Sam Alexis Decided to Suffer. He Went From ‘Terrible’ to Indiana Basketball.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — If Sam Alexis was three inches shorter as a high school freshman, he wouldn’t be here. And if he hadn’t decided to suffer, his height wouldn’t have mattered.

His No. 4 Indiana basketball jersey would be reassigned. His locker would bear a different nameplate. He’d have no championship ring.

And he wouldn’t have basketball.

When Alexis first lumbered into the Apopka High School gym in 2018, his size immediately stood out to head coach Scott Williams. So did his glaring lack of skill.

“He was terrible,” Williams told Indiana Hoosiers On SI. “We weren't even going to consider him for a freshman basketball team. He had never really played and, athletically, didn't even show signs there was anything there.

“Literally, the only redeeming factor Sam had as a basketball player was he was 6-foot-4. That was it. If Sam brought the same skill level and he was 6-foot-1, there's no way Sam would have ever made a basketball team. I mean, he was that bad.”

A sudden growth spurt pushed Alexis to try out. He remembers being big, chubby and immobile. Generally, Williams said, any young player with size, length and a semblance of promise is fast-tracked to varsity.

Maybe they only do the jump ball and play five minutes per game, but they’ll develop. Alexis was so far behind the curve Apopka couldn’t even consider it.

His corner was small, but he had Earl Graham. He didn’t need much more.

Graham, the coach of Apopka’s freshman team and an assistant on varsity, was a “big-kid whisperer,” Williams said, and an advocate that size can’t be taught. Graham would take young, underdeveloped frontcourt players and turn them into potent players.

Alexis, the definition of a project, was next on Graham’s list.

“Coach, let me have him. Let me have him. I'm going to make him something for you,” Graham, with his old, gravely voice, told Williams.

“Earl, if you want Sam, you can have him,” Williams responded. “But there's no way.”

Through two seasons, Alexis did little to validate Graham’s belief. Alexis leveled up to junior varsity as a sophomore, and Apopka’s coaches saw incremental growth, but he remained far from where he needed to be skill-wise.

Entering Alexis’ junior season, Williams and his staff collectively didn’t think Alexis could play extensive minutes. His ceiling as a basketball player appeared capped as being nothing more than a guy on a team.

Sixteen months later, he received his first offer. Then another. And another. Graham’s vision had been fulfilled. If only he’d been around to see it.

Why Earl Graham was 'really important' to Alexis' growth

Leading into November tryouts, Apopka’s staff went back-and-forth on whether Alexis deserved a spot on the varsity team. He made their decision easy.

Alexis sprained his knee at the start of tryouts and missed multiple weeks. He was relegated to junior varsity. Alexis’ junior season occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Apopka’s school district discouraged teams from promoting or demoting players once they were on the roster so as to limit the potential spreading of the virus.

So, Alexis was stuck — yet while Apopka’s varsity team experienced COVID-related shutdowns, the junior varsity team kept playing. And by the holidays, Alexis, healthy again, proved he belonged on varsity. Apopka couldn’t challenge protocol, but Alexis had at least started delivering on the promise Graham saw two years before.

Graham didn’t get to watch any more. At 72 years old, he passed away due to COVID-19 in January of Alexis’ junior season. As his career started taking off, Alexis lost perhaps his most loyal passenger.

“He was really important to my growth, because without him, I wouldn't even be on the team,” Alexis told Indiana Hoosiers On SI. “He was always pushing me. He showed me what hard work was. We were always in the gym.

“I remember one time I came in, touched the basketball. He said, ‘No basketballs, we're on the track.’ Always something like conditioning, stuff like that. He just always pushed me.”

After Graham’s passing, Williams noticed a significant difference in Alexis’ game. He’d gone from borderline varsity player to definite varsity selection to future varsity standout.

College basketball, however, was still an afterthought.

Then, Alexis met Derrick Miley.

'I don't want to be that 6-foot-9 kid working at McDonald's': How 5 a.m. workouts, deep motives made Alexis college-bound

During summer workouts entering Alexis’ senior year, Apopka spent its mornings doing agility drills. Miley, who spearheads player development on Williams’ staff, stopped by to watch several sessions. Alexis didn’t make a positive first impression.

