Next season, Casey Alexander anticipates a different Kansas State (Shop K-State) basketball lineup. It seems logical that he wants to bring in a new group of players now that he has been appointed head coach, especially since the Wildcats just finished with 20 losses and a 15th-place finish in the Big 12.
During his initial press conference on Monday, Alexander stated, “You will probably have quite a bit of turnover this go-around.” But as he settles into Manhattan, he doesn’t want to keep changing the K-State basketball roster. He actually wants to take the opposite action.
His strategy is to place as much emphasis as possible on player retention, high school recruiting, and yearly growth. He intends to use the transfer portal only to fill gaps around a solid returning core of players in the majority of years. He doesn’t want to “throw darts” in the hopes that a dozen new transfers will succeed.
Alexander stated, “I would love for you to see a program where you know what our team’s identity is from year to year.” “I want you to be able to identify faces every year. We should play in a very predictable manner. I want to be able to adjust and modify game events. However, I would like you to see some regularity.
“I want you to be familiar with our players.” They should be part of the community, in my opinion. Every season, I don’t want to change the roster. We may need a minute or two to reach that point. This time around, I believe there will likely be a significant amount of churn. However, we don’t want to witness that every year. Our goal is to create a program. For K-State basketball fans who witnessed the Wildcats lose with transfer-heavy rosters during Jerome Tang’s final three years on campus, it will probably be a novel strategy.
Recruiting from high schools was starting to fade into the background. Alexander wishes to alter that. He claims that “closer is better” when it comes to hiring, but he will cast a national net. Additionally, he will search abroad for European talent. It will be intriguing to observe where he searches for players throughout the course of the upcoming month.
He will start by concentrating on current K-State athletes. He hopes to get in touch with as many of them as he can, even if he hasn’t been able to talk to them while they are away on spring vacation. Taj Manning and David Castillo look like sensible choices for Alexander to attempt to hold onto. Perhaps he will attempt to retain Abdi Bashir, Andrej Kostic, or PJ Haggerty. Alexander declared, “I’m not closing the door on anybody that’s here right now at all.” “I’m excited to have those discussions. They will return and we will proceed to the next phase if it is the right course of action for both of us.
Additionally, Alexander might ask some of his former Belmont teammates to accompany him to K-State.
After averaging 15.6 points per game for the Bruins this season, Tyler Lundblade intends to use the transfer portal. Alexander and other coaches would undoubtedly target him. Alexander stated, “It might include some Belmont guys.” That’s a delicate topic at the moment. We must ensure that we are acting appropriately. However, it would make sense that this might be a place where they might finish if there are guys that played for me there but aren’t going to stay.
After averaging 15.6 points per game for the Bruins this season, Tyler Lundblade intends to use the transfer portal. Alexander and other coaches would undoubtedly target him. Alexander stated, “It might include some Belmont guys.” That’s a delicate topic at the moment. We must ensure that we are acting appropriately. However, it would make sense that this might be a place where they might finish if there are guys that played for me there but aren’t going to stay.
