The making of Indiana's Sam Alexis

Before Sam Alexis was a national champion and a key contributor at one of the most storied programs in the Big Ten, he was a ninth grader celebrating a clean trip through layup lines. Before he was a lean 6-foot-9 and 240 pounds, he was short and pudgy. Before he was skilled, he was a 6-foot-3, 215-pound bundle of awkwardness.

Alexis was not supposed to become a starting center at the power conference level — at least not to most people who saw him then.

There was no early stardom, no middle school dominance, no obvious roadmap pointing him toward Division I basketball. Alexis wasn’t under-recruited; he simply wasn’t recruited at all until the very end.

He signed so late, and was so raw for so long, that none of the major recruiting services ever ranked him. There was no star count to debate. In the sport’s most widely used measuring systems, Alexis simply did not exist. He was invisible.

But two people saw something anyway, long before anyone else did.

They saw it before the growth spurt. Before the early morning workouts. Before the late scholarship offer, before the orange and blue championship confetti and before he donned the fabled candy stripes at Indiana. 

They saw it when belief required a touch of imagination, instead of any tangible evidence.  

And because they did, Alexis’ path — from a passed-by high school freshman barely clinging to a roster spot, to a late Division I signee, to a national champion at Florida and now a starter at Indiana — was allowed to exist at all.

At Apopka High School, roughly a dozen miles northwest of Orlando, freshman coach and longtime assistant Earl Graham watched a ninth grader labor through layup lines and fight just to stay upright in transition. He picked him out anyway.

“‘Coach, give me Sam. I’ll make him a player, he’s going to be great,’” Apopka head coach Scott Williams remembered Graham telling him. “I go, ‘You’re kidding me. He’s terrible. He has no chance.’”

Across town, on cracked neighborhood courts, older cousin Keevin Etienne kept telling that same unsure kid that his body would continue to grow, his skill would come and his chance would appear someday if he stayed with the work long enough to meet it.

Graham didn’t flinch. Etienne didn’t waver.

And Alexis, still years away from becoming anything resembling the guy averaging near double-figures at one of the nation’s most historic programs, found himself carried by the conviction of two men who saw a future he could not yet imagine for himself.

The awkward beginning

When Alexis walked into Apopka’s gym as a ninth grader, Williams did not see a budding Division I athlete. He saw a project so raw that calling him inexperienced felt generous.

“Imagine an uncoordinated and gangly, slow foot fish out of water,” Williams told TheHoosier.com. “That was Sam.”

Alexis stood about 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds. He was tall, pudgy and relatively new to organized basketball. His footwork lagged behind even basic standards. Conditioning drills left him gasping. He struggled to complete simple layups.

In a varsity program regularly competing in Florida’s highest classification, the gap between Alexis and his peers was obvious. Williams admitted that if Alexis were a couple inches shorter, he likely would not have made the team.

“He was bad as a freshman,” Williams said.

Apopka’s staff generally took chances on size. A tall, raw big man might only handle a few minutes here and there, but there was usually enough there to justify a roster spot and hope for development.

Alexis tested that philosophy. He barely made the freshman team. There were conversations about cutting him. His lone advantage was his height. The rest was a long way from usable.

And yet, one voice in the gym refused to see him as a lost cause.

The first believers

Graham, whom Williams described as a “grizzled old man,” doubled as Apopka’s freshman coach and had built a reputation on developing big men other coaches overlooked. He believed that size couldn’t be taught and that everything else could be.

When Williams saw a “big, lumbering, out of shape and unskilled kid,” Graham saw a blank canvas he could shape.

Williams didn’t see it. They kept Alexis anyway. Graham took him on.

The freshman team became his lab, but the early results did little to validate Graham’s faith. As a sophomore on junior varsity, Alexis improved slightly, but he remained a long way from varsity-level skill.

Through Alexis’ freshman and sophomore years, nothing about his game suggested a Division I future. Nothing suggested he would even see meaningful varsity minutes at any point in his career.