“I’m like, ‘I don't know,’” Miley told Indiana Hoosiers On SI, “he don't work hard enough.’”

Miley played point guard under Williams before entering coaching. He was 5-foot-8 and, as Williams remembers, “a semi-talented guy who just learned to play so hard and was so ferocious that he became successful.” He won because of toughness. He didn’t think Alexis had it.

His first impression was inaccurate.

“I'm big on kids wanting it more than I want it for them,” Miley said. “Sam was always that type where it started off as, he always wanted to get in the gym with me whenever I can.”

It was the start of perhaps the most important mindset change of Alexis’ career. Big men, Williams said, have to reach the conclusion that suffering to become a good player is okay. Guards always have the ball in their hands. They have fun. They run around. It’s easy to stay fit.

Big men don’t have the same luxury. Alexis was out of shape. That summer, he chose basketball — and the sacrifices it required to play at a higher level — over the path of least resistance.

“Sam decided it was okay to suffer,” Williams said. “And he just worked his rear end off.”

Starting in the summer, Alexis woke up at 4:15 a.m. six days a week — every day except Sunday. Miley picked him up at 4:30 a.m., and they’d be in the gym from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. He’d spend the first 15 to 20 minutes getting touches with both hands before transitioning into strictly post work.

During the school year, Alexis went to class from 7 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. He took a basketball class for his seventh and final period, and he’d stay around after to put up shots. He’d then go to 1Family Hoops and workout with trainer Lee Loper.

The more Alexis found others invested in him, the more he invested in basketball.

“I think all the sudden, when he made the decision, ‘I’m going to really go for this. I’ve got some people around me that will challenge me and push me to do that.’ I think with every day of hard work, he just got more excited about it,” Williams said.

“It didn’t matter how much harder it kept getting, he just kept thinking, ‘I’m in. This is my thing. I’m so passionate about it. Let’s go to work.’”

Alexis would work on one or two moves at a time, incrementally trying to add them to his tool bag. It took two or three months, but the results started to show.

His skill with both his left and right hands progressed, as had his footwork and ability to score in the paint. He discovered how to face up and put the ball on the floor. And, with help from thousands of shots with Miley, he’d extended his shot distance.

Williams swung by one of Alexis’ AAU games later that summer and watched as the collection of parts — and months of suffering — cultivated into dominance.

“That's when I saw it pop,” Williams said. “I'm like, ‘Oh yeah, this is a different guy. He's dominating the gym. He understands what tools he has in his bag. He's out working everybody. He's out competing everybody. Like, he's got a chance.’

“And then it was funny. Anytime people are seeing him, it's the same thing. You go play somewhere and somebody's like, ‘Who's this guy? Like, what the heck happened to Sam?’”

The answer? A bit of fortune and no alternative option.

Miley and his wife, Ashayla, had their first child during Alexis’ senior season. Subsequently, Miley was on paternity leave and didn’t have work. He’d pick up Alexis at 5 a.m., they’d work out together and Miley would return home to help his wife and daughter.

“He always was one of the main people that always texted, ‘Coach Derrick, let’s get in the gym. Coach D, can we get in the gym?’” Miley said. “Then over time, we just built a great relationship. It was to the point he didn't have to text no more. It was just, ‘I'm outside.’”

There was never a day where Alexis said he wasn’t up for it. He was always committed. He didn’t have a scholarship offer and, as a result, had no guarantees beyond high school.

“I didn't want my mom to pay for school,” Alexis said. “The living situation we was in — I mean, it probably wants you to wake up early. I came from a tough area, so that motivated me.”

Alexis had another reason, too.

He was blessed with height, and if he didn’t capitalize on it, he knew he’d face a lifetime of questions. Waking up early wasn’t just a method to get an offer, it was to avoid having to answer questions through the drive-thru window of local fast food restaurants.

