Belmont’s Casey Alexander – One on One

Big Shoes to Fill

(St. Louis, MO) – Accepting an offer to become Belmont basketball’s head coach was not hard for Casey Alexander. As a former Bruin player and assistant coach he was excited about carrying on Belmont’s winning ways. He also knew he had big shoes to fill.

The retiring Rick Byrd won 713 games and 14 conference titles during his 33 years in Nashville. Alexander was a part of over 400 of those victories as a coach and player. Byrd was his mentor, role model and the standard by which he’ll be judged.

Do you remember who followed John Wooden at UCLA? Who led North Carolina between Dean Smith and Roy Williams? That’s right, most of you don’t remember. Why? Because replacing a legend isn’t easy. Following after Byrd is both exciting for the 46-year-old Alexander and something like a sacred trust. He not only has big shoes to fill, but a tradition to maintain.

Alexander loved working at Lipscomb. He took a Bison team to its first-ever NCAA Tournament, and this past season they played in the NIT title game. During Alexander’s final three (of six) seasons, Lipscomb won 69 games never finishing below second place in the Atlantic Sun Conference.

Despite that success, there was no question that Alexander wanted to come home.

 

 

Taking the Reins

Listening to Alexander you catch his energy and enthusiasm. His respect for Byrd is immense and his desire to carry on both Byrd’s ways and winning culture are expressed often. His coaching tendencies are similar to Byrd’s. He wants to run a fast-paced, efficient offensive game. As we noted in our previous story (Same But Different) the comparative tempo and efficiency numbers between Lipscomb and Belmont are startlingly similar.

While there will be some differences, Alexander worked for Coach Byrd a long time and much will be the same. Even the coaching staff will resemble Byrd’s squad.

 

 

Alexander says he and Byrd are very similar in philosophy, but the most notable difference might be chalked up to a difference in age. Social media and interacting with fans, media and players is ever-changing and Alexander will be more engaged in some of those arenas.

 

 

Roster and Recruiting

Belmont is graduating its top two scorers and a potential NBA draft pick in Dylan Windler and Kevin McClain. Three soon-to-be sophomores will be the leaders of Alexander’s first team. The squad will play a similar style, but his young Bruins will have to grow up fast.

 

 

Recruiting will have a similar feel for Belmont fans. Alexander will continue to build his program largely on in-coming freshmen rather than diving head-long into the transfer market. Under Byrd, there were few players transferring in and even fewer transferring out.

 

 

Scheduling Philosophy

Bruin and OVC fans will be glad to see how Alexander goes about his scheduling process. Mid-majors struggle to schedule good competition, but he was able to do that at Lipscomb and hopes to do the same at Belmont. Byrd’s ability to get big name programs on the schedule will continue. Lipscomb’s non-conference strength of schedule last season was even higher than Belmont’s. Of course the two teams played one another twice. The ‘Battle of the Boulevard’ is a classic college basketball rivalry for the two former NAIA programs.

 

 

Playing Career

As a point guard on a highly successful team, I wanted to know about Alexander’s best memory as a Bruin player. Ironically it was against Lipscomb.

 

 

Casey Alexander has big shoes to fill, but seems poised and ready for the challenge. He is not just a long-standing assistant with no head coaching experience who moved over one chair as what happened at North Carolina when Bill Guthridge replaced Smith. Nor is he a coach from a completely different region of the country with no ties to the region like Gene Bartow was in replacing UCLA’s ‘Wizard of Westwood’. Both were successful during their brief tenures replacing legends.

Alexander hopes to fill those big shoes for a long time.

Do Good