Still, Graham’s belief stayed steady. Etienne’s started even earlier.

“He was about a 6-foot-2, chubby little kid playing outside in the neighborhood, going to the park,” Etienne told TheHoosier.com. “He wasn’t really that great, but I saw something in him as a young kid.”

Growing up, Alexis loved Steph Curry. He would head outside and try to replicate what he saw on television, long jumpers, flurries of shots from his chest. The mechanics were shaky at best, but the desire was clear.

Etienne also saw inconsistency. When Etienne first took Alexis to his trainer, Lee Loper, in ninth grade, the young big man didn’t have the means or the routine to get to 5 a.m. workouts regularly. Loper, who prizes consistency, wasn’t impressed.

The connection fizzled. Alexis kept playing, but not yet at the level or with the structure needed to make a significant leap.

A junior on JV, and a choice

The trajectory shifted when Alexis learned he would be a junior on JV.

Entering 11th grade, he had grown — both physically and with his skill set. Williams remembers him as a bigger, slightly more coordinated player, but still just “a little bit better” rather than transformed.

Early in tryouts that year, Alexis slightly tweaked his knee and missed multiple weeks. With the district emphasizing separation between JV and varsity groups to prevent COVID shutdowns, the staff placed Alexis on JV again and could not move him later in the year. 

He was a junior on JV at 6-foot-9. For a big man, that label carries a weight that is hard to hide from.

“It was really tough for Sam,” Etienne said. “He was very disappointed.”

Alexis messaged Etienne, wondering whether his basketball career was already slipping away. From Williams’ vantage point, something else entirely was happening.

“I could tell by December, we may have a little something here,” Williams said. “He might be able to help us as a senior, he’s got a chance.”

The strides were small, but they were finally noticeable. 

Then, in January of Alexis’ junior year, Graham died of COVID-19 at age 72. The coach who had first said “give me Sam” never saw Alexis play a varsity game.

Williams and Alexis still joke that Graham’s spirit is inside Alexis when he plays, nudging him toward greatness. Underneath the joke is a truth they both understand: Graham’s early conviction helped keep Alexis on a path that, on paper, did not always make sense.

For Etienne, the news that Alexis would be stuck on JV clarified what encouragement alone could no longer accomplish.

Etienne, preparing to leave for Shorter University, knew he needed to do more than offer encouragement and words of affirmation. He needed to help build a routine sturdy enough to change Alexis’ future.

“I used to tell him,” Etienne said. “I know you want this, but you have to be consistent. Or you’re just going to be another tall kid that had a chance but never did anything with it.”

By Alexis’ 11th-grade year, Etienne believed he was finally ready to try Loper again. So he went back to him with a request: give Alexis another chance.

Loper agreed, but this time, belief would come with nonnegotiable terms.

The hours no one saw

For Alexis, the most important stretch of his career did not happen under the bright lights of a high school gym. It happened in the dark, before most people his age — or any age, for that matter — were awake.

After Etienne learned Alexis would spend his junior year on JV, Etienne believed his younger cousin was finally ready for the commitment that had been missing in ninth and 10th grade. He brought him back to Loper, who agreed to take him on, but the expectations were non-negotiable.

Alexis was to be in the gym at 5 a.m. and return after Apopka’s practices in the evening. No drifting in and out. No shortcuts.

Etienne took on the early responsibility. He picked Alexis up before dawn for 5 a.m. sessions in Orlando. Alexis’ mother — not fond of the idea of her teenage son leaving the house at 4 a.m. to work with a trainer she barely knew — needed convincing.

“It took a lot of convincing,” Etienne said. “Just constantly explaining that it’s for the betterment of him. You will see, it’ll pay off in a few years.”

Over time, she watched the changes unfold: the weight dropping, the footwork improving, the discipline taking hold. She saw a path to a future where her son might go to college without putting the financial burden on the family.

Her trust cracked the door open. Alexis’ decision to show up every day swung it wide open.

“That commitment helped change his thought process and the way he approached the game,” Loper told TheHoosier.com.

