Trey Alexander has made steady progress throughout his time at Creighton, and after a busy offseason, he’s looking to make another leap in what will likely be his last season in Omaha.
Alexander began his career as a reserve shooting guard, then blossomed once he stepped into the starting lineup at point guard for the injured Ryan Nembhard. With Alex O’Connell gone and Nembhard healthy in 2022, Alexander started at shooting guard and turned in an honorable mention All-Big East season, averaging 13.6 points and improving his 3-point shooting by nearly 13 percentage points (to 41%).
On Wednesday, Alexander was among the players named to the preseason All-Big East First Team as those around the league — and in his own program — are expecting another big step forward for the 6-foot-4 guard from Oklahoma City.
“He’s just going to keep getting better,” Creighton center Ryan Kalkbrenner said. “He got better from the start to the end of his freshman year, he got better going into his sophomore year, and he’s gotten better already going into his junior year. He’s going to be amazing.”
Alexander’s offseason began with an NBA draft declaration as he joined Kalkbrenner and former Bluejay Arthur Kaluma in going through the process. The trio attended the NBA Combine together and went through the measurements, testing and five-on-five scrimmaging in Chicago. Alexander also worked out for the Portland Trailblazers.
Media projections were all over the map, with some projecting Alexander as early as the first round while others had him as a late second-round pick or undrafted. After receiving feedback, Alexander and Kalkbrenner both decided to return to Creighton for another season together.
Alexander’s summer continued with Creighton’s Bahamas tour and the practices leading up to it. He played in two games in the Bahamas, dropping 29 points, eight rebounds and five assists against BC Kaunas Zalgiris before departing early to take part in the 2023 Nike Skills Academy alongside many other top players from the college and high school ranks.
“It’s just been a dream come true,” Alexander said of his offseason. “I feel like every basketball player wants to be able to play at the highest level and I feel like I’m right there. I think that it was one of those things that I’ve been praying and hoping for and working toward my whole life. It was great to be able to go to the Nike Academy, being able to play those games in the Bahamas and just being able to go through the whole draft process, I think that it was everything I hoped for and more and I can’t wait to do it again.”
The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie ranked Alexander as the third-best returning guard in the country. The CBS college basketball team has him ranked 12th on its list of the top 101 players in the country. He’s on the preseason Jerry West Award watch list, an award given annually to the top shooting guard in the country.
Expectations both locally and nationally are exceptionally high for Alexander heading into his third season.
“He’s an elite player,” said Baylor Scheierman, who opted to skip out on the draft process to focus on getting better for his second and final season in Omaha. “He was an elite player last year and coming into this year we have high expectations for how he’s going to help the team offensively and defensively. He had a long offseason with the NBA Draft, so he’s kind of getting back to who he was. I don’t think people really realize how long and mentally and physically challenging the NBA Draft [process] is. So we’re very excited to have him back and obviously he’s going to be a huge player for us this year.”
Alexander showed while Nembhard was sidelined during their freshman year that he’s very capable with the ball in his hands, and he had plenty of chances to make plays on the ball last year as well. However, Nembhard had the ball a lot when he was on the court, which was most of the time as he was second in the Big East in minutes played.
With Utah State transfer Steven Ashworth replacing Nembhard, Creighton has a point guard who might be even better off the ball than he is on it because of his shooting acumen. The makeup of this year’s roster should allow for more point guard reps for Alexander, who will likely be the back-up point guard in addition to the starting shooting guard as Greg McDermott will have one of Ashworth or Alexander on the court at all times in competitive games.
“The biggest thing for me that I heard from scouts is just wanting to see me play the point guard position more,” Alexander said. “I think Mac will help me do that and I think that the system makes it easy for me to do that. I’m ready, I’m excited for this upcoming year and I can’t wait to make it happen.”
Alexander was at his best off the ball in spot-up situations, which made up 27.7% of his scoring possessions last year according to Synergy Sports. He scored 1.193 points per possession, ranked in the 92nd percentile nationally and classified as “excellent.” The key to his success was blistering 3-point shooting as he connected from deep at a 47.6% rate on significant volume (84 attempts).
Alexander was one of the better catch-and-shoot players in the country last season, scoring 1.26 points per shot (“excellent”). He shot 42.1% from 3 on just over 3.5 attempts per game. The most impressive part, however, is he was even better on guarded looks than he was on wide open ones, shooting 46.6% (27-of-58) on contested 3s. He should continue to get plenty of catch-and-shoot looks playing alongside Ashworth and Scheierman.
As good as he is off the ball (he’s effective in off-screen and handoff actions as well), Alexander’s most common play type was actually pick-and-roll ball-handler. Between scoring and passing, pick-and-roll plays made up 46% of his offensive possessions.
Individually, Alexander scored 0.925 points per possession (83rd percentile, “excellent”) while shooting 47.8% (43-of-90) inside the arc and 40% from 3 (8-of-20). Alexander has great feel for probing the defense in ball screen situations to get to his pull-up, and he’s capable of knocking down the 3 if defenders go under the screen.
In addition to his 146 scoring possessions, he logged 105 pick-and-roll passing possessions — 65 to spot-up shooters, 30 to roll men and 10 to cutters. Teammates only shot 29.2% from 3 (14-of-48) on his passes, but he should have a bit more shooting around him this year.
He already has great chemistry with one of the best roll men in the country in Kalkbrenner, finding him for seven alley-oops and seven other buckets in pick-and-roll last year. Expect those numbers to rise this season.
“It’s great,” Alexander said. “Not many guys you can just throw it up to in the country and he’ll go catch it. Ryan makes my job a lot easier, a hell of a lot easier.”
With a backcourt of Ashworth and Alexander, Creighton has two players who can both shoot 40% from 3 off the ball and run pick-and-roll offense at a high level on it.
Like Ashworth, Alexander is primarily a jump shooter as 70.6% of his field goals were jumpers. In addition to his 3-point shooting, Alexander is an adept mid-range shooter, hitting 44.3% of his 2-point jump shots off the bounce in addition to 35.7% of his pull-up 3s.
The next step in rounding out his scoring arsenal is to get all the way to the rim more often and to finish at a higher rate once he gets there. He attempted just 80 shots at the basket last year, shooting 55% and scoring 1.1 points per shot (considered “average”). He dunked just twice, while the rest were layups.
From both strength and conditioning and skill standpoints, finishing was a focus for Alexander during the offseason. However, he also believes the roster changes will make his life easier in that regard.
“I feel like it will be a lot easier for me to do so just with us having a lot more 3-point shooting ability and for us to have five guys on the court that can really space the floor,” Alexander said. “So I think it will be a lot easier for me to get to the rim this year and it’s also something I’ve been working on in this offseason.”
In addition to everything he does offensively, Creighton will also rely on Alexander to be its top perimeter defender, a role he filled admirably in 2022-23, utilizing his smarts and length to pester opposing players and funnel them toward the two-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year in Kalkbrenner.
Alexander took a big leap from year one to year two at Creighton, and he has the pieces around him to make another leap in year three. He should have a chance to show off new parts of his game as well as the improvements he made in his areas of strength as the Bluejays look to make another deep tournament run.
