Canadian basketball recruit lands scholarship offer from UK's Calipari

Four-star combo guard Shai Alexander received a scholarship offer from the University of Kentucky during his visit with Coach John Calipari on Monday.

Alexander — a 6-foot-4 prospect from Hamilton, Ont. — is the No. 43 overall player in the class of 2017, according to the 247Sports composite rankings. He is the 11th uncommitted prospect from that class to earn a UK offer.

Calipari traveled to Hamilton Heights Christian Academy in Chattanooga, Tenn., to see Alexander, one week after UK assistant Joel Justus was at the high school to initiate UK’s recruiting contact with the standout player.

Alexander averaged 15.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.8 assists in limited play on the Nike circuit over the summer before playing for the Team Canada U18 squad in Chile and then being chosen for the Canadian senior national team that competed in the Olympic qualifying tournament in the Philippines in July. The latter squad featured several NBA players, and Alexander was the youngest player on the team by four years.

He’s not as highly ranked as Calipari’s other recruiting targets in the 2017 class, but Alexander would be an important addition for UK, which is expected to lose Isaiah Briscoe, De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk to the NBA after this season. Dominique Hawkins and Mychal Mulder are both seniors, so if the three underclassmen all jump to the pros, that would leave the Cats with zero returning, scholarship backcourt players for the 2017-18 season. Alexander also projects as a multi-year player in college.

247Sports analyst Jerry Meyer recently told the Herald-Leader that — of the recruits in the class of 2017 outside of the five-star range — he thinks Alexander is one of the prime candidates to move up in the rankings with a good senior season.

“I like him best as a shooting guard,” Meyer said. “He also has point-guard-type playmaking from that position. So he’s a double threat at the guard position, which fits in very well with how Coach Calipari wants to play. He can create for himself and others off the dribble. He can really score. He rebounds well for his position. He has nice length (6-10 wingspan). He’s just an overall good player.”

Meyer added that Alexander would be a good fit with either Trae Young or Quade Green, two five-star point guards and UK’s primary targets at that position in the class of 2017. Green is expected to make a college decision — likely between UK and Syracuse — in the next couple of weeks. Young plans to wait until December to announce his college choice. UK and Oklahoma are considered his favorites.

The Cats are also recruiting shooting guards Hamidou Diallo, John Petty and Lonnie Walker from the 2017 class. Petty will announce his college decision next week. Walker will visit UK this weekend and could announce a decision in time to sign in November. Diallo is expected to hold off on a college announcement until the spring.

Alexander is also considering Florida, Kansas, North Carolina State, Oklahoma, Syracuse, Texas and UNLV. He committed to the Gators last November but reopened his recruitment a couple of weeks ago. There is no timetable for his final college decision.

This story was originally published November 1, 2016 at 8:41 AM with the headline "Canadian basketball recruit lands scholarship offer from UK's Calipari."