Inside those training sessions, Alexis’ learning curve steepened. He accepted that he had “a lot to learn,” as Loper put it, and he embraced it. 

They drilled jump hooks with both hands, screen angles, finishing sequences, form shooting, lobs, footwork combos and conditioning work that pushed Alexis. Loper watched the transformation, first incremental, then startling. 

“I haven’t had a player make that much growth in a year that I’ve ever trained,” Loper said. “He went from a JV player who can’t run up and down the court four or five times without getting tired to stepping out and knocking down threes.”

As Loper gained the trust of Alexis’ mom, the structure evolved. The early-morning slots with Loper gave way to primarily after-school and evening sessions. Loper would pick Alexis up, put him through workouts that stretched into the night and then drive him home himself.

Within a month, the grind no longer felt like a grind. It became rhythm. Loper said he would leave the gym briefly and return to find Alexis and Etienne already setting up the first drill, the same drill they repeated every workout.

“That’s when I knew, right then,” Loper said. “We got one.”

By the time Alexis’ junior season ended in February, Williams called the next seven or eight months “life changing.” The foundation had been poured. And just as Alexis was beginning to master the work with Loper, a new layer of training was about to begin.

The strip-mall gym

One of Williams’ former point guards at Apopka, Derrick Miley, had returned to the school as a lead assistant. When he joined the staff, Miley began opening the gym — or whatever court he could find — for players who wanted extra work in the mornings before school.

But as a first-year coach, Miley didn’t yet have a key to the school gym. So the workouts happened at a 24-hour fitness tucked beside a Hobby Lobby in a small strip mall. At the start of the summer after Alexis’ junior season, Alexis asked to join. 

The timing was perfect. Alexis had already endured weeks of 5 a.m. work with Loper. He was conditioned for the demands, and he wanted more. And Miley delivered more.

Starting that summer, Alexis woke up at 4:15 a.m. six days a week. Sunday was the lone exception. Miley picked him up around 4:30, and by 5 a.m. they were inside the small strip-mall gym, the fluorescent lights humming overhead.

As summer unfolded, current New Hampshire guard KiJan Robinson and others joined. One-on-one battles capped most sessions. How those battles ended dictated Alexis’ mood the rest of the morning.

“The car rides always depended on how the one-on-one games ended when we finished working out,” Miley told TheHoosier.com. “If [Alexis] had a good day, the car ride was joyful. But if he had a bad day, he’d be silent during the car ride.”

There was never music playing. That was Miley’s biggest rule. Instead, they talked — sometimes about basketball, sometimes about life.

“His dream was so big,” Miley said. “His biggest thing was, he never wanted to be that 6-foot-9 person working at McDonald’s or something.”

The transformation that began as a flicker during Alexis’ JV junior year now accelerated into something undeniable. 

By the time Alexis returned to Apopka for his senior season, he didn’t resemble the player who had nearly been cut as a freshman.

He resembled the one Graham always said he would become.

One varsity season to change everything

Alexis entered his senior season without a single varsity minute on his resume. He exited it as the best player on a playoff team in Florida’s highest classification.

Because of all the work he had put in over the summer and offseason, Williams said, people were blown away by the new-look Sam. He was stronger, more skilled and far more confident. 

It was not flawless. Williams wondered whether Alexis would hit a wall during his first extended varsity season. The schedule is long. The physical toll is real. The mental strain builds quickly.

In early to mid-January, that wall appeared. 

“I remember he was just dog sorry at a practice,” Williams said. “He’s just dragging around, just jogging and going through the motions.”

Williams pulled Alexis aside.

“I just got all over him,” Williams said. “I said this isn’t going to do it for you. This is unacceptable. This isn’t who you are, at least in my opinion, and we’re not going to accept it.”

The message landed.

“And from that day on he was back to everything a hundred miles an hour. Everything full speed, everything,” Williams said. “He just needed a little nudge, once, from me.”

