’t any schools in particular we’re all looking at together.”
Alexander is still pretty early in the recruiting process and he doesn’t have any upcoming visits. Cliff listed scholarship offers from Indiana, Florida, Florida State, Louisville, Michigan, Michigan State, Illinois, DePaul, Baylor, Arizona, and Memphis to NBC Sports.
“Everybody has been recruiting me the same,” Alexander said. “I’m just looking for a school that has a great relationship with my parents, a school that gets out and runs and me and the coaches have to see eye-to-eye.”
Scott also writes for NY2LA Sports and can be followed on Twitter @sphillipshoops