Efficiency, Competitiveness Drive Cunningham
May 20, 2026 | Men's Basketball, Sports Extra
Phil Cunningham fancies himself as a sports historian. The Kansas State men's basketball assistant coach, wearing a Powercat polo shirt on Tuesday, recalled the Wildcats' rich basketball history, and called the rise of K-State football "the greatest success story in college football in my lifetime." The veteran coach, both as a head coach and as an assistant, has seen some things since he earned his master's degree in sports administration from Mississippi State in 1992.
Hired by K-State head coach Casey Alexander on April 10, Cunningham, who played an extensive role in helping assemble the roster for the 2026-27 season, envisions another success story in the Little Apple.
"To have that Powercat on your chest, to me, this is an area that seems to be a blue-collar area where it's about toughness, grit and work ethic, and in basketball, too, that's been the mantra for years," Cunningham said. "The fan base is really going to be pleased with what Coach Alexander, his staff, and this team bring to the court.
"This has a chance to be something really special here, and I'm excited about it all."
Cunningham spent the last two seasons at Louisiana-Monroe, including the 2025-26 season as head coach. His ULM team lost at K-State, 94-85, on December 28. His knowledge of college basketball is rich, as he once served as assistant coach under Naismith Hall of Fame head coach Charles "Lefty" Driesell at James Madison and Georgia State.
Equally valuable was Cunningham's 12-year stint as an assistant coach at Mississippi State from 2000 to 2012, where he was a part of six NCAA Tournament teams and 10 total postseason bids while helping the Bulldogs to a 259-137 (.654) overall record, including a 109-83 (.568) mark in SEC play. All 12 recruiting classes Cunningham was involved with at MSU were nationally recognized, and he was lead recruiter on several standouts, including Monta Ellis, the Gatorade National Player of the Year who signed with the Bulldogs and went to the NBA.
Now Cunningham is one of the elder statesmen on a K-State coaching staff that features some younger assistant coaches whom Alexander brought from his previous stint as head coach at Belmont.
"All my Power 4 experience was in the SEC and I'm excited about being in the Big 12," Cunningham said. "I'm not going to be overbearing but just inject some opinion from experience when those times come. These young guys who came from Belmont on Coach's staff, they did the work that got them to this point. They earned this opportunity because of the way they recruited, coached and developed. I'm so excited for them to have this opportunity."
Cunningham is excited to see the basketball players together for the first time after the coaching staff spent many long days putting together the first team of the Alexander era.
"What struck me immediately in the way Casey put this together — the word is 'efficient,'" Cunningham said. "Casey is efficient as a coach, too, when you look at offensive and defensive efficiency. In analytics, he's always been a coach who's been efficient. That was immediately applied to recruiting. He was ready to put this roster together and start moving forward. In my role, I transferred that urgency into the recruit himself, his family, his agent, and whoever is involved. I told them, 'Now you need to understand, Coach knows what he wants, he has a profile, and you fit that profile. You need to understand once you leave this official visit somebody else is coming in right behind you.'
"What I've seen so far, there's a real eagerness to be a part of this. I'm a believer in being straight forward with these guys. Things move quick in this portal age anyway, but the way Coach did it, he knew what he wanted, and there was the budget part of it, and there was no wasted time on visits or watching film. There was efficiency from start to finish. I was extremely impressed with how he delegated things and brought things together and listened and had what he wanted personally, but he listened to everybody, and when you have as many guys as we have on our staff, he made us feel a part of the process. I was really impressed with how quickly it came together."
Asked what he found particularly impressive about the player roster, Cunningham replied, "You can break down each player and collectively you could break it down and throw darts at it for whatever reason, and people do that, that's what they do out there, but in general, we have the guys that we really wanted and needed."
"The fit is there, and it's a great class," he continued. "There aren't too many seniors or too many young guys. The thing that stands out too me is collectively we have a bunch of guys and you can say, 'Man, if they just take that next step.' The potential is there and if they take that next step what will that be? If five or six of them take that next step individually in what they're capable of doing, we have a chance to really surprise people."
