In the current state of college sports, with NIL money flowing and players constantly rotating rosters, programs have had to adjust as stars transition in and out of their starting lineups year-to-year.
Kansas State men's basketball has been one of the main institutions suffering this transition. Wildcats fans have watched their team's makeup change every season, with no roster consistency and very little player retention. New head coach Casey Alexander declared that this will change under his watch, though.
"I would love for you to create a program that, from year to year, you know what the identity of our team is, and you recognize faces from year to year," Alexander said in his opening press conference. "You know the style of play you're going to get, and it's super predictable. We have to be able to adapt, but I want you to see some consistency. I want you to know our players, I want them to be in the community, I want them to be here consistently. I want to see some retention; I don't want to flip a roster over every season."
In addition to program specifics, he also wants to create an identity and style of play that is recognizable to the outside and is unique to "Kansas State."
"Everything for me starts with style. Style of play, style of player, style of program," Alexander said. "The style of play kind of dictates everything else. If we're gonna be a wishbone team, we gotta have a certain number of guys. We probably won't do that, but if we were, it would look a little different. We want to be a style that is fun to play, fun to watch, fun to cheer for, and leads to wins. Every coach wants to be high tempo, but not every coach can say they're typically in the top 25 in the country, in that category per year, or scoring per game."
And he has the track record to prove he can do it in Manhattan, KS.
"We want to be a high-assist team; a really unselfish team," Alexander said. "We don't want to live and die at the 3-point line and be really efficient inside and outside the arc. Our team this year at Belmont was the No. 1 effective field goal percentage team in the country. It's not a track meet, it's about figuring out how to get the right kind of players who have the right skills and understand what it means to play together."
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