Alexis finished the season averaging 13.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.5 blocks, shooting 68.8% from the field with 11 double-doubles. He earned first-team All-Metro and second-team All-Central Florida honors and was nominated for Class 8A All-State. 

Yet when the season ended, Division I programs were still yet to offer.

The spring that opened doors

Because Alexis was a late entry on recruiting radars and because COVID had disrupted high school recruiting, his senior-year rise didn’t immediately translate to scholarship opportunities.

That summer, he joined Loper’s 1Family Hoops AAU program as an unsigned senior. Early on the circuit, he averaged only four or five points per game. His role was limited. 

The breakthrough came at an unsigned seniors event at McEachern High School in Georgia in April 2022. 

Four-star forward Dylan James, committed to Georgia and normally ahead of Alexis in the rotation, didn’t play in the event. Alexis replaced him in the rotation during that live period. In that window — with college coaches in the stands — Alexis dominated.

Miley remembers the stat line: 23 points and 12 rebounds per game. 

Colleges took notice.

New Mexico State was the first to offer. Stetson was next, then Binghamton and then Towson followed. Chattanooga came last. Then, on May 21, 2022, Chattanooga announced the signing of Alexis.

The kid who once teetered on the edge of being cut had become a Division I signee. 

A year in Gainesville — and a ring

At Chattanooga, Alexis earned Southern Conference All-Freshman Team honors. As a sophomore, he became one of only five Division I players to average at least 10 points, nine rebounds and two blocks per game. He started 32 of 33 games, made third-team All-SoCon and earned a spot on the Southern Conference All-Defensive Team.

After two seasons, he entered the transfer portal and drew interest from Florida.

When Florida’s staff visited Chattanooga, associate head coach Carlin Hartman said the first impression was two-fold, and it was different from Alexis’ first impressions back in high school.

“My first impression was how talented he was on the court, but off the court how he is just a great human being,” Hartman told TheHoosier.com. “We just found him to be a genuine guy, very warm, very welcoming, easy to talk to, easy to get along with.”

The Gators recruited him not just as a player, but as a person they wanted in their locker room. Then came the setback that tested him in a different way.

On Feb. 11 in Starkville, Mississippi, Alexis injured his ankle in a game against Mississippi State. He missed the final seven games of the regular season and re-aggravated the injury before the SEC Tournament.

By the time he could play, Florida had found a rotation that worked — one that didn’t feature Alexis. The staff stuck with it. 

Alexis played one minute in the NCAA Tournament. Even as his role diminished, Alexis remained engaged.

“I wanted to be a high-character guy,” Alexis said. “I didn’t want to have bad body language.”

Florida had a postgame routine for players who didn’t log many minutes: four-on-four games after each contest to keep them sharp and allow for development. Late in the season, Hartman noticed how Alexis treated those runs.

“I will always remember him dominating those games,” Hartman said.

When Florida won the national championship over Houston, Alexis was one of the first players onto the floor to celebrate. He and fellow big man Alex Condon met in the middle of the floor and hugged. 

“He was one of the first guys on the floor when the horn sounded,” Hartman said. “At that moment, I just thought to myself that this is a really special kind of guy.”

Florida would have loved to keep him. But the staff understood when he chose to move on again, this time searching for a larger role.

The kid Apopka still claims

By the summer after Florida’s title run, Alexis had become the talk of the town in Apopka. 

He still returned home to train with Miley and Loper. He still dropped into Apopka’s seventh-period basketball class, acting like a teachers’ assistant for Miley.

“He went from a 6-foot-9 JV junior to being at one of the most prestigious programs, playing valuable minutes, in the span of five years,” Miley tells his students. “Just because he made up his mind one day that he was just going to work as hard as he can.”

Miley and Alexis talk every day — about skill development, about life, about topics far removed from basketball. Their relationship, Miley said, has become more than coach and player.

“Even though I still train him, we’re more of a big brother, little brother type of relationship,” Miley said. “We have a lot of good days, a lot of bad days.”

