The college basketball coaching carousel is already underway.
One prominent head coach opening has been filled at the expense of another. Belmont’s Casey Alexander agreed to take the same position at Kansas State, replacing Jerome Tang, who was fired mid-February for cause.
ESPN named sophomores Sam Orme, who averaged 12.7 points per game this year, and Drew Scharnowski, who averaged 10.7 points per game, as two Belmont players likely to follow Alexander to K-State.
Alexander has a decorated resume as one of the top mid-major coaches of the last decade. He led Lipscomb to a 113-84 record with an NCAA Tournament appearance and NIT runner-up finish across six seasons before jumping to Belmont in 2019.
With the Bruins, Alexander compiled a 166-60 record, winning 20 games or more in every season, with an NCAA Tournament appearance and NIT appearance. Belmont finished 26-6 this season, winning the Missouri Valley regular-season championship.
As Belmont now searches for Alexander’s successor, Kevin Sweeney of Sports Illustrated named two candidates to watch — one of which could come from the 30-2 Duke Blue Devils.
“Two names sources have indicated are likely to be involved in the search to replace Casey Alexander at Belmont: Alabama-Huntsville HC Mick Hedgepeth & Duke assistant Evan Bradds,” Sweeney wrote. “Both played at Belmont for Rick Byrd. Bradds also spent time on staff with the Celtics and Jazz.”
Bradds, who’s in his first season as an assistant at Duke under head coach Jon Scheyer, has a long history with Belmont.
The 31-year-old was a standout forward for the Bruins. He was a two-time AP All-American honorable mention, a two-time Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year, a two-time All-OVC first-team selection, and an All-OVC second-team selection during his career.
Bradds went undrafted and immediately jumped into the coaching world.
He earned his first assistant coaching job with the Boston Celtics back in 2018, where he remained before leaving to take the same position with the Utah Jazz in 2022. After four years with the Jazz, Bradds jumped back to the college ranks to work under Scheyer.
