Kansas State targeting Belmont's Casey Alexander as next head coach

Kansas State is targeting Belmont’s Casey Alexander as its next head coach, On3’s Pete Nakos reported. He led the Bruins to a Missouri Valley Conference regular season title this past season.

Alexander took over at Belmont in 2019 and found immediate success in the Ohio Valley Conference. The Bruins went 26-7 overall and 15-3 in conference play during his first season at the helm to win the OVC title. They would have also been in the mix for the NCAA Tournament before its cancelation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

All told, Alexander had a 166-60 record at Belmont, which moved to the Missouri Valley in 2022. The Bruins handled the transition well, never finishing lower than fourth place in the standings, and the program won 20 or more games each year of his tenure.

Alexander played college basketball at Belmont from 1992-95 and got his coaching career started as an assistant at his alma mater from 1995-2011. That’s when he became a first-time head coach at Stetson, and he took the Hatters from a 9-20 record in Year 1 to 15-16 in Year 2.

From there, Alexander took over at Lipscomb in 2013 and got the Bisons to the NCAA Tournament in 2018 when they won the ASUN Tournament. He went 113-84 overall from 2013-19 and led the program to an ASUN regular-season title in 2019 when he returned to Belmont as head coach.

As the coaching cycle began to spin, Alexander emerged as one of the top mid-major candidates who could make the leap to a high-major job. On the whole, during his 15-year head coaching career, he has a 303-180 overall record.

Belmont lost to Drake in the first round of the Missouri Valley tournament last week in St. Louis. After the game, Casey Alexander was asked directly about the Kansas State opening as rumors continued to swirl, and he said his immediate focus was to be at Belmont with the NCAA tournament in his sights.

“My plans are to be back at Belmont and have a great team and see if we can win March Madness,” Alexander said March 6, via the Topeka Capital-Journal’s Wyatt Wheeler. “Unless you know something that I don’t know, I don’t think there’s anything else to worry or think about.”

Kansas State has been working to replace Jerome Tang following his firing mid-season. The Wildcats went 12-20 overall, including 3-15 in Big 12 Conference play, before falling to BYU in the first round of the conference tournament this week.