“When we used to work out, he was just like, ‘I don't want to be that 6-foot-9 kid working at McDonald's,’” Miley said. “So that gave him a little bit more twist to be like, ‘Okay, even though it's hard waking up at 4:30, I got to get up,’ because everybody asked you, ‘Oh, you’re 6-foot-9. Oh, you play basketball? No, I just ….’ So, I think that was a big thing for him that motivated him. “

Alexis, reminiscing about his jokes with Miley, smiled.

“That's another reason why I pushed so hard,” Alelxis said, “because I don't want to be talked about, ‘Why you not playing basketball?’”

'Sam did what very few people want to do': Inside the spring that landed Alexis his first Division I offer

Nearly one year to the day of Graham’s passing, Alexis had his worst practice as a senior at Apopka High School. Williams feared it may eventually come.

Entering Alexis’ senior season, Williams wondered if Alexis would hit a wall. Apopka is a quality program — it plays in Florida’s highest class and is often in the state playoff conversation — and Alexis had never been part of the grind of a varsity season.

On a Wednesday in the middle of January, the grind appeared to have worn on Alexis. He was dragging up and down in practice, and he wasn’t competing at the level Apopka needed nor the standard required to prosper in college. Williams pulled him aside and challenged him.

“This isn't who you've been,” Williams told Alexis. “If you want to get where you are, this isn't acceptable. You're just deciding today to be average and you're not putting in the work.”

Alexis responded — not with words, but in the only way he knows how: Work.

“It just snapped him back,” Williams said. “He blew through it, blew through the wall and went to it.”

Alexis finished his lone varsity campaign as a first-team All-Metro Conference and second-team All-Central Florida selection after averaging 13.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game while shooting 66.8% from the floor.

During Alexis’ senior season, he and Miley worked primarily on post moves. Alexis’ footwork, Miley said, was “terrible” — when he backed down opponents, he’d face the bleachers and was unable to read the floor.

By season’s end, he could score with either hand and was a reliable paint finisher. His numbers and accolades reflected his progress, too.

And yet, no Division I offers.

Because Alexis was a late entry to recruiting radars, he endured a slow process. Colleges still weren’t as active getting out to see players, nearly two years removed from the start of the pandemic.

Alexis continued playing — and impressing — in AAU with Loper and 1Family Hoops in the spring. Everything he’d done with Miley, a guard who learned how to teach big men through watching and reading about other trainers, came together.

Once Apopka’s season ended and Alexis began training for AAU, he and Miley worked on form shots for 90 minutes each day for a month. Slowly, Alexis backed up further and further. He went 1-for-13 shooting from distance as a high school senior. He averaged three triples per game on the AAU circuit alone.

His skill set well-rounded and his production undeniable, Alexis earned his first break in April of 2022 when 1Family played in an unsigned seniors event at McEachern High School in Powder Springs, Georgia.

“I think I was doing everything,” Alexis said. “Shooting threes, scoring, rebounding. And then I got my first offer.”

New Mexico State was the first to give Alexis the chance to play college basketball. Stetson, Binghamton and Towson followed. Chattanooga was his final offer, but the Mocs were a good fit and pushed hard for Alexis, and he fell in love with the school upon visiting.

Chattanooga officially announced the signing of Alexis on May 21, 2022. One year prior, Alexis didn’t know Miley, he hadn’t played above junior varsity and he hadn’t made the most important decision of his life — the one so few are willing to make.

“Every year, I'm going to have a lot of guys in my gym, ‘Coach, I want to be a college player,’” Williams said. “‘Okay, well, you got to make the choice, put in the work.

Derrick will be in the gym at 5 a.m. You want to be there. You want to come in after school or get up 500 shots.’ Every year there'll be a couple that'll do it, and then there's a massive amount of kids that don't.

“Because there's no instant gratification in what Sam did. There's no, ‘15 minutes later, I have what I want and I'm happy with it.’ It took countless hours where nobody's watching and there's not a lot of instantaneous positive feedback from it. And Sam did what very few people want to do.”

On the road to Indiana, Alexis starred at Chattanooga and won a national title at Florida

Alexis spent two accolade-filled seasons at Chattanooga.

