Kansas State’s closed scrimmage with Tulsa gave Casey Alexander his first real look at how the Wildcats handle live action against another team, and the new head coach came away with plenty to work with.
Alexander said this week that the early matchup delivered the kind of feedback he wanted. K-State and Tulsa met on a neutral court earlier this month, and while neither side has released a box score, an insider said both programs felt positive about how it went.
The scrimmage was not treated like a standard 40-minute game. Instead, the coaches broke it into segments and put a heavy emphasis on situational work.
“That’s exactly what it’s for,” Alexander said this week. “It’s very unusual to do it that early, but that decision was made on purpose.
We just felt like the earlier we could get some feedback, the better, and it served its purpose. It’s just so different when you play somebody else.
You’re in a different gym. You’ve got an opponent.
You’ve got referees. There are circumstances that come up throughout the game that require attention that are really hard to recreate in practice.”
The Wildcats and Golden Hurricane traded wins through those segments, and K-State had to navigate the scrimmage without a few frontcourt players who were dealing with minor injuries. That forced the Wildcats to lean more on their guards than Alexander expected, and he said they handled that adjustment well.
One of the biggest bright spots was Brandon Rechsteiner. The senior transfer from Colorado State reportedly hit eight 3-pointers and gave K-State leadership on the floor.
“Brandon Rechsteiner had an awesome day,” Alexander said.
Freshman Jaylen Alexander also drew praise from his head coach. Casey Alexander said the newcomer has already picked up K-State’s defensive system and has shown confidence on offense as well, which has helped him settle in and become a steady presence for teammates.
“We knew he was a good player when we signed him at Belmont, and we felt like he was a Power Four guy,” Casey Alexander said. “He had plenty of interest, but we got a commitment from him early and signed him early.
Then he goes on to be Gatorade Player of the Year (in Alabama), so we knew we were getting a really good player. We brought him here, because we felt like we knew he belonged at this level.
He has been exceptional.”
K-State also got useful minutes from LSU transfer Matt Gilhool and Bradley transfer Montana Wheeler.
Still, there was one area that stood out as a work in progress: defensive communication. Alexander said the Wildcats were not always talking well on that end against Tulsa, something he wants to clean up as preseason work continues.
The staff is also managing the workloads of Andrej Kostic, Timo Malovec and Gilhool, all of whom have been in and out of practice with injuries.
Now the Wildcats move on to a pair of open preseason exhibition games against Missouri and Nebraska, with plenty from the Tulsa scrimmage to build on.
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