Kyle Alexander's family reflects on his growth in basketball

The Alexanders traveled all the way from Milton, Ontario, Canada to watch their favorite Vol play in the SEC tournament. That would be their son, Kyle, the youngest of three children and Tennessee's 6'11" center.

His mother, Audrey, calls him a momma's boy.

"He always wanted to be around us, he used to say to me, 'I don't think I should go to school because I don't want you to be alone.' I'd be like, 'I'm not alone Kyle, I might be alone but I'm not lonely,'" Audrey Alexander said before the Vols SEC quarterfinal game against Mississippi State.

Basketball runs in the family. Kyle's dad, Joseph, played college basketball at Niagara in the 1980's and scored more than 1,200 points.

Kyle's older sister, Kayla, is a 6'4" center for the WNBA's Indiana Fever. She is the all-time leading scorer and shot blocker at Syracuse and was drafted no. 8 overall by San Antonio in 2013.However, Kyle was into other sports like soccer and volleyball. He didn't start playing basketball until his junior year in high school.

"I came home one summer and I was looking up to him and I was like, 'okay you have to be playing basketball now,'" Kayla Alexander said. "He slowly started to get into basketball and we used to play against each other and at the time I used to kill him because I was bigger and stronger and he didn't like it."

"Most recently, when he came home this Christmas, we were playing each other and he was throwing my shot like it was nothing, so the tables have turned now but I always have fun playing with him."

Kyle had some learning to do and the Vols even compared him to a baby giraffe at times during his early days at Tennessee. Now he averages 5.3 points and 5.6 rebounds per game as the starting center.

"I'm very happy to see Kyle playing at such a high level, the SEC is one of the best in the country for sure," Joseph Alexander, Kyle's father said. "From where he started and to be here in such a short amount of time, he's done quite well."