Casey Alexander – Dancing Again

Belmont – NCAA Tournament Bound

(St. Louis, MO) – Coach Casey Alexander is tournament bound for the third straight season. His Belmont Bruins are taking their second consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament. The first year Bruins’ coach took Lipscomb to the Big Dance in 2018 and to the National Invitation Tournament last season.

It took seven head coaching seasons to get his first March Madness invitation, but four straight 20-win seasons have produced postseason opportunities. The Bruins are NCAA Tournament bound.

Belmont won the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament 76-75 over arch-rival Murray State. Last year both teams advanced the NCAA Tournament and each won a tournament game. Alexander’s Lipscomb team finished second in the NIT.

Evansville Tournament

While Alexander was a player and an assistant coach at Belmont, he had never led the Bruins to a conference tournament in Evansville. The 47-year-old Alexander says the Ford Center and Evansville are great places for he OVC Tournament, even if it turns into a relative home tournament for Murray State.

 

 

Murray State, Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State have been in the OVC since 1948. After a successful reign in the Atlantic Sun Conference, Belmont joined in 2012. They are the new kids on the block, but there is a healthy and congenial rivalry between the two OVC powers.

The schools were in different divisions during the previous divisional play format and each claimed divisional titles all four of those seasons and Belmont won two tournament titles. Now the conference teams compete for a singular conference championship and Murray State won the previous two regular season crowns and both tournaments played at Ford Center.

The two teams tied for the conference championship this year.

Alexander says he appreciates the rivalry and respects the rich OVC history connected with the Racer program.

 

 

Kunkel & Moose

Three sophomores are the nucleus of the team. Grayson Murphy is the quarterback, leading the OVC in assists and is a spectacular rebounder from the point guard position. When Murphy is dropping dimes, he is often feeding Adam Kunkel and Nick Muszynski.

The team’s top two scorers have been the model of consistency and were great on Saturday night. Kunkel (16.5 ppg), ‘Moose’ (15.3) and Murphy had amazing sophomore seasons. While Murphy is the emotional leader, Kunkel and Muszynski score the points.

 

 

Senior Transfer Tournament Bound

Tyler Scanlon is a huge part of this team. Belmont’s first-ever senior transfer came to Belmont after a solid three-year playing career at Boston University. Scanlon is the Bruins’ third leading scorer (12.5 points per game) and scored the game-winning basket against Murray State.

Alexander says he’s happy for his veteran who ‘took a chance’ on Belmont after leaving Boston U.

 

 

Since the Bruins were the second team to qualify for the ‘Big Dance’ they have a long time to know when and where they play. While Alexander says there is no reason to worry about those details, he would be happy to travel to St. Louis.

Belmont leads the nation is assists, run a precision offense and have a 7′ productive center. The OVC champs could be a tough out now that they are Tournament bound.

During our interview we discussed Mike Benkert, Seth Adelsperger and how he and Austin Peay coach Matt Figger confuse people. Our entire interview with coach Alexander can be heard at Valley Hoops Insider Podcast. (I believe I have the correct coach in the feature photo!)

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