European Prospects

It is not the classic Basketball territory that Alasdair “Ali” Fraser is coming from. The 2m01 tall big guy is born in Falkirk/Scotland and plays this season a very interesting role with the Maine Black Bears in the America East Conference. He even got honored with a Rookie of the Week Award after his 10pts, 7rebs and 2blks effort against Colgate last Sunday.

Fraser is a technical and very physical insider player with quick hands. He can work in the low post despite being a bit undersized and added some penetration moves of the dribble as well. On the negative side, his physical presence makes him rather slow laterally but the Scottish is aware of his weaknesses.

My weaknesses are ball handling and my jump shot. I need to be able to put the ball on the floor and hit mid range jump shots to help improve my high post game to get to the basket. I feel that by working on these aspects of my game I will improve a lot as it opens up everything for me and makes me more difficult to guard. I also need to improve my defense on smaller and faster players on the outside.

I would say the best aspect of my game is back to the basket. I feel that I have a good number of moves which are effective in the post and also feel that I can finish at the basket well. I also think that as an undersized post player that I can create space at the basket with shot fakes and by using my body.

Coming out of Scotland, the options to play Basketball on a High-Level are limited so the choice to move to the United States was the main option. After having thought about going to the US already a year earlier to play High School Basketball, Fraser explains why he did this choice this summer.

I am a huge fan of NCAA basketball and wanted to play here since I started to play basketball. It was always my dream so when I got the chance I jumped at it.

I sent game tapes to a number of different places and Maine was one of the places that got in touch. I was recruited by Pepperdine and Wagner as well as Maine and went on visits to all three places but in the end felt most at home with the players and coaches in Maine.

Ali has some plans for the next years and seems to put a major effort on his academic development as well.

I feel that over the next 4 years I will improve many different aspects of my game. I will develop my jump shot and ball handling and will also become a better defensive player. I also feel that I will gain a better knowledge of the game in general which will help me improve a lot.

I am majoring in Maths. I chose to do this because I have always been good at it and am very interested in it. It is my favorite subject as I like the fact that there is a definite answer for every problem and as I enjoy figuring out problems.

Alasdair Fraser is averaging 7.0ppg, 3.6rpg and 1.3bpg so far this season scoring at an excellent 64.4% of his shots. We wish him all the best for the next games and look forward to hear more from in the next years.