He earned Southern Conference All-Freshman Team honors after averaging five points and 3.8 rebounds in 12 minutes per game off the bench.

As a sophomore, he was a third-team All-Southern Conference selection and he made the Southern Conference All-Defensive Team. A starter in 32 of 33 games, Alexis became one of five Division I players to average at least 10 points, nine rebounds and two blocks per game.

Alexis transferred to Florida in the spring of 2024. It brought him a championship ring and lifelong memories of a magical run — but it also gave him a wealth of lessons.

An ankle injury cost Alexis the final seven games of the regular season, and he re-aggravated the ailment in practice before the SEC Tournament. He played only one minute in the NCAA Tournament, sitting, watching and rehabbing while his fellow frontcourt mates had the time of their lives on the biggest stage.

“I learned a lot,” Alexis said. “Patience is a virtue. It just motivated me to go out there and practice because I couldn't play. So, that just put a chip on my shoulder at practice every day.”

Since his basketball career took off at Apopka, Alexis hadn’t met a wall as strong, as punishing, as demoralizing, as the one he met in March. He never wavered.

Williams watched each of Florida’s tournament games, and he’d often peek at the bench to monitor Alexis. Then just 20 years old, Alexis handled his setback in a manner wise beyond his years.

“He never changed,” Williams said. “His enthusiasm, his connectedness to his team, everything. A couple of people that were near it, I would check in on him and he remained a great teammate.

“He remained a guy who knew he still had value and it was worth not becoming a pain in the ass for that team and that program because he was disappointed he wasn't playing. And that's the measure of who he is.”

While Alexis' notoriety grows, his character remains unchanged

Alexis has turned into something of a folk hero in Apopka.

“He's known now,” Miley said. “Like everybody (goes), ‘Oh, that's Sam Alexis.’”

Alexis’ star has never shone brighter. He’s turned into a chiseled athlete with an expanded bank account thanks to NIL. But his character hasn’t changed.

Only a few months removed from winning the national championship at Florida, Alexis used his NIL money to cover the costs of Apopka High School’s youth basketball camp this summer.

While in Gainesville, he made several trips to local schools, the YMCA and the Ronald McDonald House.Williams, a varsity head coach for 33 years, views Alexis as a rarity.

“It's kind of like Sam got an inheritance — all of a sudden, it just happens and it pops — and a lot of people won't handle that very well and it'll change the essence of who they are,” Williams said. “And in Sam's case, it just hasn't.

“He is the same young man that just put his head down in our gym and went to work on wanting to be special, on learning how to compete.”

Alexis is a relentless worker, Williams said, and a relentless athlete. He’s also relentlessly loyal.

Alexis still trains with Miley when he goes home. The time hasn’t changed — they’re still in the gym at 5 a.m., if not earlier, and Alexis goes to other gyms and does additional workouts thereafter.

“He'll always come no matter what,” Miley said. “If I say, ‘Sam, 4 a.m.’ ‘Man, Coach D, that’s early, huh?’ But he'll be there at 4 a.m.”

Miley often warns Alexis about his qualifications to continue serving as a Division I player’s trainer. Alexis, however, is unwavering. He comes from humble beginnings, Miley said, and has never forgotten where he comes from.

“He's just a special person to me because I tell him all the time like, ‘You know you're trusting in a guy who really hasn't coached?’ Like, I didn’t train any Division I players before him, I haven't done none of this, I haven't done none of that,” Miley said. “And (Alexis is) still like, every time, ‘Hey, Coach D, what are we working on?’”

Miley and Alexis have formed an air-tight relationship, and they still talk every day. About skill development. About life. About things not pertaining to an orange round ball.

And about mindset.

“We have this thing we're always texting, it’s like, ‘Dominate today, don't worry about tomorrow,’” Miley said. “Dominate today, and don't worry about tomorrow.”

Alexis poised to fill key role at Indiana

Alexis admits his phone didn’t buzz as much when he entered the transfer portal the second time around. Florida’s season ended April 7, and Alexis announced his intention to transfer April 18. Six days later, he committed to Indiana — without even visiting campus.

