Turning the Next Page
Oct 14, 2026 | Men's Basketball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Two weeks from the first exhibition game for a new-look Kansas State men's basketball team that features 13 newcomers, including 10 Division I transfers, head coach Casey Alexander in a news conference on Monday said that "I think we're ready to go."
"I mean, we can always use the (preparation) time, as coaches love practicing and getting better and trying to get closer to perfect," Alexander said, "but at the same time, it's two weeks from today we play Nebraska, and then in my mind, we're officially in season, so we don't have very much time left to go."
K-State plays its first exhibition game against Missouri at Bramlage Coliseum on October 23, then travels to face Nebraska in Grand Island, Nebraska, on October 26.
The first official game of the Alexander era is the season opener against South Dakota State at Bramlage Coliseum on November 3. The Wildcats open their season with five consecutive home games before meeting Gonzaga in Las Vegas on November 24.
Alexander, who was hired at K-State on March 13 after producing 303 wins over his 15-year career at Stetson (2011-13), Lipscomb (2013-19) and his alma mater Belmont (2019-2026), has a tradition of coaching high-scoring and efficient teams, and he is big on development, culture and roster retention, which have been pillars to his tried-and-true success.
Alexander has 10 consecutive 20-win seasons — something that only Gonzaga's Mark Few, Houston's Kelvin Sampson and Kansas' Bill Self can boast — while averaging 24 wins per season over that span.
Alexander's exciting, high-tempo offenses rank either at the top or near the top of Division I basketball in efficiency, and his teams carry a quiet swagger when the lights come on.
Such proved to be the case, apparently, when K-State met Tulsa in a recent scrimmage.
"We learned a lot," Alexander said. "It was very unusual to do the scrimmage that early, but that decision was made on purpose. I just felt the earlier we could get some feedback, the better. It served its purpose in a sense that it's just so different when you play with someone else and you're in a different gym. You have an opponent and referees and there are circumstances that come up throughout the game that you know require attention that are really hard to recreate in practice, no matter how many intersquad scrimmages you have. Yeah, we learned a lot."
Asked if there was a particular weakness that surfaced in the scrimmage, Alexander noted that Tulsa was forced to play without the services of some frontline players, forcing Alexander to rely on "a bunch of guards together that never practiced together," and that consequently forced K-State to adjust on the fly.
As for the end result?
"I think our response in practice in the last week, regardless of whether we thought that the scrimmage went well or not, you're going to really evaluate the video and to a heavy, heavy degree, and then really try to work on some things in response to that," Alexander said. "I felt like walking out of practice last Thursday compared to six days earlier in the scrimmage, we were a significantly better team, which is what you want at this stage."
Alexander formally addressed his team for the first time on May 31 carrying a message of excitement and enthusiasm to get the journey started, adding that "the journey of a season is my favorite part of coaching."
Then, by a vote of their K-State teammates, senior guard Brandon Rechsteiner, fifth-year guard Jaden Schutt and Brock Vice were selected as team captains. Rechsteiner played at Virginia Tech (2023-25) and Colorado State (2025-26), and he earned honorable mention All-Mountain West honors after leading the Rams with 12.0 points, 24 double-digit scoring performances, and 86 made 3-pointers. Schutt played at Duke (2022-24) and Virginia Tech (2024-26) and led the Hokies in made 3-pointers in both seasons with 65 buckets from long range last season. Vice played at Creighton (2023-24), North Texas (2024-25) and Murray State (2025-26), where he averaged 2.0 points and 1.8 rebounds last season.
"Obviously, the three captains, Rechsteiner and Schutt are going to play, and they'll be starters and they'll play significant roles and they have a lot of experience," Alexander said. "Brock's presence is great. He certainly is somebody that we'll count on as well. But those two — Rechsteiner and Schutt — would probably be the ones that out of the gate we rely on the most."
Several players have caught Alexander's eye in the scrimmage.
