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#9 Collin Sexton (University of Alabama Crimson Tide)
The University of Alabama Men's Basketball Team has, for the longest time, been under the shadow of the legendary football team that the University fields. While Alabama football has made it a point to absolutely dominate the American Collegiate Football scene year-in-year-out, its Basketball team is a force to be reckoned with, too. Under the stewardship of Avery Johnson, Crimson Tide basketball has developed along a promising trajectory over the past three seasons and has given rise to hope in the hearts of Alabama basketball fans. Hope that the old days where the team defeated #1 ranked Stanford and made deep runs in the NCAA tournament are not far away.
A huge reason behind the renewed optimism among the Bama faithful has been manifested in the form of Collin Sexton. A star recruit out of high school, Sexton was aggressively pursued by a number of collegiate basketball powerhouses but decided to sign with the Tide. Instead of playing peripheral roles at traditional basketball schools, he has the program built around him at Alabama. The team strategy complements his game and allows him to take charge and make massive strides in both his game development and leadership skills -something that not many freshmen can do.
Sexton is one of the most explosive players available in this year's draft. He is supremely skilled in transition play and often uses his incredible speed and inexhaustible stamina to quickly log in points before the opposing defenses have a chance to regroup. He is a rare offensive talent and scored at least 20 points in 5 of his last 6 college games for the Tide. His style of play has been compared to Russell Westbrook and he was also named as the Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the 2016 Under-17 Basketball World Championship. Sexton also has the SEC conference Freshman of the Year award to his name.
While he scored 31 points and was crucial in leading Alabama over fierce rivals Auburn, perhaps the greatest show of his offensive capability came against the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers. In what was a freak happenstance, the entire Alabama bench was ejected and Alabama played most of the second half WITH ONLY THREE PLAYERS. Against a full strength starting 5 of Minnesota, of course. Sexton scored an insane 40 points in that game and almost led his team over the line amidst freakish odds.
However, in order to truly elevate to the next level, there are areas of Sexton's game that need to be worked upon. He has to work on both his three shooting ability and amp up his defensive contributions. Once drafted, these aspects of Sexton's game will require development before he can be ready to contribute day in-day out for a potential franchise.
Anyone would rather have Sexton on their team than against. The NBA better watch out for him.