Cunningham indicated that Jaden Schutt could be one to watch. The 6-foot-5 sharpshooting guard began his collegiate career at Duke, suffered injuries over his two years, then spent two seasons at Virginia Tech before signing with K-State, where he will finish out his eligibility after earning a medical redshirt in 2023-24. Schutt shot 37.0% (129-of-349) from 3-point range in 78 games.
Most notably, Schutt led Virginia Tech in 3-pointers both seasons, averaging nearly two 3-pointers per game, including career bests in 3-point shooting percentage (38.5%) and made 3-pointers (65) as a redshirt junior in 2025-26. He had a career-high six 3-pointers against George Mason in 2025 and scored in double figures in 25 games, including a career-high 20 points against Syracuse in March.
"I'm so excited to see all of our players," Cunningham said. "When you see them on video it is so different than watching them on the court. There's potential for so many of them. Jaden can shoot. I'm so excited to see what he can do in this system. He's had a good career, but he hasn't had probably what he anticipated coming out of high school, when he was a top 50 player and maybe the best shooter in his class. He goes to Duke and gets hurt and transfers to Virginia Tech and he plays well and shoots the ball well, but does he have that next step in him? Getting to know him and his background, I know how committed he is to take that next step. He has a mental commitment and willingness. I can't wait to see his work ethic to try and get to where he wants to be. He's a guy I'm really excited to see.
"He made a terrific decision to come to K-State and I want to see that work out for him. I can apply that to every guy on the team, but looking at Jayden specifically, I'm excited to see how this decision parlays into individual success this next year."
Of course, the building block for the K-State roster came with the return of sophomore guard Andrej Kostic, the 6-foot-6, 210-pound native of Belgrade, Serbia, who averaged 5.2 points on 37.7% (40-of-106) shooting, including 37.5% (30-of-80) on 3-pointers, in his first season with the Wildcats. Regarded as a standout on the international basketball circuit, Kostic has displayed talent across the globe, and Cunningham is confident that Kostic can show much more than he did during his first season at K-State because of Alexander's offensive system.
"Andrej Kostic is a great example," Cunningham said. "All the international agents, they're so excited about Coach Alexander coming to K-State and the potential for the European players to play in their system. They say, 'Man, Andrej is going to be terrific under Coach Alexander.' Andrej is a guy who has a lot of talent and who had a lot of hype coming over here. Can he take that next step? If we do that collectively, we have a chance to really surprise people."
Cunningham has long maintained relationships with representatives of international talent.
"I've been saying to Coach Alexander for years, 'You need to get into international recruiting, because they're offensive background fits your system so well,'" Cunningham said. "Now we're going to have two guys and moving forward I hope we have more. The European system of play really fits what Coach has done in the past and what he's going to do here. I've recruited international so much and have so many relationships with agents, and they're aware of Casey and what he did at Belmont, and there's a lot of excitement in getting some of their guys over here. The one thing I see from international guys who come to the U.S., how many of them are that one guy who maybe can be the shooter for us, or we peg him into a role, and not many do what Illinois has done, and say, 'We're going to take what they do,' and really take advantage of their skillset when they get here."
The roster quickly filled as players fell into place like dominoes.
First arrived 7-foot-1, 255-pound center TJ Rock, a junior who averaged 6.2 points, 3.5 rebounds and 0.9 blocks while playing 12.8 minutes per game last season at New Mexico. Then came the signing of 6-foot-7, 205-pound junior forward Isaiah Abraham, who averaged 4.8 points, 2.9 rebounds and 0.7 assists in 19.9 minutes per game last season at Georgetown. After securing Schutt, K-State signed two high school talents in 6-foot-2, 185-pound point guard Jaylen Alexander, the No. 1 point guard in the state of Alabama, who was named 2026 Alabama High School Player of the Year, and then Devin Hutcherson, a 6-foot-4, 180-pound forward who averaged 19.6 points and 8.2 rebounds his senior season at Episcopal School in Atlanta and was named 2026 Class 3A-1A Private Player of the Year.
K-State went big again in signing 6-foot-10, 238-pound junior forward Brock Vice, who averaged 2.0 points and 1.8 rebounds while averaging 5.3 minutes per game last season at Murray State. Then came Dezdrick Lindsay, a 6-foot-6, 215-pound senior forward, who averaged 5.1 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.5 assists last season at Oregon.
