You would be hard-pressed to find a player that experienced the same rise in the recruiting rankings or in popularity in the past 12 months as five-star Alabama signee
Collin Sexton.
This time last year, Sexton was getting ready to participate in the Nike EYBL circuit as a fringe four-star prospect. But after the Young Bull, as heâs commonly referred to, stormed his way from Brooklyn to Suwanee, Ga., averaging 31.7 points per game, he went from unheralded to finally arriving.
âIt really all started with the EYBL,â his older brother
Jordan Sexton told BamaOnLine. âOnce he started scoring 30 and leading the league in scoring, it just came natural, to now the buzz from everybodyâs like, âWhoâs this
Collin Sexton kid?ââ
Sexton received an offer from Kansas after his seventh EYBL game and fielded offers from the past two national champions in Villanova and North Carolina in June after 181 made free throws in 16 games. Making nearly 11.5 free throws per game while shooting 85 percent from the line is just one of the strengths Sexton is bringing with him to Tuscaloosa this summer.
And his new head coach welcomes that and the top-rated player with open arms.
âHeâs a stud. He has that
Kyrie Irving type of a game,â third-year Crimson Tide coach
Avery Johnson said. â6-1, 6-2, good body, can do it all, can shoot the three. He has a knack for getting to the free-throw line, which I like. When he gets to the free-throw line, he shoots 88 percent from the free-throw line, doesnât miss his free throws and very competitive.â
Sextonâs summer of success continued as he earned his fifth star on June 29, 2016, and led the USA 17U team to a World Championship, while also earning Most Valuable Player honors.
After committing and signing to play for Johnson and Alabama during the early signing period in November, Sexton closed out his senior season at Pebblebrook (Ga.) High School by being named a McDonaldâs All-American, winning the dunk contest in Chicago and playing on Team USA in the Nike Hoop Summit to nearly ride that wave into his college career in the Druid City.
But with the Jordan Brand Classic still left on his plate and the final recruiting rankings for this 2017 class left to be released, thereâs still room for Sexton to continue his rapid ascension.
âI think heâs trending upwards,â said
Jerry Meyer, Director of Basketball Scouting for 247Sports. âIâve always liked him better than
Trevon Duval as the top point guard in the class. I think some others might change that, But Iâm expecting to move Collin up even more in the Top247 in the final update.â
Sexton went from a relative unknown to one of the top-five players in the country,
per Meyer, in a short period of time. And the family that supports him on and off the court are just as surprised by how quickly Sexton has become a fixture in the national all-star scene.
âLast year around this time, if you would have told me Collin would have had a summer like he had and McDonaldâs and all that, I probably wouldâve laughed,â Jordan Sexton said. âI wouldâve been like, âWell, heâs got to work a lot, work out a lot and do a lot.ââ
And that is exactly what Sexton did.
FROM SECOND FIDDLE TO YOUNG BULL
The work Sexton put in prior to his senior year at Pebblebrook was not only to get noticed on the EYBL circuit. He had to step up his game for his high school team and âmove with a purposeâ -- a motto for the Sexton family this past year, according to Jordan Sexton.
âHe spent the whole offseason just trying to get better,â Pebblebrook head menâs basketball coach
George Washington told BamaOnLine. âHe knew he was going to have to be the leader for us, and there were high expectations of him coming into his senior year.â
After averaging 28.3 points as a junior in 2015-16 and playing in the shadow of Auburn guard
Jared Harper, it was time for Sexton to elevate his game as well as the players around him.
âHe took a huge step in between his junior year and senior year,â Washington said. âWith him and his maturity growing, heâs always been a really good basketball player, but he just worked on adding different things to his game. He worked on shooting the three-ball more consistently, he worked on rebounding better as a guard, so just little things he worked on.
âJunior year, he was second fiddle to Jared, and heâll say that. Jared was the man, and Collin was second fiddle. So now heâs going from âJared did this, Jared did that,â to now âItâs all about Collin.â He had to embrace that leadership role and lead this team.â
To say Sexton accomplished that would be an understatement.
In some of the Falconsâ biggest games and moments, Sexton rose to the occasion. He scored 39 points against IMG Academy and fellow five-star point guard
Trevon Duval, registered 53 points on Senior Night and hit a game-tying 3-pointer as time ran out in Pebblebrookâs region championship.
âExtremely talented,â Meyer said. âWhat separates him is he has a great physical presence on the court as a point guard and he has a great leadership, mental-type presence. A great competitor and he brings sort of an infectious enthusiasm to the court. And then as far as his game goes, heâs a guy who can create plays out of nothing either as a scorer or a passer.â
That infectious enthusiasm on the hardwood Meyer is referring to is not hard to spot.
