Four Questions with Casey Alexander

There's too much time spent on certain features for them to be buried in a newsletter. So starting today, we'll create individual posts for longer interviews and other original content from the Field of 68 Daily. For the Four Questions archive, click here.

New Valley, same result

Ever since it transitioned to Division I, Belmont has always been a conference title contender. It won or shared six ASUN titles in 11 seasons, then won or shared eight Ohio Valley titles in 10 seasons (along with eight NCAA Tournament berths overall). And it seems to be doing just fine during its first season in the Missouri Valley.

But to make the switch after losing seven of its top eight players a year ago is even more impressive. It's a credit to fourth-year coach Casey Alexander, a standout as a player under former coach Rick Byrd, and a superb coach in his own right when he was at in-town rival Lipscomb.

This season's squad is 15-6 overall and tied atop the Mo Valley at 8-2 after an impressive win at Bradley over the weekend. Led by senior guard Ben Sheppard, transfers Keishawn Davidson and Drew Friberg, the Bruins have been bolstered by the play of two freshmen, Cade Tyson and Ja'Kobi Gillespie. So how did it all fit together? Alexander talked with us for our latest Four Questions  

Q: How has the transition to the Missouri Valley been? Geography aside, what’s been the biggest adjustment thus far?

Casey Alexander: We knew it was a very competitive league and that it was a much more physical league than what we were used to seeing as far as how rosters were built a little bit, and probably more of a defensive minded league than what we're used to. And I think the officiated has kind of compounded that. I think the officiating is far better, but we get a lot of power five guys that just let you play. And our roster definitely wasn't built with the Missouri Valley in mind. So we've had to learn how to play through a lot, and then just how to hold our ground on the defensive end.

We're as intentional as we've ever been as far as trying to play fast. And our offensive tempo is OK. We're still in the top third in terms of tempo in our league. But I think if you ask anybody in the league, they've had to adjust to our pace on the offensive end. We're still pretty true to who we've always been, we're just not getting easy baskets. 

We definitely need to get bigger and stronger across the board, but but it's a lot more of a mentality. We've always been under-sold a little bit on the defensive end, probably because we're a little bit more scouting-report, strategy-oriented than 'we're gonna get some dudes.' I don't feel overwhelmed when you look at rosters. I trust Belmont, and how we've done it for a long time. 

Q: You’ve got three players shooting over 40% from beyond the arc, which is such a stark contrast from the last three seasons when your team finished in the top five for field goal percentage inside the arc. Is that simply a matter of personnel? Your teams have always emphasized the 3, but this is pretty incredible to see a team shoot like that, have 43% of its field goas attempts be 3s.

Casey Alexander: We did make a significant adjustment on the office end. For 30 years, we've been 4-out, 1-in with the traditional low post that we have fed the ball to consistently. And then we've surrounded him with four skilled players that can all make 3s. That's what Belmont basketball has always been. But we didn't we didn't feel like we had a guy that we could just pound the ball in there too and get the results that we needed. And we're not a team that is trying to get up 30 or 40 three-pointers a game, that's not what we're trying to do. It's just that we have some guys that are playing really well and shooting the ball really well. 

Q: Has it been a challenge to work in all the new players to your system this season? You’ve got two freshmen and two seniors who form four of your core players. How was that transition at the beginning of the year?

Casey Alexander: Oh, we were terrible. (Laughs). The strength of our program for years has been the carry-over from one year to the next. Even in years where we might have lost three or four or five seniors, we still had, eight or 10 guys on the roster that had been in the program for for a while. But last year we lose seven out of our top eight guys and we literally just have one guy, Ben Sheppard, with any real experience.

So we knew that our transfers would stabilize us. Davidson, although he's been hurt all year long, is is a real steady force for us and Friberg has been perfect. But it was just those two guys and we didn't know what the freshman we're gonna do. We knew we had a good class, but you never know with a freshman. So we went the first six games without Davidson and had a freshman starting at point guard. We're reaping the benefits of all that experience for Ja'Koi Gillispie now, but we're still not a finished product. I told our guys after the Murray State game last week that it was the first time it felt like a Belmont team this season. And I think the Bradley game was pretty similar.

Q: You’re a Belmont guy through and through. You played at Belmont, you’ve been an assistant at Belmont, you’re in the schools Hall of Fame and now you’re in your fourth season with the Bruins. But … was it strange for a Belmont guy to coach Lipscomb for six seasons? 

Casey Alexander: (Laughs) In the beginning. Belmont people were like 'How could you go to Lipscomb?' and people there were asking 'How could you hire a Belmont guy?' So nobody was excited about it in the beginning. But I had six great years there. I knew I mean I knew that I was very well aligned with what they wanted in their program, and it fit me perfectly. So it took us a while to get going. But it was much harder to leave, and come back [to Belmont] that people ever believe.

The rivalry goes way back. Don Meyer's a Hall of Fame coach who won 900 something games and is a legend for coaches across the country. It took a while, but by the time we finished our NAIA existence, both teams were top 5 in the country, every year. And it was just a great rivalry. Games were packed every time we played, no matter what gym we were at. We played at Vanderbilt one year, sold out to 16,000 fans, and had to turn people away. It was that kind of a rivalry in Nashville. Of course, we're talking about a time where we didn't have the Titans, didn't have the Predators and we were in the same league. And then we go to the A-Sun and we're in the A-Sun together and that just rekindled it. And it was different because we recruited all the same kids. I mean, we were basically the same programs, just two miles apart. 

We're still playing, but it's not the same. We're not in the same conference, which means we're playing our games in November and December, and that's at a time when football reigns supreme. There are still great nights, but it doesn't get the attention or excitements in the city that it used to. It's different, but it's still great.

Belmont plays at Evansville on Wednesday night.