Casey Alexander explains how K-State basketball is recruiting ‘on a budget’
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Casey Alexander says K-State rebuilt its roster by recruiting “on a budget.”
- K-State added 10 transfers, two high school recruits and one returner.
- Coaches began recruiting calls by discussing money ranges before recruiting.
Casey Alexander is one of the few coaches in college basketball who isn’t afraid to admit that his team is currently recruiting “on a budget.”
Over the past few years, the Wildcats spent big on high-profile transfers like Coleman Hawkins and PJ Haggerty. But that strategy didn’t yield results. K-State has missed the NCAA Tournament for three straight years, and now the team is coming off a truly disastrous 2025-26 season that included 20 losses.
Things went so poorly when K-State tried to buy a good roster that head coach Jerome Tang was fired “for cause,” and Alexander was brought in to try and do more with less ... money for the transfer portal.
How much less is unknown, as NIL deals and revenue-sharing contracts with student-athletes are confidential. But it’s safe to say none of K-State’s incoming transfers will be the highest-paid player in the country, as Hawkins was at $2 million two years ago.
Alexander is fine with that. It doesn’t sound like he wants that type of player on his K-State roster in Year 1.
“We wanted the right people,” Alexander said. “We wanted the right kind of guys. We had to do that on a budget, And we’re really pleased with how things turned out.”
When asked to clarify the type of budget he was working with as he quickly rebuilt the K-State roster with 10 incoming transfers, two high school recruits and one returning player (Andrej Kostic), he rejected the notion that he was recruiting with pennies.
He said K-State coaches “definitely” had all the money and resources they needed to assemble a winning team.
But the Wildcats did have to be smart with their money.
“We were really cautious not to overspend,” Alexander said. “The hardest prat about the portal, when you have so many guys, is you don’t know which order the pieces will start falling into place. You have got to be cautious not to spend too much too early. You have to make sure you have some balance.
“Once you can start slotting Player A into this position and Player B into that position then it all becomes a little bit more clear. That’s really what I meant by the budget, is just making sure there was enough to go around.”
With that in mind, Alexander said K-State began every recruiting call with a discussion about money.
If the Wildcats couldn’t afford a certain transfer, there was no reason to move forward.
“The first thing you have to do is come to some level of an agreement on the money range,” Alexander said. “Because if it’s not there, there’s no conversation. We really had to handle that part of it first. Then you get into the recruiting part of it and see if it’s going to be a match there. That was a new to me. It was an adjustment. But it’s that way across the board. That’s just the way that things are going now.”
The end result: K-State landed 10 new transfers.
There isn’t much star power in the group. Brandon Rechsteiner (Colorado State) is the only transfer who averaged more than 10 points last season. But several of the transfers were once touted recruits. Jaden Schutt (Virginia Tech) started his college basketball career at Duke. Isaiah Abraham (Georgetown) committed to Connecticut out of high school.
It’s a group that has upside and fit into K-State’s new basketball budget.
This story was originally published May 1, 2026 at 2:53 PM with the headline "Casey Alexander explains how K-State basketball is recruiting ‘on a budget’."