WALTHAM, Mass. -- Former Kansas forward Cliff Alexander started his individual team workouts on Thursday with the Boston Celtics and repeatedly stressed a desire to redeem himself after missing the final weeks of the college season due to an NCAA investigation into improper benefits.

Alexander, currently ranked 32nd on Chad Ford's Big Board, highlighted a six-man workout for a Boston team that owns picks Nos. 16, 28, 33 and 45 in next month's draft. Highly regarded following his Chicago high school battles with this year's potential No. 1 pick Jahlil Okafor, Alexander struggled at times during his lone college season (averaging 7.1 points and 5.3 rebounds per game), then elected to enter the draft last month with concerns that he might be ruled ineligible if he attempted to return for his sophomore season.

After his workout with Boston, Alexander was asked what he wanted to show during his pre-draft visit.

"I was just trying to redeem myself," he said. "People didn’t see what I could do the last couple of games during the season. I'm just trying to redeem myself."

Celtics director of player personnel Austin Ainge, who organizes Boston's pre-draft visits, said Alexander's off-court issues were not a major red flag, but the team did ask him about the situation. How does Alexander explain what happened?

"My mom got tricked," Alexander said. A Yahoo! Sports report indicated that Alexander's mother, Latillia, had ties to a financial company that specialized in loans to professional athletes.

Added Alexander: "It's just something she didn’t know what she was doing. She never went through this process before, and we needed money at the time."

He admitted that little went according to plan during his lone season at Kansas.

"First off, I was coming off the bench starting this season," he said. "Then when I was playing, I didn’t live up to my expectations. And when I sat out, it hurt me. So I just need to redeem myself, just come back and get that hunger, get back hungry."

Added Alexander: "I think Boston got a good feel for it today."

The 6-foot-9 forward has an NBA-ready body with a long wingspan (7-foot-4). He might not have been ready for the NBA jump, but the NCAA issues forced the issue. Now teams like the Celtics are trying to figure out where he should be drafted.

"Cliff’s very athletic -- very athletic and strong," Ainge said. "He can shoot a little better than you could see at Kansas."

The Celtics put an emphasis on targeting high-character players who fit their culture.

"Our culture that we’re trying to establish here is important," Ainge said. "The coaches spend time with these guys, maybe more than their families, so you want to make sure they can exist in a team setting and be part of what we’re trying to build. We do the best we can. We have limited interaction with these guys, we have to rely a lot on what we hear from other people about their character, but we do our best to evaluate that, with the recognition that all these young guys have to grow up."

Asked about Alexander's situation, Ainge added: "I think we all know what happened. It’s certainly not the end of the world. I don’t think it reflects everything that Cliff is about."

Alexander and Okafor engaged in a memorable four-overtime battle in a Chicago championship game in 2014. Their paths diverged from there. Now while Okafor expects to be one of the first names called on draft night, Alexander is trying to prove himself again to NBA teams.

"[Okafor] deserves [the hype]; he had a great season," Alexander said. "I had an up-and-down season, and when I sat out, that kind of hurt me. His team won the national championship, so that's a boost for him. He's a great player. We've been battling since high school, since we were younger.

"Right now, I'm just playing with a chip on my shoulder, just trying to get back and redeem myself."