When you first hear it, it conjures up images of the elegant, the fashionable, the upper class. You think in terms of a posh neighborhood, a posh hotel and posh restaurant.
But when you saw Alexander on Tuesday night at UD Arena wearing that heavy, baggy, long sleeve white shirt beneath his Dayton Flyers’ jersey and offering a no-nonsense look that started out more scowl than smile, posh was not the word that came to mind.
The bearded, stocky, 6-foot guard looked more like a dock worker or a guy who’d just wandered in from cutting weight at a wrestling practice.
Rather than fancy and chic, Flyers head coach Anthony Grant — following UD’s come-from-behind 77-69 victory over Western Michigan — described the fifth-year transfer who spent four years making his mark in the Big East as: “Rugged, tough, hard-nosed.”
When doing some self-assessment of his presence on the court, Alexander talked about “heart, toughness ... being gritty.”
He said he does “the dirty work.”
He’s a fireplug with cat burglar hands and a bully boy mind who gets into an opponent’s head before he gets into his pocket.
All that was on full display when he helped lift UD from its doldrums early in the second half against Western Michigan.
After flexing their muscle last week with impressive showings against college basketball heavyweights — North Carolina, Iowa State and UConn, all ranked in the top 25 — the Flyers showed up on their home court Tuesday night with a Hawaii hangover.
They trailed the lowly-ranked Broncos 44-34 with just over 16 minutes left in the game.
That’s when Alexander and his mates turned the tide with aggressive, full court, give no quarter defense and steadily erased the deficit.
In a one-minute span midway through the half, Alexander put his sticky fingerprints all over the game.
He hit a jump shot to lift the Flyers into a lead, 49-48, that they never would relinquish.
He made sure of that 27 seconds later when he stole a pass by WMU big man Max Burton and that set up Enoch Cheeks for a layup.
Then just 16 seconds after that, Alexander stripped Broncos’ guard Markhi Strickland of the ball for a second time on the night.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
The reeling visitors from Kalamazoo called time out, but before he returned to the Flyers’ huddle, Alexander — who had let loose a bellow of triumph after the theft — rushed to the corner of the court and urged the sellout, but earlier silent crowd to rise up with him.
Fans were already doing that, and his move then turned the arena into a high-decibel dome.
“Our team was kind of dead and down and I was just using the crowd — it’s an amazing crowd — I was just having them help us out,” Alexander said.
“We love that. We appreciate them every night for coming out and showing us the support and the love they have. We feed off that and that’s when we just went on a little run.”
Within four minutes, UD was up by 10.
‘A great opportunity for me’
Alexander said his defensive mindset was developed when he was going to Our Savior Lutheran High School in the Bronx:
“Our coach had us slide across the court, 94 feet – back and forth, back and forth – saying ‘I love defense!’
“We took pride in our defense.”
He was recruited by UD coming out school, but chose St. John’s over the Flyers, Illinois, Pitt and Seton Hall.
His first year at St. John’s he was named the Big East Freshman of the Year and the Big East Co-Defensive Player of the Year. Only three other players had ever won those two awards before: Allen Iverson, Alonzo Mourning and Patrick Ewing.
After three years as a St. Johns’ starter, he transferred to Butler, another Big East school, last year and led the Bulldogs in steals and finished 16th in the nation in that category.
He led the Big East in steals each of the four years he played in the league.
For his final year of eligibility, he said he wanted to “find a new home that felt like family.”
He was starting a new chapter in his life. His girlfriend Aniyah Soto was pregnant and gave birth to their son A’Miri over the summer.
He chose UD — where he would join a trio of tough-minded, defensive-oriented guards in Cheeks, Javon Bennett and Malachi Smith — and then set out to, as he put it Tuesday night “find my groove.”
There were some bumps early on as he met the demands of the coaches. And he’s had to adjust to a new role.
He came to Dayton having started 109 of the 116 college games he’d played in and he had amassed an impressive resume: scoring 1,340 points with 547 career assists and 264 steals.
Alexander has played in eight of the Flyers’ nine games this season. Although he’s started just one and had been averaging just under 23 minutes a game, he played over 28 Tuesday night.
“I appreciate the coaches here,” he said. “They’ve given me a chance. It’s a great opportunity for me.
“Don’t get me wrong. I’m not speaking bad about the schools where I was. They treated me with some good love. They treated my family good.
“And now I’m with people who care about me and love me and want the best for me. I do feel like I’m part of a family.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
‘Pests on defense’
Against the Broncos, Cheeks — who has emerged as the quiet, but forceful star of the team — had 23 points in seven for 10 shooting and eight rebounds
Nate Santos added 15 points and Bennett had 12, as did Alexander, who led the team with four steals.
“When I’m on defense I try to test a person out,” he said. “I stunt at them to see what they are going to do. I want to see their dribbling skills. I want to see if they’re a little shaky with the ball, if they’re unsure, and if they are, I try to steal it from them.
“That’s my trick. I want to pressure you into a mistake. I’ve been doing that my whole career and I’m going to stick with it.
“It works.”
Alexander is now with several like-minded guards who try turning teams over.
When he was at Merrimack two seasons ago, Bennett, then just a freshman, led the nation in steals. Smith set steal records at UD as a freshman and Cheeks leads the team in thefts this year, just as he did last season.
“It could be any one of us on a given day — or it might be all of us at the same time — but we’re going to be pests on defense,” Alexander said.
“I feel like in Maui we showed the world what we can do against all the top teams in the country I think we showed we can be the best defensive group in the country.
“One thing I can say for sure: ‘Just watch out, we’re coming!’”
So maybe Posh’s parents were right when they gave him that name.
“I know it’s real different, a unique name,” Alexander said. “My parents always said they gave me that name because they knew I was going to be lucky.”
He and his Flyers were lucky Tuesday night.
Western Michigan — as has been the case with many opposing ballhandlers who suddenly get the jitters — was not.
Credit: David Jablonski
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