When Casey Alexander sat down with Kansas State’s new roster for the first time this summer, he didn’t leave much room for guesswork. The first big target for his debut season as the Wildcats’ head coach was the one everyone in the room wanted to talk about anyway: the NCAA Tournament.
“We’ve talked about it,” Alexander said. “That’s definitely our expectation.
We’re not naive to the fact that it’s not an easy accomplishment for this team this year. But at the same time, I think that we have what we need.
I think we have a good plan. I think we should expect to win games.
“Being in a league that’s going to get eight, nine or 10 teams in it ... if we’re walking into this thinking we’re not one of those, then we’re probably not doing ourselves justice.”
That confidence comes with plenty of recent history working against Kansas State. The Wildcats have missed the NCAA field in six of the past seven seasons, and their only appearance in that stretch came in 2023. Those struggles helped end the tenures of Bruce Weber and Jerome Tang.
Now Alexander is trying to change the script with a roster built almost entirely from scratch. Sophomore guard Andrej Kostic is the lone returning player, and even that connection is new in a different way, since the staff is entirely new as well.
The players, though, are buying in.
“I’m going to do more of everything this season,” Georgetown transfer Isaiah Abraham said. “I’m obviously a player that just cares about winning a lot.
That’s the main thing. One of our goals to get to the tournament, so that’s that’s huge in my eyes.”
“We were all (overlooked) at our past stops,” added Murray State transfer Brock Vice. “We haven’t been able to play to our full potential.
I have a lot to prove, and so does everyone else on this team. We’re just trying to make it to the tournament.”
Of course, setting the goal and reaching it are two very different things. Kansas State is coming off back-to-back losing seasons, and asking a roster full of newcomers to turn that around immediately is no small task. Alexander also leaned more on upside than on proven production when building this team through the transfer portal.
“We need a lot of those guys to outperform what they’ve done previously,” Alexander said. “I’m not concerned about having enough guys who have been here and done it. We’re just going to have some guys who need to be better than they’ve been.”
That’s where Alexander’s background comes into play. At Belmont, his teams were known for offense and for winning at a steady clip, reaching at least 20 wins in each of his seven seasons there. He brought in shooters such as Brandon Rechsteiner and Jaden Schutt, and the Wildcats should have depth and versatility even without a true headliner.
Alexander says that style and approach are part of what makes the job appealing.
“The journey of a season is my favorite part of coaching,” Alexander said. “Starting at zero and seeing how far you can go.
The zero line is a little different from year to year, because of retention and how long you’ve been in a certain place. But this year we literally started at zero.
Every staff member is new. Andrej is the only player that came back, but that was a different staff, so he was new to us, and we were new to him.
There’s just great joy in going through that with a group.”
For Kansas State, the challenge is obvious. For Alexander, so is the belief.
“I believe in this team,” Alexander said. “I wouldn’t mention this if I didn’t.
It’s not fool’s gold. I think that we have good pieces.
I think that we’re a really smart team. I think we’ll play really hard.
I think we’ll play really well together. That’s a good formula for winning.
It always has been for us.”
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Oklahoma States Offense Just Changed The Big 12 Conversation
Kansas States loss to Cincinnati already left a dent in the Big 12 race, and it now sits in the same conversation with a conference landscape that keeps shifting around it. Oklahoma States latest offensive burst has added another wrinkle, because the Cowboys suddenly look like a team capable of changing how the league is viewed week to week, while Colorados struggles keep clouding the picture elsewhere.
With West Virginia, Iowa State, BYU and Texas Tech all part of the next wave of relevant matchups, the conference still feels wide open enough for one good stretch to alter the pecking order. For Kansas State, the concern is no longer just what went wrong in one night in Cincinnati, but how quickly the Wildcats can steady themselves in a race where the teams around them are starting to separate, even if only a little. [Read more 🡒]