As Casey Alexander transitioned to Kansas State, one of the hopes was that he would bring some of his former Belmont stars along with him.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. He helped flip high school recruits Jaylen Alexander and Devin Hutcherson, but couldn't bring any of his standout Bruins to Manhattan, KS.
Thankfully, though, Alexander isn't worried. The new Wildcats coach is focused on developing his current roster, not paying any mind to the absence of his former stars.
"The good news is we basically start on June 1, and we've got a lot of time to build that," Alexander said. "I think that’s where familiarity of staff and like-mindedness, we can foster a lot of that pretty quickly. I think it’ll feel like our team very quickly. Everybody doesn’t fit nice and neat inside some little box, but at the same time, they all chose K-State because of the message they heard. So just reinforcing that on a daily basis will be really important to us, and we'll cover a lot of ground quickly. We got a lot to learn. There’s gonna be things, surprises, all along the way. But I think we’re off to a really good start in that regard."
Senior guard Tyler Lundblade committed to Tennessee after winning the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) Player of the Year last season. He averaged 15.6 points on 43 percent shooting, the leading scorer of the MVC's best offense.
But what stung even worse was being unable to haul in Drew Scharnowski, a sophomore forward who could've been utilized as a developmental piece for the Wildcats. He averaged 10.7 points and six rebounds last season, a rising two-way playmaker who has even started getting long-term Draft hype. The Wildcats officially lost Scharnowski to Duke before the portal window closed.
Still, Alexander has confidence in his roster, despite the lack of big names.
"First and foremost, just [getting] guys that fit how we play and that we think will be successful for us moving forward," Alexander said. "It's a big difference from one program to the next, and how somebody performed at one place isn't entirely a predictor of how it’s gonna go somewhere else. We wanted the right people. We had to do that on a budget, and we’re really pleased with how things turned out."
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