Alex Tyus

Alex Tyus
Player information
Full name	Alexander Tyus
birthday	8th January 1988 (age 32)
place of birth	St. Louis , Missouri , United States
size	203 cm
position	Power Forward / Center
college	Florida
Club information
society	Maccabi Tel Aviv
league	Ligat ha'Al
Jersey number	9
Clubs as active
2007–2011 Florida Gators ( NCAA ) 2011–2012 Maccabi Ashdod 2012–2013 Mapooro Cantù Since 2013 Maccabi Tel Aviv 0
National team
Since 02012	Israel

Alexander Tyus ( Hebrew אלכס טיוס; Born January 8, 1988 in St. Louis , Missouri ) is an American - Israeli basketball player . Tyus converted to Judaism at the end of his studies in 2011 and finally became a professional in Israel, whose citizenship he accepted a year later and became a national player in his adopted country. Since 2013 he has been playing for the record champions Maccabi Tel Aviv, with whom he immediately won a triple crown from the national double and the ULEB Euroleague 2013/14 .

Career

Before studying, Tyus attended a so-called “prep school” to prepare for academic training. With the basketball team of the Harmony Community School he reached the final game of the national championship of the preparatory schools in 2006. He then began studying at the University of Florida , where he played for the college team Gators in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) of NCAA Division I from 2007 . The Gators had previously been extremely successful and had achieved a rare title defense of the national NCAA Division I Basketball Championship , so that in the NBA Draft 2007 five players, including three "Lottery picks" in the top ten, for a professional career in the NBA were selected. This led to an unavoidable break in the successful college team, which could only qualify for a national NCAA finals again in 2010, when they were defeated in the first round after two extra times to the Cougars of Brigham Young University . A year later they reached the finals of the SEC championship tournament in 2011 with the best record of all teams in the SEC, which was lost to the Wildcats of the University of Kentucky , who then reached the Final Four of the national NCAA finals. This time the Gators were able to defeat the Cougars in the round of 16 of the final round after extra time, but were subject to the Bulldogs of Butler University in the “Regional Final” or “ Elite Eight ” . Tyus, who was one of the starters from the sophomore year , was unable to increase his individual statistics in the last two years of study and was not selected by any NBA club in the 2011 NBA draft. At the end of his studies, Tyus married his fellow student Alli Cecchini, who had played in the college's volleyball selection, and they both converted to the Jewish faith.

After Tyus could not earn a place in the squad via the training camps of the NBA clubs, he went to Israel in 2011 to sign his first professional contract there. His Jewish faith gave him the opportunity to acquire Israeli citizenship in order to play with the national team of his adopted country and to get less restrictive playing rights and thus better earning opportunities in European leagues. With Maccabi from Ashdod , who had been promoted to the highest Israeli league Ligat ha'Al a year earlier , he reached a seventh place after the regular season. In the quarter-final play-offs for the championship, the team, in which, among others, his compatriot Joshua Carter had already played in the top German basketball division of the EWE Baskets Oldenburg , surprisingly beat runner-up Hapoel Gilboa Galil and defeated in the semifinals of the Final Four also the higher placed team Maccabi Rishon LeZion . In the final game, however, record champions and defending champions Maccabi Tel Aviv could not be beaten and they lost by 20 points. With the newly acquired Israeli citizenship, Tyus supported the Israeli national team in qualifying for the 2013 European Championship finals on the one hand, and switched to the better-paid Italian Lega Basket Serie A , where he qualified with the traditional club from Cantù for the highest-ranking European club competition ULEB Euroleague . Cantù, in whom Marko Šćekić played another former Oldenburg player, won the Italian Supercoppa at the beginning of the season , but in the ULEB Euroleague 2012/13 they were eliminated after the preliminary round. At the end of the season they survived the seventh-placed Serie A team in the first play-off round in seven games, but in the semifinals series they ended up in seven games against Acea Rome .

In the 2013 European Championship finals , Tyus was only used for a few minutes in the two opening defeats of the Israeli national team. Then Tyus, who was suffering from the consequences of an injury, was no longer used and Israel was eliminated from the tournament after the defeat against Germany in the final group game and only one win in five games. In July 2013, Tyus had already signed a two-year contract with an option with the Israeli record champions Maccabi Tel Aviv, who surprisingly lost the championship final last year and "only" became runner-up. With the team he defended the title in the national cup competition and was even able to reach the Final Four tournament of the ULEB Euroleague 2013/14 , with Tyus being named " MVP of the Month" for his performance in the quarter-final play-off against EA7 Armani Milan . Here they surprisingly beat PBK ZSKA Moscow in the semifinals with one point difference and were even able to beat Real Madrid in the final after extra time. At the end of the season they won the title against defending champion Maccabi Haifa in the final of the national championship and won a triple crown .

Web links

• Tyus, ALEX - Statistics on the websites of the ULEB ( English )
• Alexander TYUS (ISR) - Overview of participation in FIBA tournaments (English)
• Gator Men's Basketball Roster / Bios: Alex Tyus - Profile on the sports websites of the University of Florida (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Ma'ayan Efrat: Basketball / From Florida to Ashdod - waiting for Rosh Hashanah. Haaretz , September 21, 2011, accessed on May 25, 2014 . 
2. ^ Daniel Marks: Florida's Alex Tyus Says Shalom. Dime Magazine: dimemag.com, July 27, 2011, accessed May 25, 2014 . 
3. ↑ Allon Sinai: Israel itching to get Euro Basket underway. The Jerusalem Post , September 3, 2013, accessed May 25, 2014 . 
4. ↑ Alex Tyus Signs with Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv. Maccabi Tel Aviv , July 1, 2013, accessed on May 25, 2014 (English, media information). 
5. ↑ bwin MVP for April: Alex Tyus, Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv. ULEB , April 28, 2014, accessed May 30, 2014 (English, media info). 
6. ^ Igor Petrinović: Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv is the new king of Europe! ULEB , May 18, 2014, accessed May 25, 2014 (English, match report).