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It’s been a banner season for Nashville mid-majors. The Belmont Bruins earned their first at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament in school history, while across town, the Lipscomb Bisons capped off a great year with a run to the NIT Championship Game.
Now the Lipscomb head coach is headed to Belmont.
After the season, legendary Bruins coach Rick Byrd announced his retirement after spending 33 years with the team, amassing 805 wins while at the helm. Since that piece of news dropped, there has been much speculation about who would replace Byrd, but most talk focused on Casey Alexander, who was an assistant at Belmont from 1995-2011.
Today, the rumors became official:
Welcome home, Coach.
— Belmont Basketball (@BelmontMBB) April 10, 2019
https://t.co/LSNFGrypMm |#itsbruintime pic.twitter.com/U0iwlBTuhc
Other names involved in the coaching search included various current Byrd assistants, but it was clear that Alexander was the first choice.
This is a stellar hire for Belmont, as Alexander is a coach who is both extremely talented and familiar with the Bruins’ program. When someone who has been a coach for so long leaves, there’s always an urge to maintain some sort of stability. Hiring a guy who worked under Byrd for so long makes perfect sense.