Casey Alexander has hit the ground running in his new head coaching role at Kansas State.
As he ushers into the helm in Manhattan, KS, his former Belmont assistants and players are expected to follow. The first was Devin Hutcherson, a three-star wing from Atlanta, GA. He previously committed to the Bruins but left after Alexander departed, and officially flipped his commitment to the Wildcats on Friday afternoon.
Three-star guard Jaylen Alexander had the same journey. The Oxford, AL, product decommitted from Belmont to follow coach Alexander at Kansas State. He was the Gatorade Player of the Year last season for the state of Alabama, averaging 17.6 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.4 assists, and 2.3 steals.
K-State Roundtable Sports writer Jayden Armant believes a lot more could come out of moves like this.
"When you look at some of the other players from Belmont last year, Tyler Lundblade and Drew Scharnowski, and all the other stars and assistant coaches, are probably gonna start heading over to K-State," Armant said on the Sunflower Showdown podcast this Saturday.
Kansas State's goal is to build a roster to account for the losses it will suffer these next few months. Jerome Tang's departure means many of last season's stars will exit as well, leaving the program to build from scratch for the third straight year. Hutcherson and Alexander are great starts, giving the program young talent to build around for years and sustain.
Alexander wants to regroup as many familiar faces as possible to establish some chemistry and execute his vision.
"It’ll be a mixture of the guys that were with me at Belmont, but several new faces as well," Alexander said in his opening radio interview. "I think we need to broaden. We gotta have some more experience at this level, and that’s a given. We’ll have a really good staff, and one thing they’ll be is like-minded. We'll all be on the same page and pulling in the same direction, and all about the same thing. So they'll love everything I’ve already seen about K-State when they get here."
In the meantime, we will see what other big names could follow. Belmont standouts Tyler Lundblade and Drew Scharnowski entered the transfer portal after Alexander left. Their additions could continue the momentum they had from an amazing season, as the Bruins went 26-6 and topped the Missouri Valley Conference.
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