The Bluegrass State is smack dab in the middle of a crucial college basketball recruiting battle that could have widespread implications.
The Kentucky Wildcats and Louisville Cardinals are in pursuit of a five-star guard recruit whose father was a well-traveled NBA player, including with a key role on the Miami Heat.
The recruit: Reese Alston.
Alston’s father, Rafar, was a street-ball legend and then an NBA point guard, and the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
The latest recruiting update on Reese Alston certainly has Kentucky and Louisville fans very interested.
Reese Alston Recruiting Update
On Tuesday, the final-seven schools that Alston is considering were released on social media.
The list:
- Kentucky Wildcats
- Louisville Cardinals
- Vanderbilt Commodores
- Houston Cougars
- Tennessee Volunteers
- LSU Tigers
- Wichita State Shockers
Alston is a 6-foot-2 guard who is just beginning his senior year of high school.
He plays at Houston Second Baptist in Texas.
The 247Sports rankings have Alston as the No. 9 player in the country.
Adam Finkelstein of 247Sports wrote this in part of his blurb on Alston:
“Alston is a playmaking lead guard who consistently creates offense for himself and his teammates. He’s an offensive engine who both thrives and is most comfortable as the primary domino in his team’s attack. He has adequate positional size and length, deceptive strength and balance through contact, good open floor speed, and some sneaky leaping ability when he has a runway. He’s also an underrated on-ball defender who is capable of picking up for the length of the floor, even though that’s not what he’s known for at this point.”
Reese Alston’s Dad
Rafar Alston was known on the outdoor courts by his nickname “Skip 2 My Lou.”
He played on the And1 Mixtape Tour before coming to the NBA.
Rafar Alston had played in college, one season apiece at Ventura College, then Fresno City College, then Fresno State.
He managed to turn that, and his mixtape work, into an NBA career.
He began as a second-round pick with the Milwaukee Bucks, and he’d eventually play for the Toronto Raptors, Miami Heat, Houston Rockets, Orlando Magic and New Jersey Nets.
Also averaged 7.8 points per game with the Raptors in 2003.
Then with the Heat in the 2003-04 season, he put up 12 points and four assists per game and hit an OT game-winning floater with 0.5 seconds left over the lanky Shawn Bradley in March.
Alston then signed a six-year, $26.3 million deal to return to Toronto, and in that 2004-05 season with the Raptors, he averaged a career-high 14.2 points per game.
Alston then bounced around in trades — to the Rockets, then dealt to the Magic, then again to the Nets.
He also spent time in China and in the NBA D-League before his career was over.
And now, Rafar’s son is getting close to a college basketball career of his own — potentially a more conventional path to the NBA.
Kentucky, Louisville in Final Recruiting Picture for Ex-Heat PG’s 5-Star Son