"Brandon Rechsteiner had an awesome day, we got a lot of good minutes out of Jaylen Alexander and Montana Wheeler, but that was kind of the uniqueness of that day when we ended up playing all our guards together a lot more than I anticipated (due to Tulsa being shorthand). You think about Jaden Schutt and the other guards, and it was just that we had two or three guards out there a lot, and that's not how I see us playing a lot of our minutes as we move forward."
Rechsteiner, a 6-foot-1, 190-pound senior guard, averaged 12.0 points, 2.5 assists and 2.2 rebounds in 27.8 minutes per game last season at Colorado State.
Alexander's first high school signee arrived on April 21 with 6-foot-2, 185-pound point guard Jaylen Alexander, the No. 1 point guard in the state of Alabama, who was named 2026 Alabama High School Player of the Year after averaging 19.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 2.3 steals per game his senior season at Oxford High School. He originally committed to Belmont prior to Alexander's move to K-State.
Wheeler is a 5-foot-10, 170-pound sophomore guard from Bradley was named to the Missouri Valley's All-Bench Team after finishing second on the team with 8.5 points and 96 total assists and third with 35 3-pointers while not starting a game last season.
Meanwhile, it appears that there could be an entertaining competition — or at times a formidable three-big-men-on-the-court situation — with JT Rock, Pape N'Diaye and Vice.
Alexander announced his first signee on April 17 — 7-foot-1, 255-pound center Rock, a senior who averaged 6.2 points, 3.5 rebounds and 0.9 blocks while playing 12.8 minutes per game last season at New Mexico. Rock played one season at New Mexico after he began his career with two seasons at Iowa State.
On April 22, Alexander went big again in signing 6-foot-10, 238-pound junior forward Vice, who has spent time at Creighton and North Texas before playing in 30 games last season at Murray State.
Shortly after, Alexander signed N'Diaye, a 7-foot, 230-pound junior forward who has played for both UNLV and Xavier.
"All three of them are going to play," Alexander said. "They'll play together some more when the opponent warrants two bigs at one time, but I think all three have had a good fall. I mean, we've got confidence in all three. They're very different in in a lot of ways. Pop's probably the best defensive presence as far as his ability to move and guard people and rim protection things like that. JT and Brock are pretty similar in a sense that they can really stretch the floor. They can score it inside, but their ability to pick and pop as big men will help us offensively a lot."
Alexander indicated there's still some shifting of roles among players on the court.
"Yeah, still changing," Alexander said. "Injuries have a lot to say. Like last week, we practiced with 10 guys. We have 14 on the roster, but we ended up with 10 and practiced all four days. When you got guys out and kind of lose opportunity because of that, then that creates opportunity for others, and it's just kind of a never-ending scenario. Naturally, once we start playing games, we will kind of evolve into rotations and more specific roles. I'm still not too focused on that just yet."
One injury to keep an eye on involves Timo Malovec, a 6-foot-8, 214-pound senior forward who averaged 4.2 points, 1.3 rebounds in 14.9 minutes per game last season at Miami. The timetable for his return is uncertain.
"Timo is still not doing anything live, and so his is ongoing, and it will linger into the start of the year," Alexander said. "But to what degree? Like, is he back playing a normal role by then? I don't know. Everybody else is more of a day-to-day, short-term thing. You know, but it all just kind of hit us at once."
Now K-State's two-game exhibition season is about to hit. And with it comes enhanced hunger and great opportunities.
"We'll treat the exhibition games just like a regular-season game," Alexander said. "I mean, we're not going to show the whole arsenal and exhaust all options to try and win necessarily. It'll be a little bit more vanilla than you would normally see, but it is a real important opportunity for us to walk through a normal home game scenario when we play Mizzou, and then walk through a normal road game scenario when we play Nebraska, as far as just how we prepare, how we do shootarounds, how we do video on game day, warmups, and those kinds of things prior to the real thing on November 3. Those exhibition games will be very beneficial to our team. We will definitely play to win, but it's not ultimately what we're going to be out there for."
Alexander reiterated that the Wildcats are ready for the season.
"The Tulsa scrimmage was great, then you turn one page and get your response to that, and then you turn another page and have a home exhibition and then turn that page and a road exhibition. Then you turn the page, and its full speed ahead," Alexander said.
