A lot has changed for Joe Alexander since last we met and it seems, for a second, he doesn’t have the same bravado as before. Life in the NBA can be humbling … and when life is what it’s been like for Alexander, you expect as much.

Yet beneath the disappointment, there is no sign of defeat. His perspective remains positive, which is important. If others say and think you can’t do it, you better insist you can. And will.

And that’s Joe Alexander, who despite a well-known descent in the NBA remains convinced he’ll one day make it. Again. (And he’s still the best interview.)

He is not without perspective, though, and today Alexander feels a lot like the skinny, curly haired high school senior at Maryland’s Linganore High.  

“It’s exactly the same,” Alexander said last week as he returned to WVU for the third annual Bob Huggins Fantasy Camp. “There’s no difference.”

Well, there are differences, some major ones, in fact, but skip past those. They’re obvious and Alexander identifies and understands those as well as anyone else. In application, however, this isn’t exactly a foreign land for someone who grew up in Asia and is pretty good at acquiescing.

Alexander rather likes his position as an outsider trying to get back in, and certainly because he’s done it before. This time he’s an unrestricted free agent.

“It’s like when you’re recruited out of high school to go to college,” he said. “You want to pick the right fit for you. Your success depends as much on your skill as it does how you fit on the team and what type of opportunity the team presents.

“Being a free agent presents that type of situation as opposed to the draft situation where you’re not presented with any opportunity to make a choice.”