Williams said what makes him proudest has little to do with stat lines. What stands out is that Alexis’ character hasn’t changed.

“There’s nothing fake or phony,” Williams said. “Everything is genuine. Everything is pure. Everything is honest. Everything is humble.”

Alexis’ family background helps explain it. Etienne said he and Alexis weren’t raised with everything. They weren’t spoiled. They had to work.

Because of that, Alexis wakes up feeling grateful for every moment, Etienne said. Alexis learned early to smile through adversity and tried to make sure people around him stayed in a positive mindset, even when circumstances were difficult.

“He knows how to light up the whole room with just a smile,” Etienne said. “That’s a blessing. That’s one of the gifts that God gave him. Energy.” 

In high school, Alexis was often the first off the bench to celebrate a teammate’s success. Williams remembers a district road game where Alexis, struggling with an ankle injury and not playing particularly well, erupted when teammate Philip Tepper hit a 3-pointer, drew a foul and gave Apopka the lead with under 10 seconds left.

The reaction fit a pattern. Even as his profile has grown — from Apopka, to Chattanooga, to Florida, to Indiana — Alexis has never carried himself as if he is above anyone else.

A new stage in Bloomington

Florida’s season ended April 7. Alexis entered the portal shortly thereafter. Within three weeks, he committed to Indiana without even visiting campus. He committed off a Zoom call.

The 6-foot-9, 240-pound forward offered something first-year Indiana head coach Darian DeVries needed: frontcourt size and physicality. 

DeVries has acknowledged that Alexis is not exceptionally tall by Big Ten center standards. But he’s also noted what other coaches told him: Alexis has long arms, consistently impacts the game with energy and is a strong rim protector and rebounder.

Against Baylor, Alexis blocked three shots in a 2-point exhibition win in October. Against Lindenwood in November, Alexis blocked four shots and led the team in scoring with 16 points.

“I love what Sam’s doing,” DeVries said following the Lindenwood performance. “He’s bringing the physicality. Even more so is the rebounding, energy level, enthusiasm. I just like what he’s doing for us right now. He’s going to play a huge role for us all year like he already is.”

“Sam, again, saved the day with not only what he produced on the court, but his energy, his enthusiasm, gets everybody going,” Tucker DeVries added after the 73-53 win over Lindenwood. 

Through the early portion of the season, Alexis has averaged 8.7 points and 5.4 rebounds per game while shooting 67.9% from the field, primarily as the first or second player off the bench. In Indiana’s last two games, Alexis has been inserted into the starting lineup.

The 21-year-old, born Oct. 10, 2004, is more age-aligned with most juniors than seniors. He is still only four years removed from the start of his first and only varsity season at Apopka.

Alexis has become central to Indiana’s frontcourt. Now thrust into the starting lineup, Alexis’ role is continuing to expand.

For Williams, watching from afar, there is a simple summary.

“It is one of the most remarkable stories you can ever be around,” Williams said. “Sam’s path is just so totally, radically different.”

What they saw first

In Bloomington now, Alexis practices with the energy and enthusiasm that once carried him through dark mornings inside a 24-hour fitness and late nights in a quiet Orlando gym. 

His story continues to bend back to its beginning — to a gym in Apopka where a freshman coach pointed at a kid who could barely get up and down the floor and insisted he saw something worth believing in. It bends back to the 4 a.m. alarms, to a cousin who refused to let him settle, to the long, lonely hours when no one else was watching and the silhouette of a future was being drawn.

Graham held the vision. Etienne carried it. Alexis grew into it.

Now, whenever he steps onto the floor for Indiana as a national champion and a pivotal piece in a new era for the Hoosiers, Alexis moves inside the life Graham and Etienne once imagined for him. The big, lumbering ninth grader who nearly didn’t make the freshman team has become the player they always said he would be.

And if Graham were here to see it, Williams knows exactly what he would say — the same words he offered when almost no one agreed with him, when belief was still a fragile object waiting for proof.

“Give me Sam… He’s going to be great.”

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