"Really, we're ready to go."
Two weeks from the first exhibition game for a new-look Kansas State men's basketball team that features 13 newcomers, including 10 Division I transfers, head coach Casey Alexander in a news conference on Monday said that "I think we're ready to go."
"I mean, we can always use the (preparation) time, as coaches love practicing and getting better and trying to get closer to perfect," Alexander said, "but at the same time, it's two weeks from today we play Nebraska, and then in my mind, we're officially in season, so we don't have very much time left to go."
K-State plays its first exhibition game against Missouri at Bramlage Coliseum on October 23, then travels to face Nebraska in Grand Island, Nebraska, on October 26.
The first official game of the Alexander era is the season opener against South Dakota State at Bramlage Coliseum on November 3. The Wildcats open their season with five consecutive home games before meeting Gonzaga in Las Vegas on November 24.
Alexander, who was hired at K-State on March 13 after producing 303 wins over his 15-year career at Stetson (2011-13), Lipscomb (2013-19) and his alma mater Belmont (2019-2026), has a tradition of coaching high-scoring and efficient teams, and he is big on development, culture and roster retention, which have been pillars to his tried-and-true success.
Alexander has 10 consecutive 20-win seasons — something that only Gonzaga's Mark Few, Houston's Kelvin Sampson and Kansas' Bill Self can boast — while averaging 24 wins per season over that span.
Alexander's exciting, high-tempo offenses rank either at the top or near the top of Division I basketball in efficiency, and his teams carry a quiet swagger when the lights come on.
Such proved to be the case, apparently, when K-State met Tulsa in a recent scrimmage.
"We learned a lot," Alexander said. "It was very unusual to do the scrimmage that early, but that decision was made on purpose. I just felt the earlier we could get some feedback, the better. It served its purpose in a sense that it's just so different when you play with someone else and you're in a different gym. You have an opponent and referees and there are circumstances that come up throughout the game that you know require attention that are really hard to recreate in practice, no matter how many intersquad scrimmages you have. Yeah, we learned a lot."
Asked if there was a particular weakness that surfaced in the scrimmage, Alexander noted that Tulsa was forced to play without the services of some frontline players, forcing Alexander to rely on "a bunch of guards together that never practiced together," and that consequently forced K-State to adjust on the fly.
As for the end result?
"I think our response in practice in the last week, regardless of whether we thought that the scrimmage went well or not, you're going to really evaluate the video and to a heavy, heavy degree, and then really try to work on some things in response to that," Alexander said. "I felt like walking out of practice last Thursday compared to six days earlier in the scrimmage, we were a significantly better team, which is what you want at this stage."
Alexander formally addressed his team for the first time on May 31 carrying a message of excitement and enthusiasm to get the journey started, adding that "the journey of a season is my favorite part of coaching."
Then, by a vote of their K-State teammates, senior guard Brandon Rechsteiner, fifth-year guard Jaden Schutt and Brock Vice were selected as team captains. Rechsteiner played at Virginia Tech (2023-25) and Colorado State (2025-26), and he earned honorable mention All-Mountain West honors after leading the Rams with 12.0 points, 24 double-digit scoring performances, and 86 made 3-pointers. Schutt played at Duke (2022-24) and Virginia Tech (2024-26) and led the Hokies in made 3-pointers in both seasons with 65 buckets from long range last season. Vice played at Creighton (2023-24), North Texas (2024-25) and Murray State (2025-26), where he averaged 2.0 points and 1.8 rebounds last season.
"Obviously, the three captains, Rechsteiner and Schutt are going to play, and they'll be starters and they'll play significant roles and they have a lot of experience," Alexander said. "Brock's presence is great. He certainly is somebody that we'll count on as well. But those two — Rechsteiner and Schutt — would probably be the ones that out of the gate we rely on the most."
Several players have caught Alexander's eye in the scrimmage.
"Brandon Rechsteiner had an awesome day, we got a lot of good minutes out of Jaylen Alexander and Montana Wheeler, but that was kind of the uniqueness of that day when we ended up playing all our guards together a lot more than I anticipated (due to Tulsa being shorthand). You think about Jaden Schutt and the other guards, and it was just that we had two or three guards out there a lot, and that's not how I see us playing a lot of our minutes as we move forward."
