Bio Blast: Furman guard Alex Wilkins

[Editor’s Note: This post was originally published when Alex Wilkins first popped up on Kentucky’s radar on April 9. Now that he has committed to Kentucky, it’s been updated and moved up to help you learn about the Cats’ new guard.]

Alex Wilkins was one of Kentucky’s first targets in the transfer portal. Mark Pope held a Zoom meeting with the talented Furman guard the day after the portal opened, and flew to South Carolina that weekend to visit him. Wilkins returned the favor the next week, visiting Kentucky April 15-16. A few days later, he committed, joining Zoom Diallo as the Cats’ second pledge from the portal thus far.

Wilkins is considered the No. 30 overall player in the portal and the No. 9 point guard. Let’s get to know him a little bit better through another edition of KSR’s Bio Blast.

An impressive freshman campaign

Wilkins was an unranked recruit out of Brooks School (MA), earning offers from the likes of Miami (OH), Davidson, Hofstra, Northern Kentucky, Florida Gulf Coast, Charleston, and a few others. He ultimately committed to Furman in September 2024 before going on to help Brooks win the Class B state title while picking up Class B Player of the Year honors along the way.

From the jump, Wilkins made an impact for Furman as a true freshman. He scored in double figures in each of his first eight games to begin the regular season, including four games with at least 23 points. Only four times across a 35-game sample size did he fail to reach the double-digit mark. Despite being one of the few Furman freshmen to play real minutes, he led the team in scoring at 17.8 points per contest.

A full-time starter, Wilkins also averaged 4.7 assists and two rebounds in 29.8 minutes per outing while shooting 55.4 percent on two-pointers and 32.8 percent on three-pointers. He made the All-Southern Conference Second Team for his impressive production on a successful team.

Wilkins led the Paladins to an NCAA Tournament berth after winning three games in three days in the Southern Conference Tournament. He dropped a season-high 34 points in the second game of the tourney, an 81-75 win over UNC-Greensboro, on his way to being named tournament MVP. Wilkins then made a bit of a name for himself in the Big Dance. Going into the NCAA Tournament as a 15-seed, Furman held its own against eventual runner-up UConn in the opening round before falling 82-71. Wilkins posted 21 points and four assists on 8-15 shooting against the Huskies.

What the advanced stats say about his game

You won’t be shocked to hear that the advanced analytics are big fans of what Wilkins can do with the ball in his hands. His impressively high usage (34.4 percent) and assist (34.8 percent) rates graded out in the 98th percentile or better among all guards, per CBB Analytics. That being said, his turnover rate of 19.6 percent was not as favorable, ranking in the 16th percentile.

38.6 percent of Wilkins’ points last season came in the paint, an above-average mark for a guard. His three-point shooting was not consistent despite high volume (5.7 attempts per game), but there weren’t many better guards in the country at knocking down their twos and getting to the free-throw line. Another positive? In four games against Quad 1 and 2 opponents last season, the numbers just mentioned matched his season-long marks. There was not a notable dropoff in his scoring abilities against better competition — in some areas, it improved.

The turnovers were his number one issue. He’s also not a reliable rebounder despite standing at 6-foot-5. All-in-one advanced stats such as RAPM and Win Shares were high on his offensive contributions, but not so much on defense.

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