As I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve heard by now, Kansas State hired Belmont Coach Casey Alexander to replace the guy from Baylor who didn\u2019t work out. After querying the other B.O.T.C. staff for suggestions, the first thing I want to try and tackle is Coach Alexander\u2019s style of play, mainly because the last guy didn\u2019t have one.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a long time before next season tips off, so I can break this up into manageable chunks, starting with the offense.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Belmont Average Possession Length \u2013 Offense<\/p>\n
Fast over Slow<\/p>\n
Season<\/p>\n
2020<\/p>\n
2021<\/p>\n
2022<\/p>\n
2023<\/p>\n
2024<\/p>\n
2025<\/p>\n
2026<\/p>\n
National<\/p>\n
15.7 (22)<\/p>\n
15.7 (22)<\/p>\n
16 (30)<\/p>\n
16.7 (66)<\/p>\n
16.2 (41)<\/p>\n
16.2 (32)<\/p>\n
15.8 (21)<\/p>\n
Conference Only<\/p>\n
15.4 (1)<\/p>\n
15.1 (1)<\/p>\n
15.8 (1)<\/p>\n
16.6 (1)<\/p>\n
16.6 (2)<\/p>\n
16.4 (1)<\/p>\n
16.1 (1)<\/p>\n
Any way you slice it, much like fellow North Carolinian Ricky Bobby, Casey Alexander wants to go fast. His Belmont teams played fast on offense, and I\u2019m going to assume his Kansas State teams will play fast as well.<\/p>\n
Belmont Average Shot Attempts Per Game \u2013 Offense<\/p>\n
3\u2019s over 2\u2019s<\/p>\n
Season<\/p>\n
2020<\/p>\n
2021<\/p>\n
2022<\/p>\n
2023<\/p>\n
2024<\/p>\n
2025<\/p>\n
2026<\/p>\n
3-Pointers Att<\/p>\n
27.5 (19)<\/p>\n
26.2 (27)<\/p>\n
25.8 (41)<\/p>\n
24.7 (51)<\/p>\n
24.6 (70)<\/p>\n
27.4 (42)<\/p>\n
27 (53)<\/p>\n
2-Pointers Att<\/p>\n
40.3 (200)<\/p>\n
34.7 (233)<\/p>\n
33.6 (261)<\/p>\n
34.7 (227)<\/p>\n
34.2 (281)<\/p>\n
34.2 (234)<\/p>\n
31.6 (308)<\/p>\n
Again, this is self-explanatory. Casey Alexander\u2019s offense goes fast and shoots 3\u2019s. If you\u2019re looking to distill his style of play on offense, it\u2019s \u201cplay fast and shoot 3\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n
Belmont Assist Percentage \u2013 Offense<\/p>\n
Passing over Dribbling<\/p>\n
Season<\/p>\n
2020<\/p>\n
2021<\/p>\n
2022<\/p>\n
2023<\/p>\n
2024<\/p>\n
2025<\/p>\n
2026<\/p>\n
National<\/p>\n
60.4 (13)<\/p>\n
60.9 (14)<\/p>\n
61.8 (10)<\/p>\n
54.2 (85)<\/p>\n
55.3 (70)<\/p>\n
60.1 (29)<\/p>\n
61.9 (18)<\/p>\n
Conference Only<\/p>\n
64 (1)<\/p>\n
63.8 (1)<\/p>\n
64.1 (1)<\/p>\n
53.9 (5)<\/p>\n
55.5 (3)<\/p>\n
59.7 (1)<\/p>\n
61.4 (2)<\/p>\n
Coach Alexander\u2019s players make quick decisions with the ball. They catch it, look for an opening, and then move it along if they don\u2019t have anything. The ball rarely sticks in one player\u2019s hand for long, and most shots come off the catch, not off the dribble. The system creates the shots, and the players take them, rather than placing the onus on the players to create their own, which we saw a good bit over the last few seasons.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Belmont Turnover Percentage \u2013 Offense<\/p>\n
Tight over Loose<\/p>\n
Season<\/p>\n
2020<\/p>\n
2021<\/p>\n
2022<\/p>\n
2023<\/p>\n
2024<\/p>\n
2025<\/p>\n
2026<\/p>\n
National<\/p>\n
16 (27)<\/p>\n
16.6 (57)<\/p>\n
16.8 (67)<\/p>\n
16.8 (77)<\/p>\n
16.8 (164)<\/p>\n
15.9 (91)<\/p>\n
18.1 (273)<\/p>\n
Conference Only<\/p>\n
15.3 (1)<\/p>\n
15.9 (1)<\/p>\n
16.1 (2)<\/p>\n
16.4 (3)<\/p>\n
16.8 (8)<\/p>\n
15.8 (2)<\/p>\n
17.4 (8)<\/p>\n
Outside of 2026, when the Bruins lost their starting point guard 15 games into the season, Belmont is tight with the basketball. Coach Alexander wants to get as many shots up as possible, and you can\u2019t do that when you\u2019re throwing the ball to the other team. One downside of playing at the pace Coach Alexander runs his offense is the potential for turnovers. In general, the faster you play, the more turnovers you can expect. A big part of Belmont\u2019s success is turning that metric on its head.<\/p>\n
They play fast but aren\u2019t reckless with the ball on offense.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
In Conclusion<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re following along at home, Coach Alexander\u2019s offense looks like this, in terms of style:<\/p>\n
Shot Selection \u2013 3\u2019s over 2\u2019s<\/p>\n
Type of Shots \u2013 Catch and shoot over off the dribble<\/p>\n
Turnovers? \u2013 Solid with the ball<\/p>\n
I figured I would start with the numbers before I get into the offensive scheme and player selection\/recruitment, but here are a couple of spoilers.<\/p>\n
Casey Alexander selects players for skill over everything else because everyone in his 5-out system has a job. This isn\u2019t a system where you can hide players on offense, because everyone is going to touch the ball, and they\u2019re expected to do something with it. Belmont\u2019s leading scorer averaged 15.6 ppg; their 7th-leading scorer averaged 7.1 PPG. Again, for perspective, Kansas State\u2019s leading scorer averaged 23.4 ppg; their 7th-leading scorer averaged 3.6 PPG.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll be back soon to take a look at how Belmont and Coach Alexander attack defenses with its fast-paced, 5-out scheme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve heard by now, Kansas State hired Belmont Coach Casey Alexander to replace the guy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,8117,84958,1390],"class_list":["post-662136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-belmont","tag-casey-alexander","tag-kansas-state"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116242257781532950","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}