Imagine you’re in a five-on-five basketball game, and everyone except you and two of your teammates gets thrown out of the game. Now imagine one of the players remaining on your team is Collin Sexton, the player who revitalized an Alabama basketball program that had only been to the NCAA tournament once since 2007. It’s safe to say you’d be in good hands, and so will the Cavaliers team that selected him No. 8 overall in this year’s NBA Draft.
With or without LeBron James, there’s plenty to love about Sexton.
After one starter fouled out, another got injured and the entire Crimson Tide bench got ejected for stepping on-court during an altercation, Sexton played just under 11 minutes in a three-on-five basketball game on Nov. 26 against Minnesota. Alabama trailed by 11 when their roster was reduced to just three players. Sexton took over, scoring 17 of his 40 total points in those minutes to cut Minnesota’s lead down as little as three.
The Golden Gophers won the game by five, but if anything became clear that night, it was that Sexton was a star in the making. But how does that star — one that shone brightest under a rare form of pressure usually reserved for playgrounds and backyards — translate to the highest level of competition in the world?