North Dakota State’s Lawrence Alexander Jr.: Shooting for his son
Lawrence Alexander Jr. corralled a short-hopped bounce pass on the right wing with 11th seconds remaining in the 2014 NCAA Tournament second round and his 12th seed North Dakota State trailing fifth seed Oklahoma by three.
Alexander had no fear: The pressure of playing the role of giant-killer against a national power on national television, and taking the biggest shot in school history to keep the hopes and dreams of an entire state alive for one more game, had nothing on trying to keep his son alive as a poor teenage father in Peoria, Illinois.
as a calmly pulled up and drilled the game-tying 3-pointer, sending the game into overtime and propelling his Bison to an 80-75 upset special for the first win in program history.
“That was an amazing day,” says Alexander, who calmly drilled the game-tying 3-pointer en route to a then career-high 28 points to lead the Bison to the first NCAA Tournament win in school history.
But it wasn’t the most amazing day of Alexander’s life.
“Not by a long shot,” he says, with palpable joy in his voice as he thinks back four and a half years earlier to Oct. 26, 2009, the day his son, Lawrence III was born.
“The birth of my son is the greatest moment of my life, it’s not even close,” says Alexander, who had turned 18 just four days before Lawrence III entered the world. “I was broke, I was scared and I didn’t know how I was going to keep him alive, and I am forever a better person for it,” he says.