No. 9: Cliff Alexander (2014-2015)
Kansas basketball career stats: 28 games, 7.1 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 1.3 BPG, 56.6% FG
Alexander was an absolute monster in high school. There weren’t many Kansas commits with as much hype as he had after he graduated from Curie High School in 2014. We all remember the videos of him breaking the backboard as a 16-year-old. Although he displayed some of that talent with the Jayhawks, his time in Lawrence was pretty messy.
For starters, he was yet another highly regarded recruit who didn’t receive much floor time out of the gate. Coach Self preferred to start the more experienced Jamari Traylor or Landen Lucas at the 5 spot.
Alexander had some promising outings, scoring ten or more points on nine different occasions and posting a pair of double-doubles. He also made his presence felt on the defensive end, serving as a respected rim protector. But the jump from high school to college seemed a bit too challenging for him.
His Kansas basketball career ended rather poetically when he was suspended by the NCAA indefinitely after his mother filed for an illegal loan. Nothing pretty came from Alexander’s time at KU. Even if he was better on the court than one or two players on this list, there was too much controversy surrounding him to make him a better pick than anybody ahead of him.