By Barry Svrluga
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 22, 2008

Culture shock, for Joe Alexander, came with a move around the globe, some 6,900 miles from where he spent his formative years in middle school, plus the first two years of high school. A new environment, at that time of life, can be jarring. He was used to his school, used to the neighborhood basketball court, used to banging against his older, stronger brothers in an effort to improve.

Beijing was home. His mother's little house in the woods of Mount Airy -- 30 miles west of Baltimore -- felt foreign.

"It was strange being here in high school after not living here," Alexander said. "Just some of the little things, like almost like everyone here had a bunch of inside jokes that I wasn't in on. It just seemed like America's youth, as a whole, they all seemed like they grew up together."

Alexander, as a teenager, was on the outside looking in. Now, as the most important player on West Virginia's basketball team, he finds himself inside looking out. Alexander is one reason the seventh-seeded Mountaineers have a legitimate chance to oust No. 2 Duke from the NCAA tournament's West Region this afternoon at Verizon Center. Alexander -- a kid who grew up shooting long-range jumpers but now finds himself with his back to the basket -- took the inside jokes and turned them around to the point where Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said Alexander "became an elite player. And as a result, their team took another step up."

This, though, has been a decidedly unorthodox process, one that started Dec. 26, 1986, in Taiwan, where Alexander was born and spent the first two years of his life. His father had a job at Nestle, and though he spent time in the United States, Alexander was in Beijing by fifth grade. There, he tried to learn basketball by playing against his two older brothers, Jeremy and John. His mother, Allyson, said the whole experience gave her children "a broader view of the world." It also meant for a serious adjustment when they moved to Mount Airy.

"I just spent my whole life just practicing by myself," Alexander said, "so I didn't really know how to play on a team. It was different. It was really frustrating, actually."

Alexander enrolled at Linganore High, but, predictably, didn't fit in immediately. His mother said most of the players on the Linganore basketball team also played football together, and "you know how athletes stick together." He had never really been exposed to set plays, never endured organized practices, never played in front of a packed gym.

He also brought with him an individuality that defined his work. Allyson knew how much her son wanted to improve, so on inclement nights, she would head to her room, put on earplugs and say, "Okay, you've got two hours, buddy." Joe would dribble, alone in the kitchen, the entire time.

"The whole house would shake," Allyson said by phone yesterday. "And in the summer, he'd walk up and down the street, bouncing the ball. Ask anyone on my street. They know him."

By his senior year at Linganore, Alexander was more comfortable with everything -- his school, his role on the basketball team. After limited playing time as a junior, he averaged 14 points as a senior. He could have played Division III ball, like his brothers did, at Washington College on the Eastern Shore. But he wanted more. So he enrolled at Hargrave Military Academy. After a year of competitive prep ball, West Virginia, under former coach John Beilein, gave him a chance.

Much has been made about the transition of West Virginia's program over the past year, when Beilein left for Michigan and Bob Huggins came back to coach his alma mater. No player, however, felt the impact more than Alexander. "I always wanted to be a guard," he said, and even at 6 feet 8, Beilein's perimeter-oriented offense allowed Alexander to act like one. He jacked up 131 three-pointers as a sophomore. Huggins, though, needed a post player. Alexander was the choice. It didn't come naturally.

"At the beginning of the season, Coach asked a lot of him," sophomore guard Joe Mazzulla said. "I think maybe he was a little overwhelmed by it."

Alexander, though, said he was in favor of learning a new skill. And he has followed the instructions; he has only 38 three-point attempts this year. But it didn't happen the first week of practice, the first month of the season. Even as he averaged 16.7 points and 6.1 rebounds per game and was named all-Big East, the West Virginia coaching staff believes his feel for the post didn't truly arrive until perhaps three weeks ago.

"I think he's a cerebral guy," Mountaineers assistant Billy Hahn said. "Sometimes I think he might be a little bit too cerebral. Over-analysis equals paralysis. And sometimes, I think Joe's so analytical that sometimes he got paralyzed instead of opening his mind up and absorbing. But now he has. You got to give him all the credit in the world. That kid could have fought us, but he absorbed everything."

Today, he will absorb a Duke defense that will almost certainly key on him. But he said he was ready. So what if there was no AAU ball, no traveling teams, no summer camps? As Alexander said, "This is what I want to do with my life," and this afternoon, he'll do it on national television as perhaps the best player on the floor.

"I know one thing," Hahn said. "I wouldn't want to play him right now."