“I committed off a Zoom call,” Alexis said. “Just the style of play, the opportunity they had here, it’s the perfect situation.”

The 6-foot-9, 240-pound Alexis offered size and physicality otherwise lacking from coach Darian DeVries’ first roster. DeVries acknowledged Alexis isn’t necessarily tall, but he has long arms and plays above his size — which are traits DeVries heard from others who coached Alexis previously.

“I think Sam gives us a real physical presence,” DeVries said. “He's done a really good job this summer because we're asking him to continue to expand not only his interior game, but a lot of things on the perimeter as well, where he's got to have the ball in his hands and be able to make passes, make reads and stretch the floor a little bit.”

Alexis has made his mark on the Hoosiers' practices, too. Senior guard Lamar Wilkerson said Alexis shows Indiana the intensity championship teams practice with, and he elevates his teammates’ energy with offensive rebounds and blocked shots.

“Sam's just an energy guy,” Wilkerson said. “He comes in with the same energy every day. You know what you're going to get out of Sam. Basically, you've got to meet his energy. If not, then you're going to obviously see the drop off.”

Alexis has also made strides as a floor-spacer. He went only 4-for-20 shooting from distance last season at Florida, and he missed each of his five triples during the Hoosiers’ three-game exhibition series in Puerto Rico.

The key, Alexis said, is translating his shooting efficiency in practice to gamedays. Miley said there are days in Apopka where Alexis hits 80% of his shots. In one drill, if Alexis misses two shots in a row, he has to move to the next spot. Miley remembers a session where Alexis hit 50 triples without missing back-to-back shots.

“He's capable of doing it,” Miley said of Alexis becoming a consistent 3-point shooter. “But just being able to do it on that stage — my goal for him is at least be a 35% shooter. I know he can, because I've seen the work he's put into it.”

Alexis trained five days a week this summer in Apopka, and Sundays — supposedly his off days — featured 15-year NBA player JJ Redick’s “342” drill, which includes 20 spot-up 3-pointers from seven different spots.

But Alexis’ deepest value to Indiana will come inside, where his hands, footwork and agility offer dual-phase versatility. The undersized Hoosiers, who under previous coach Mike Woodson often had no shortage of size or paint production, will be reliant on Alexis in back-to-the-basket settings in DeVries’ first season.

Defensively, Alexis projects as Indiana’s best shot blocker — he swatted three shots in the Hoosiers’ 76-74 exhibition win over Baylor on Oct. 26, and his extended second-half action coincided with a more physical, energized defensive effort.

Alexis didn’t start any of Indiana’s five exhibition games, but he registered two double-doubles and averaged 12 points and eight rebounds across 21-and-a-half minutes per game, often entering as the first or second option off the bench.

“I don't think people understand as good as Sam has got as far as stretching the floor,” Indiana forward Tucker DeVries said, “and his playmaking and just playing off the ball.”

What's next? The final chapter to an 'unbelievable story'

The 21-year-old Alexis will spend his final college season over 950 miles away from home. Figuratively, he’s even further from, as Williams described him, “the big, lumbering kid” who’d never really played basketball.

That was only seven years ago.

Alexis is still only four years removed from the start of his first and only varsity season. Now, he’s in line to play an important role on a team tasked with setting the foundation for DeVries’ prospective program turnaround.

If only Earl Graham, who believed in a vision nobody else did, was here to see it.

“I don’t know if there's anybody in heaven that's more excited than Earl,” Williams said. “He just loves Sam and Sam loved Earl. I always say that Sam's getting to enjoy all of Earl's blessings once he passed.”

Alexis’ journey is one of belief — that his suffering would bring brighter days, that his recognition and offers would come. It’s also one of fear — to prevent his mother from having to pay for school, to prevent questions in drive thrus about why he wasn’t playing basketball.

But most of all, it’s a journey with little precedence and lots of persistence. It reads like a Hollywood-influenced non-fiction. And now, Alexis gets to write another chapter — only this time, with cream and crimson ink.

“He's somebody Indiana is going to be really happy to have,” Williams said. “But just an unbelievable story.”