Alexander commits to Kentucky

Former Florida commit Shai Alexander is staying in the SEC after committing to Kentucky on Monday.

Alexander, who decommitted from the Gators in October, chose Kentucky over Syracuse, Texas and UNLV. Florida also remained involved after the parting of ways last month. Forty-three schools reached out to Alexander once he decommitted, sources told ESPN.

Alexander, a 6-foot-5 point guard, is ranked No. 44 in the ESPN 100. The native of Canada plays at Hamilton Heights Christian Academy in Tennessee.

“It was fast-paced, that’s for sure,” said Zach Ferrell, the coach at Hamilton Heights. “Just a ton of phone calls and interest at the beginning, then his family kind of shortened the list. It looked like one or two schools every day coming in and spending time with him, watching practice.”

Kentucky coach John Calipari offered Alexander a scholarship after watching him on Oct. 31. Alexander then took a visit to Lexington on Nov. 4. Duke still No. 1: Duke held on to its comfortable lead in the Associated Press poll while Cincinnati and California are newcomers in the first regular-season poll.

The Blue Devils (2-0) received 58 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel, keeping their large lead over Kentucky, which was No. 1 on one ballot.

Defending champion Villanova received five firstplace votes and moved up one place to third, replacing Kansas, one of three ranked teams that lost last week. Oregon and North Carolina both moved up one spot to fourth and fifth, while Indiana, which beat Kansas 103-99 in overtime, jumped from 11th to sixth. The Hoosiers were No. 1 on one ballot.

Kansas was seventh followed by Virginia, Wisconsin and Arizona, which beat then-No. 12 Michigan State.

Xavier, which was ranked seventh, fell to 11th following an 84-81 victory over Lehigh. Michigan State fell to No. 13.

The only ranked team to lose to an unranked team was Connecticut, which dropped out of the poll from 18th following its defeat against Wagner.