Alexander Birsan’s Long Rise Leads to San José State Commitment

Alexander Birsan’s recruitment exploded over the summer, but the 6-foot-8 Vancouver product had already spent years building toward this point. The offers may have come quickly, but the résumé behind them did not. After a strong high school career, success with Team BC and another productive summer with Drive Basketball, Birsan has committed to San José State.

His recruitment went from relatively quiet to crowded in a short period of time. Northern Arizona became his first Division I offer before San José State, San Francisco and South Dakota followed. Birsan is now spending his post-grad season with Royal Crown and is listed in the Class of 2027, giving him another year to prepare for the NCAA level.

The progression has been easy to track. Birsan represented Team BC at the 2023 U15 National Championships, helping the province win bronze while earning second-team tournament all-star honours. That gave him an early opportunity to compete against many of the better players in his age group across the country.

His game continued to grow at Centennial, where Birsan became one of the more productive players in British Columbia high school basketball. He earned second-team 4A provincial all-star honours in 2025 before moving onto the first team as a senior in 2026. During that final season, Birsan was averaging more than 35 points and 14 rebounds per game at one point.

The next test was whether that production would translate when the competition changed, and his summer with Drive Basketball helped answer it. Birsan averaged 21.4 points, 7.9 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.6 steals over 14 games on the adidas circuit while making nearly two three-pointers per game. He averaged 22.8 points and eight rebounds at the first Gold West Regional and followed that with 24.3 points and 9.3 rebounds at the second.

Those numbers mattered because they showed Birsan was not simply dominating high school matchups with his size. At 6-foot-8, he is comfortable away from the basket and has enough perimeter skill to create problems in different ways. He can space the floor, attack hard closeouts and put the ball down well enough to get downhill against bigger defenders. Against smaller players, his size gives him another advantage.

That versatility is the most interesting part of his projection. Birsan has enough skill to play on the wing, but the biggest long-term question is whether he can defend enough perimeter players at the Division I level to remain a true big wing rather than being pushed into a more traditional forward role. If he can stay with smaller players while continuing to add strength, San José State will have considerably more options in how it uses him.

His rebounding also deserves attention. Birsan has consistently produced on the glass despite spending significant stretches away from the basket offensively. That activity, combined with his length, gives him another way to impact games when the scoring is not there.

Birsan’s national profile continued to grow when he was invited to Canada Basketball’s U18 national team selection camp. That added another layer to a résumé that already included success with Team BC, Centennial and Drive Basketball.

From a Maple Minute evaluation standpoint, Birsan’s physical profile and skill level remain the strongest parts of the projection. There are plenty of bigger forwards and plenty of skilled perimeter players, but finding someone with legitimate size who is also comfortable making a shot and attacking off the bounce is much more difficult.

There is still development ahead. Birsan will need to continue getting stronger, particularly when finishing through college-level contact and defending more physical forwards. His decision-making will also be tested as defenders close space quicker and take away his first option.

The defensive side may ultimately determine his ceiling. If Birsan can consistently defend smaller wings while also holding his own against bigger forwards, he gives San José State a player who can potentially fill several different roles. If that part of his game continues to develop, the offensive versatility becomes even more valuable.

San José State is not getting a player whose recruitment was built on one good summer. There is a Team BC résumé behind it, back-to-back provincial all-star selections at Centennial and strong club production against higher-level competition.

The offers came quickly because college programs eventually caught up to the résumé. Now Birsan has another year to keep building on it before arriving at San José State, with the next stage of his development determining what kind of player he can become when he gets there.