Big 12: Myles Turner vs. Cliff Alexander: Take Your Pick

As the trend continues, it will be the incoming freshmen who will highlight some of college basketball’s prominent programs and just as it was with the Texas Longhorns and Kansas Jayhawks last season, the same will hold true for the 2014-15 campaign. Texas brings in ESPN 100 recruit Jordan Barnett and features the nation’s No. 2 overall recruit, Myles Turner, and for those who didn’t know, Kansas was one of the two teams Turner snubbed once he put on that burnt orange bucket hat on decision day.

Kansas has its usual bundle of All-Americans coming in Kelly Oubre and the guy ranked one slot behind Turner in the ESPN 100 and No. 3 overall, Cliff Alexander. With such comparable high school rankings and being at rival schools who will be competing for the Big 12 championship next season, let’s take a look at which of these two teams really landed the better talent.

We’ll start out with Turner since that’s the man ESPN felt deserved the higher ranking.

Checking in at 7’0” and 240 pounds, Turner is far more than what he’s listed at as a center. In fact, don’t be surprised once next season finally rolls around to almost never see turner actually playing in the low post, especially considering the depth the Longhorns feature down low.

Rather, he will more than likely star as a power forward and even play out of the wing like a former towering Longhorn great, Kevin Durant.

This is what makes Turner so versatile and makes his ceiling limitless.

Very seldom do you find a guy with size like Turner’s who can also step out beyond the perimeter and confidently and consistently knock down jumpers. In addition to his long-range touch, Turner cans stroke mid-range shots with ease and has a few low post moves to add to his offensive arsenal as well.

He also runs the break well and mixes his options up between spacing out the floor and hitting transition buckets and attacking the rim, where he usually finishes with powerful jams.

Then of course, due to his stature, he dominated the high school scene with his overpowering rebounding and shot blocking ability, which should transition to the collegiate level, but that remains to be seen since D-I post players aren’t around 6’7” or 6’8” as they usually are in high school.

Then we’ve got Turner’s counterpart and the guy he’ll get to bang bodies with at least twice during his freshman season in the Jayhawks’ Alexander.

While Turner is uniquely skilled and versatile, Alexander is a man among boys and to put it simply, he’s an absolute beast around the paint.

First of all, the main thing you need to know about Alexander is he looks to put on a show and absolutely demolish the rim and every shot attempt that he can get his massive hands on. He weighs the same as Turner at 240, but is a little bulkier and has more power packed into his 6’9” frame.

Although he doesn’t have the wide range of abilities to rave all day long about, less is more in the case of Alexander and for the complete lack of an outside game, he makes up with ample mayhem around the rim.

For the most part with Alexander and what you will see from him next season, it will be enough rim-rattling jams to put former Kansas star Andrew Wiggins to shame and a defensive prowess that will be alongside some of the nation’s most notable.