On the court, Sexton is a completely different animal, and thatâs why heâs accurately named the Young Bull. Heâs been seen catching an opponent staring at him at the free-throw line to only shift his body away from the hoop to stare back at him,
face-to-face.
The Young Bull nickname, Jordan Sexton says, was created during his brotherâs younger playing days because of his passion for the game. He molds his own game after Oklahoma City Thunder star
Russell Westbrook, and people say, âHe doesnât care what he has to do, heâs going to win. Heâs going to bully you to win.â And the moniker has stuck with him since.
âOff the court, heâs quiet, silly, a really good student in the classroom, the teachers love him,â Washington said. âBut then once you walk into a game or in any kind of competitive activities with him, heâs going to go to the Young Bull or a different persona.
â... If you play marbles with him, you might as well get ready to have a competitive marble game, because he wants to win. And then once the competition is over with, then you and him will go sit down and eat lunch together or something. But during that competition, if you beat him, youâre going to have to play him again and again. He doesnât like to lose.
âI tell people when we first got him,
Jared Harper used to beat him every day, and man, we would not leave the gym until 9-10 oâclock until he beat Jared. And thatâs the thing I like most about him, his competitive juices. His desire to win is unreal.â
FOCUS ON FAMILY, THE FUTURE
Speaking to Jordan Sexton and Washington, one thing is abundantly clear: family is extremely important to Collin. Itâs why he prepares and plays as hard as he does, and itâs one of the main reasons he chose Alabama, even after his climb up the recruiting rankings.
Sexton wasnât always a five-star recruit. He wasnât always the best player on his own team. But Johnson,
Antoine Pettway and the rest of the Crimson Tide staff made him a priority early on before the rest of college basketball knew what Mableton, Ga., possessed.
âWe saw them often. They were at games where nobody else was,â Washington said.
âIâll say this, the important thing for the family was seeing Alabama at games when he was playing 16U and wasnât starting and they still came. They were front row, front and center. It wasnât just Pettway, it was Coach Johnson also. It was Coach Scott (Pospichal) before he left this year.â
His older brother jokingly referred to Sexton as a âmommaâs boyâ as another way to show how much his brother values his family. The Sextons are a trusting and loyal family, Washington said, and are big on relationships. Jordan Sexton played against big man
Daniel Giddens, who will be eligible to play this season, in high school, and their fathers talk regularly, which helps.
Tuscaloosa is also only three hours west of Mableton, and thatâs comforting to Sexton. His loved ones can attend all the games of his first college season, as Jordan Sexton said they will.
âHe didnât work this hard for us not to come to the games,â he said. âHe knows that Iâm going to be two hours away, my dadâs going to be two hours away and we can all make sure we come check him out. Just in case he needs something, weâre one call away to be right there on campus.â
The number of years Sexton spends in college is a topic of interest. A projected lottery pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, the 6-foot-2 point guardâs discussions with his high school coach typically involve Alabama making the NCAA Tournament instead of his NBA future.
âHis mom and dad constantly tell me, âI have a son graduating in May from college, I had a daughter graduate last May, so Collin is graduating from college.â Thatâs the mom and dadâs thought process behind the whole thing,â Washington said. âMy thought process is when you get the opportunity to go pro, take it. If it comes next year, great. If it doesnât come next year, great.â
Making it to the NBA is a goal of Sextonâs, and he could accomplish that as soon as this time next year. But as of right now, his focus is on continuing to improve and help the Crimson Tide reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012. According to Meyer, thatâs a realistic expectation, with having a top-10 team nationally on âthe upper end of expectations.â
A potential one-and-done player, nonetheless, is something Johnson wanted to attract to the Crimson Tide program when he took the job two years ago. Heâs managed to do just that with Sexton signing to play during the 2017-18 season. But heâs not alone.
To begin the regular signing period for menâs basketball, Alabama currently has the nationâs No. 4 recruiting class, which is headlined by Sexton. But guards
John Petty and
Herb Jones, forward
Alex Reese and center
Galin Smith collectively give the Tide its
highest-rated signing class in program history.
And thatâs something Sexton -- and every Alabama fan -- canât wait to see this winter.
Whether it was EYBL, USA U17, the McDonaldâs All-America Game, Nike Hoop Summit or the upcoming Jordan Brand Classic, Sexton has shared the floor with some of the best players in the world, but his family knows his upcoming challenge is one the Young Bull is looking forward to the most.
âHe more excited than anything to play with this group of boys,â Jordan Sexton said of Alabama. âIâve witnessed Collin play on a bunch of teams, but Iâve never seen him have this much excitement playing for a coach and playing for a team like this. Theyâre coming together, and for Collin, itâs just like, âIâm ready.ââ