Two more big men came on board. Pape N'Diaye is a 7-foot, 230-pound junior forward who averaged 2.0 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.0 blocks last season at Xavier. Matt Gilhool, a 6-foot-11, 213-pound forward, arrives after redshirting his freshman season at LSU.
In search of a potential floor leader, Alexander signed Brandon Rechsteiner, a 6-foot-1, 190-pound senior guard, who averaged 7.2 points, 2.3 assists and 1.3 rebounds in 20.6 minutes per game last season at Colorado State.
Montana Wheeler is a 5-foot-10, 170-pound sophomore guard from Bradley was named to the Missouri Valley's All-Bench Team after finishing second on the team with 8.5 points and 96 total assists and third with 35 3-pointers while not starting a game last season.
K-State then signed Timotej Malovec, a 6-foot-8, 214-pound sophomore forward who averaged 4.2 points, 1.3 rebounds in 14.9 minutes per game last season at Miami.
"So many of those guys fit the profile for what's been the Belmont profile and what is now the K-State profile," Cunningham said. "When you combine their individual skillset with the system that's going to be in place and the way it's going to be coached, once they see a different style and the opportunity they have to really shine in this system, that's fuel for them and it'll be a great motivator for them. When the individual improves then collectively you improve.
"You put those guys in this system, they were chosen because they fit that profile, and then both sides came together, and now the summer is so important to immediately get these guys moving forward."
As for the most important ingredient for the Wildcats to succeed?
"Collective competitiveness," Cunningham said. "You see it every day individually, but it's got to be collective. You have to have that grit, toughness and willingness to compete. Teamwork is such a huge part of that. Ultimately, it comes down to how competitive you can be collectively. There are so many little things that go into that. I'm a huge guy in having that competitive mindset."
Cunningham is excited to lend his versatility while coaching on the basketball court. As for Cunningham's exact role?
"It's a little unknown in general," he said. "A lot of people think in terms of positional groups with the football mentality of having position coaches. Basketball is different. I bring a lot of versatility with recruiting and the experience I have throughout my career as much as anything is what I add to this staff. I've worked with guards, bigs, and as the head coach, and I've done it all. Wherever Coach feels to slot us in, I'm good with that.
"I've been versatile throughout my entire career."
And almost everywhere he's been in his accomplished career, he's been successful as well.
Hired by K-State head coach Casey Alexander on April 10, Cunningham, who played an extensive role in helping assemble the roster for the 2026-27 season, envisions another success story in the Little Apple.
"To have that Powercat on your chest, to me, this is an area that seems to be a blue-collar area where it's about toughness, grit and work ethic, and in basketball, too, that's been the mantra for years," Cunningham said. "The fan base is really going to be pleased with what Coach Alexander, his staff, and this team bring to the court.
"This has a chance to be something really special here, and I'm excited about it all."
Cunningham spent the last two seasons at Louisiana-Monroe, including the 2025-26 season as head coach. His ULM team lost at K-State, 94-85, on December 28. His knowledge of college basketball is rich, as he once served as assistant coach under Naismith Hall of Fame head coach Charles "Lefty" Driesell at James Madison and Georgia State.
Equally valuable was Cunningham's 12-year stint as an assistant coach at Mississippi State from 2000 to 2012, where he was a part of six NCAA Tournament teams and 10 total postseason bids while helping the Bulldogs to a 259-137 (.654) overall record, including a 109-83 (.568) mark in SEC play. All 12 recruiting classes Cunningham was involved with at MSU were nationally recognized, and he was lead recruiter on several standouts, including Monta Ellis, the Gatorade National Player of the Year who signed with the Bulldogs and went to the NBA.
Now Cunningham is one of the elder statesmen on a K-State coaching staff that features some younger assistant coaches whom Alexander brought from his previous stint as head coach at Belmont.
"All my Power 4 experience was in the SEC and I'm excited about being in the Big 12," Cunningham said. "I'm not going to be overbearing but just inject some opinion from experience when those times come. These young guys who came from Belmont on Coach's staff, they did the work that got them to this point. They earned this opportunity because of the way they recruited, coached and developed. I'm so excited for them to have this opportunity."
