NCAA Basketball: 10 best players from state of Missouri of last decade
By Joey Loose
5. Trevor Releford – Alabama
A Top 60 prospect, Releford is a 6’0 guard from Kansas City who spent his collegiate years playing at Alabama. He arrived in Tuscaloosa in 2010 as part of Anthony Grant’s first recruiting class as head coach, hoping to help change the Crimson Tide program. Releford’s collegiate career was pretty successful, including hitting a half-court buzzer-beater for a win during his junior season.
Releford starting most of the 134 games he played as a Crimson Tide, and averaged double-digit points per game in all four seasons. As a freshman, he had a pair of 20-point performances, helping Alabama to the title game of the NIT. He played in his only NCAA Tournament as a sophomore before hitting that buzzer-beater over Georgia as a junior. He averaged 18.5 points per game as a senior, including a 34-point, 5-steal effort at UCLA.
Twice the conference’s leader in steals, Releford was All-SEC First Team and All-Defense as a junior, while also earning honors as a freshman and senior. He departed campus on all sorts of program leaderboards, ranks among the conference’s all-time leaders in free throws and points, and sits high on the steals lists. Releford was not drafted and spent his professional career playing overseas.