Casey Alexander working to improve K-State basketball recruiting in Kansas City
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Cooper is showing Alexander Kansas City and its local basketball community.
- Alexander has toured Kansas City and met local basketball contacts.
- K-State values past in-state successes like Steve Henson and Dean Wade.
One of the first things that John Cooper made sure to do after he arrived at Kansas State as an assistant basketball coach was to take his boss on a trip to his hometown.
Cooper is from Kansas City. He attended Rockhurst High School before he went on to play for Wichita State and then became a teacher of the game at places like Tennessee State, Miami (Ohio), SMU and UNLV.
He still has roots in KC, as well as a strong connection with the local basketball community. He wants to take advantage of both now that he is working for Casey Alexander with the Wildcats.
“Casey has been to Kansas City,” Cooper said. “He has met the right people. That’s been done. He has taken a tour of the city, and he met all the people that he needed to meet. That’s important. We all understand this.”
K-State has found success with KC recruits like Nino Williams, Will Spradling and others in the recent past.
The Wildcats would like to target more players like them now that Alexander is the head coach. Alexander has promised to cast an incredibly wide recruiting net that stretches overseas as he works to build future basketball rosters in Manhattan. But he has also said that “closer is always better.”
Cooper has already taken it upon himself to show Alexander what the metro is all about.
Landing recruits from KC, and other nearby areas, is among his top priorities, even at a time when many coaches prefer to focus on the transfer portal.
“If you look at K-State you think of guys like Steve Henson and Dean Wade and Jacob Pullen,” Cooper said. “You think of these guys that may not have been super highly recruited players. They were good players who came to K-State and they had success. That has been like a calling card.”
Henson and Wade both grew up in Kansas and spent four seasons winning with the Wildcats before they made it to the NBA.
Alexander and his assistants are working to find more players like them.
“To be able to get kids that are from the area, including Kansas City, and to have someone like that come into your program and have success is important,” Cooper said. “Hopefully we can find those guys and get a couple of those players. I think it makes it more fun for the fan base, especially during this day and age.”