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MANHATTAN — Before Casey Alexander was hired by Kansas State basketball, he shed light on his Name, Image and Likeness situation when serving as the head coach at Belmont.
Speaking on Hot Mic with Hutton & Withrow of OutKick, Alexander spoke of how difficult it was to retain players at Belmont, noting that even if the Bruins had five times more money than they had, it still wouldn't be enough to keep top talent at his Nashville school.
"There's only one team spending less than us," Alexander said of Belmont's NIL ranking in the 12-team Missouri Valley Conference. "We are a small fraction of what some teams are spending. I'm not trying to show shade, we're making investments and that's going to change, but we have not been a player in that space."
Fewer than two weeks after the interview, Alexander was hired by K-State, where NIL hasn't been lacking, but it wasn't spent on the right pieces or in the right way to make the Wildcats a consistent winner under former coach Jerome Tang.
With more resources at his disposal, Alexander hopes to use those to better retain players and spend them on those who fit his system, rather than paying for the best talent and hoping it works.
"It's well-documented that (the program) is well-resourced and it's well-documented that they want to win here," Alexander said on Monday, March 17, at his introduction event. "All of those things were intriguing to me."
Kansas State's investment in NIL has made plenty of headlines in recent years, particularly with the then-record $2 million deal it gave Coleman Hawkins to join the Wildcats after playing most of his career at Illinois. When that didn't work out, K-State again spent big by giving both PJ Haggerty and Andrej Kostic reported $2.5 million deals. That's $7 million between three players across two seasons for a combined 28-37 overall record and no NCAA Tournament appearances.
Alexander did more with less, while competing in the MVC, by turning in a 26-6 season and earning the league's regular-season championship. At the same time, Alexander has lost star players to high-majors in recent years because the Bruins couldn't afford to keep them.
Whether K-State continues to spend at the level it has in recent years remains to be seen, but Alexander has liked what he's heard thus far.
"I've gotten promises that we're going to be able to function in the way that we need to in order to win games in the Big 12 and play in the NCAA Tournament," Alexander said.
K-State athletic director Gene Taylor added that he, Alexander and the other coaches the Wildcats interviewed over the last month spent plenty of time discussing revenue share and NIL. Taylor said the numbers many hear are "unrealistic" and that some will go away because of NIL Go.
"We gave him a number that he was pretty comfortable with," Taylor said. "Do we need to build on that and see where it goes? Absolutely, but I think the number we provided between rev-share and potentially what we have in NIL, he was like, 'Yeah, I can get a lot of stuff done.'"
Wyatt D. Wheeler covers Kansas State athletics for the USA TODAY Network and Topeka Capital-Journal. You can follow him on X at @WyattWheeler_, contact him at 417-371-6987 or email him at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: K-State coach Casey Alexander on NIL spending
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Speaking on Hot Mic with Hutton & Withrow of OutKick, Alexander spoke of how difficult it was to retain players at Belmont, noting that even if the Bruins had five times more money than they had, it still wouldn't be enough to keep top talent at his Nashville school.
"There's only one team spending less than us," Alexander said of Belmont's NIL ranking in the 12-team Missouri Valley Conference. "We are a small fraction of what some teams are spending. I'm not trying to show shade, we're making investments and that's going to change, but we have not been a player in that space."
Fewer than two weeks after the interview, Alexander was hired by K-State, where NIL hasn't been lacking, but it wasn't spent on the right pieces or in the right way to make the Wildcats a consistent winner under former coach Jerome Tang.
With more resources at his disposal, Alexander hopes to use those to better retain players and spend them on those who fit his system, rather than paying for the best talent and hoping it works.
"It's well-documented that (the program) is well-resourced and it's well-documented that they want to win here," Alexander said on Monday, March 17, at his introduction event. "All of those things were intriguing to me."
Kansas State's investment in NIL has made plenty of headlines in recent years, particularly with the then-record $2 million deal it gave Coleman Hawkins to join the Wildcats after playing most of his career at Illinois. When that didn't work out, K-State again spent big by giving both PJ Haggerty and Andrej Kostic reported $2.5 million deals. That's $7 million between three players across two seasons for a combined 28-37 overall record and no NCAA Tournament appearances.
Alexander did more with less, while competing in the MVC, by turning in a 26-6 season and earning the league's regular-season championship. At the same time, Alexander has lost star players to high-majors in recent years because the Bruins couldn't afford to keep them.
Whether K-State continues to spend at the level it has in recent years remains to be seen, but Alexander has liked what he's heard thus far.
"I've gotten promises that we're going to be able to function in the way that we need to in order to win games in the Big 12 and play in the NCAA Tournament," Alexander said.
K-State athletic director Gene Taylor added that he, Alexander and the other coaches the Wildcats interviewed over the last month spent plenty of time discussing revenue share and NIL. Taylor said the numbers many hear are "unrealistic" and that some will go away because of NIL Go.
"We gave him a number that he was pretty comfortable with," Taylor said. "Do we need to build on that and see where it goes? Absolutely, but I think the number we provided between rev-share and potentially what we have in NIL, he was like, 'Yeah, I can get a lot of stuff done.'"
Wyatt D. Wheeler covers Kansas State athletics for the USA TODAY Network and Topeka Capital-Journal. You can follow him on X at @WyattWheeler_, contact him at 417-371-6987 or email him at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: K-State coach Casey Alexander on NIL spending
Continue reading...
