Did K-State nail basketball hire with Casey Alexander? We will know soon enough
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- K-State hired Casey Alexander from Belmont; results will be judged over years.
- Calhoun to Cincinnati (from Utah State), Huss to Creighton, Schertz got an extension.
- Comparisons will depend on future records and Big 12 head-to-head games.
Five years from now, it will be easy to identify the biggest winners and losers from Kansas State’s search for a new basketball coach.
Did the Wildcats get it right when they hired Casey Alexander last week?
Or would they have been better off with Jerrod Calhoun, Alan Huss or Josh Schertz?
Comparing basketball coaches isn’t always a simple task. But all four of the names listed above received some sort of reward after K-State athletic director Gene Taylor spoke with them about the opening in Manhattan. Now they are on a relatively level playing field.
Alexander jumped from Belmont to K-State. Cincinnati hired Calhoun away from Utah State. Huss is set to take over as Creighton’s head coach next season. And Schertz signed a lucrative contract extension at Saint Louis.
Three of those candidates are now head coaches in a power conference. The other has one of the top mid-major jobs in the country.
It won’t be hard to compare their resumes over the next few years.
Heck, Alexander and Calhoun will be going head-to-head at least once every season when K-State takes on Cincinnati in Big 12 basketball action. Creighton is also scheduled to play a regular-season game at Bramlage Coliseum next season.
Those will be some interesting games for the Wildcats.
This situation is similar to when K-State hired Chris Klieman as its head football coach in 2018.
Some were skeptical that a coach who had spent the past seven years at North Dakota State could win consistently in the Big 12. Fans wondered if other candidates like Neal Brown, Seth Littrell or Mike Norvell would have made more sense for the Wildcats.
Eight years later, anyone can look back and be the judge.
Klieman retired after guiding K-State to 54 wins, five bowls and one conference championship. That’s better than what Brown was able to accomplish at West Virginia. It’s also arguably more impressive than what Norvell has achieved at Florida State. Litrell hasn’t been a head coach since 2022.
The results from that coaching search are now black and white.
In time, the same will likely be true for K-State’s basketball coaching search of 2026.