Cunningham is excited to see the basketball players together for the first time after the coaching staff spent many long days putting together the first team of the Alexander era.
"What struck me immediately in the way Casey put this together — the word is 'efficient,'" Cunningham said. "Casey is efficient as a coach, too, when you look at offensive and defensive efficiency. In analytics, he's always been a coach who's been efficient. That was immediately applied to recruiting. He was ready to put this roster together and start moving forward. In my role, I transferred that urgency into the recruit himself, his family, his agent, and whoever is involved. I told them, 'Now you need to understand, Coach knows what he wants, he has a profile, and you fit that profile. You need to understand once you leave this official visit somebody else is coming in right behind you.'
"What I've seen so far, there's a real eagerness to be a part of this. I'm a believer in being straight forward with these guys. Things move quick in this portal age anyway, but the way Coach did it, he knew what he wanted, and there was the budget part of it, and there was no wasted time on visits or watching film. There was efficiency from start to finish. I was extremely impressed with how he delegated things and brought things together and listened and had what he wanted personally, but he listened to everybody, and when you have as many guys as we have on our staff, he made us feel a part of the process. I was really impressed with how quickly it came together."
Asked what he found particularly impressive about the player roster, Cunningham replied, "You can break down each player and collectively you could break it down and throw darts at it for whatever reason, and people do that, that's what they do out there, but in general, we have the guys that we really wanted and needed."
"The fit is there, and it's a great class," he continued. "There aren't too many seniors or too many young guys. The thing that stands out too me is collectively we have a bunch of guys and you can say, 'Man, if they just take that next step.' The potential is there and if they take that next step what will that be? If five or six of them take that next step individually in what they're capable of doing, we have a chance to really surprise people."
Cunningham indicated that Jaden Schutt could be one to watch. The 6-foot-5 sharpshooting guard began his collegiate career at Duke, suffered injuries over his two years, then spent two seasons at Virginia Tech before signing with K-State, where he will finish out his eligibility after earning a medical redshirt in 2023-24. Schutt shot 37.0% (129-of-349) from 3-point range in 78 games.
Most notably, Schutt led Virginia Tech in 3-pointers both seasons, averaging nearly two 3-pointers per game, including career bests in 3-point shooting percentage (38.5%) and made 3-pointers (65) as a redshirt junior in 2025-26. He had a career-high six 3-pointers against George Mason in 2025 and scored in double figures in 25 games, including a career-high 20 points against Syracuse in March.
"I'm so excited to see all of our players," Cunningham said. "When you see them on video it is so different than watching them on the court. There's potential for so many of them. Jaden can shoot. I'm so excited to see what he can do in this system. He's had a good career, but he hasn't had probably what he anticipated coming out of high school, when he was a top 50 player and maybe the best shooter in his class. He goes to Duke and gets hurt and transfers to Virginia Tech and he plays well and shoots the ball well, but does he have that next step in him? Getting to know him and his background, I know how committed he is to take that next step. He has a mental commitment and willingness. I can't wait to see his work ethic to try and get to where he wants to be. He's a guy I'm really excited to see.
"He made a terrific decision to come to K-State and I want to see that work out for him. I can apply that to every guy on the team, but looking at Jayden specifically, I'm excited to see how this decision parlays into individual success this next year."
Of course, the building block for the K-State roster came with the return of sophomore guard Andrej Kostic, the 6-foot-6, 210-pound native of Belgrade, Serbia, who averaged 5.2 points on 37.7% (40-of-106) shooting, including 37.5% (30-of-80) on 3-pointers, in his first season with the Wildcats. Regarded as a standout on the international basketball circuit, Kostic has displayed talent across the globe, and Cunningham is confident that Kostic can show much more than he did during his first season at K-State because of Alexander's offensive system.
"Andrej Kostic is a great example," Cunningham said. "All the international agents, they're so excited about Coach Alexander coming to K-State and the potential for the European players to play in their system. They say, 'Man, Andrej is going to be terrific under Coach Alexander.' Andrej is a guy who has a lot of talent and who had a lot of hype coming over here. Can he take that next step? If we do that collectively, we have a chance to really surprise people."
Cunningham has long maintained relationships with representatives of international talent.