Rechsteiner, a 6-foot-1, 190-pound senior guard, averaged 12.0 points, 2.5 assists and 2.2 rebounds in 27.8 minutes per game last season at Colorado State.
Alexander's first high school signee arrived on April 21 with 6-foot-2, 185-pound point guard Jaylen Alexander, the No. 1 point guard in the state of Alabama, who was named 2026 Alabama High School Player of the Year after averaging 19.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 2.3 steals per game his senior season at Oxford High School. He originally committed to Belmont prior to Alexander's move to K-State.
Wheeler is a 5-foot-10, 170-pound sophomore guard from Bradley was named to the Missouri Valley's All-Bench Team after finishing second on the team with 8.5 points and 96 total assists and third with 35 3-pointers while not starting a game last season.
Meanwhile, it appears that there could be an entertaining competition — or at times a formidable three-big-men-on-the-court situation — with JT Rock, Pape N'Diaye and Vice.
Alexander announced his first signee on April 17 — 7-foot-1, 255-pound center Rock, a senior who averaged 6.2 points, 3.5 rebounds and 0.9 blocks while playing 12.8 minutes per game last season at New Mexico. Rock played one season at New Mexico after he began his career with two seasons at Iowa State.
On April 22, Alexander went big again in signing 6-foot-10, 238-pound junior forward Vice, who has spent time at Creighton and North Texas before playing in 30 games last season at Murray State.
Shortly after, Alexander signed N'Diaye, a 7-foot, 230-pound junior forward who has played for both UNLV and Xavier.
"All three of them are going to play," Alexander said. "They'll play together some more when the opponent warrants two bigs at one time, but I think all three have had a good fall. I mean, we've got confidence in all three. They're very different in in a lot of ways. Pop's probably the best defensive presence as far as his ability to move and guard people and rim protection things like that. JT and Brock are pretty similar in a sense that they can really stretch the floor. They can score it inside, but their ability to pick and pop as big men will help us offensively a lot."
Alexander indicated there's still some shifting of roles among players on the court.
"Yeah, still changing," Alexander said. "Injuries have a lot to say. Like last week, we practiced with 10 guys. We have 14 on the roster, but we ended up with 10 and practiced all four days. When you got guys out and kind of lose opportunity because of that, then that creates opportunity for others, and it's just kind of a never-ending scenario. Naturally, once we start playing games, we will kind of evolve into rotations and more specific roles. I'm still not too focused on that just yet."
One injury to keep an eye on involves Timo Malovec, a 6-foot-8, 214-pound senior forward who averaged 4.2 points, 1.3 rebounds in 14.9 minutes per game last season at Miami. The timetable for his return is uncertain.
"Timo is still not doing anything live, and so his is ongoing, and it will linger into the start of the year," Alexander said. "But to what degree? Like, is he back playing a normal role by then? I don't know. Everybody else is more of a day-to-day, short-term thing. You know, but it all just kind of hit us at once."
Now K-State's two-game exhibition season is about to hit. And with it comes enhanced hunger and great opportunities.
"We'll treat the exhibition games just like a regular-season game," Alexander said. "I mean, we're not going to show the whole arsenal and exhaust all options to try and win necessarily. It'll be a little bit more vanilla than you would normally see, but it is a real important opportunity for us to walk through a normal home game scenario when we play Mizzou, and then walk through a normal road game scenario when we play Nebraska, as far as just how we prepare, how we do shootarounds, how we do video on game day, warmups, and those kinds of things prior to the real thing on November 3. Those exhibition games will be very beneficial to our team. We will definitely play to win, but it's not ultimately what we're going to be out there for."
Alexander reiterated that the Wildcats are ready for the season.
"The Tulsa scrimmage was great, then you turn one page and get your response to that, and then you turn another page and have a home exhibition and then turn that page and a road exhibition. Then you turn the page, and its full speed ahead," Alexander said.
"Really, we're ready to go."
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