"I've been saying to Coach Alexander for years, 'You need to get into international recruiting, because they're offensive background fits your system so well,'" Cunningham said. "Now we're going to have two guys and moving forward I hope we have more. The European system of play really fits what Coach has done in the past and what he's going to do here. I've recruited international so much and have so many relationships with agents, and they're aware of Casey and what he did at Belmont, and there's a lot of excitement in getting some of their guys over here. The one thing I see from international guys who come to the U.S., how many of them are that one guy who maybe can be the shooter for us, or we peg him into a role, and not many do what Illinois has done, and say, 'We're going to take what they do,' and really take advantage of their skillset when they get here."
The roster quickly filled as players fell into place like dominoes.
First arrived 7-foot-1, 255-pound center TJ Rock, a junior who averaged 6.2 points, 3.5 rebounds and 0.9 blocks while playing 12.8 minutes per game last season at New Mexico. Then came the signing of 6-foot-7, 205-pound junior forward Isaiah Abraham, who averaged 4.8 points, 2.9 rebounds and 0.7 assists in 19.9 minutes per game last season at Georgetown. After securing Schutt, K-State signed two high school talents in 6-foot-2, 185-pound point guard Jaylen Alexander, the No. 1 point guard in the state of Alabama, who was named 2026 Alabama High School Player of the Year, and then Devin Hutcherson, a 6-foot-4, 180-pound forward who averaged 19.6 points and 8.2 rebounds his senior season at Episcopal School in Atlanta and was named 2026 Class 3A-1A Private Player of the Year.
K-State went big again in signing 6-foot-10, 238-pound junior forward Brock Vice, who averaged 2.0 points and 1.8 rebounds while averaging 5.3 minutes per game last season at Murray State. Then came Dezdrick Lindsay, a 6-foot-6, 215-pound senior forward, who averaged 5.1 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.5 assists last season at Oregon.
Two more big men came on board. Pape N'Diaye is a 7-foot, 230-pound junior forward who averaged 2.0 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.0 blocks last season at Xavier. Matt Gilhool, a 6-foot-11, 213-pound forward, arrives after redshirting his freshman season at LSU.
In search of a potential floor leader, Alexander signed Brandon Rechsteiner, a 6-foot-1, 190-pound senior guard, who averaged 7.2 points, 2.3 assists and 1.3 rebounds in 20.6 minutes per game last season at Colorado State.
Montana Wheeler is a 5-foot-10, 170-pound sophomore guard from Bradley was named to the Missouri Valley's All-Bench Team after finishing second on the team with 8.5 points and 96 total assists and third with 35 3-pointers while not starting a game last season.
K-State then signed Timotej Malovec, a 6-foot-8, 214-pound sophomore forward who averaged 4.2 points, 1.3 rebounds in 14.9 minutes per game last season at Miami.
"So many of those guys fit the profile for what's been the Belmont profile and what is now the K-State profile," Cunningham said. "When you combine their individual skillset with the system that's going to be in place and the way it's going to be coached, once they see a different style and the opportunity they have to really shine in this system, that's fuel for them and it'll be a great motivator for them. When the individual improves then collectively you improve.
"You put those guys in this system, they were chosen because they fit that profile, and then both sides came together, and now the summer is so important to immediately get these guys moving forward."
As for the most important ingredient for the Wildcats to succeed?
"Collective competitiveness," Cunningham said. "You see it every day individually, but it's got to be collective. You have to have that grit, toughness and willingness to compete. Teamwork is such a huge part of that. Ultimately, it comes down to how competitive you can be collectively. There are so many little things that go into that. I'm a huge guy in having that competitive mindset."
Cunningham is excited to lend his versatility while coaching on the basketball court. As for Cunningham's exact role?
"It's a little unknown in general," he said. "A lot of people think in terms of positional groups with the football mentality of having position coaches. Basketball is different. I bring a lot of versatility with recruiting and the experience I have throughout my career as much as anything is what I add to this staff. I've worked with guards, bigs, and as the head coach, and I've done it all. Wherever Coach feels to slot us in, I'm good with that.
"I've been versatile throughout my entire career."
And almost everywhere he's been in his accomplished career, he's been successful as well.
Players Mentioned
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