Why Gene Taylor hopes to move quickly as Kansas State searches for basketball coach
Kansas State basketball fans can expect the Wildcats to hire a new men’s coach by the end of the month.
Even though athletics director Gene Taylor doesn’t have a firm timeline in mind for naming Bruce Weber’s replacement, he explained why it will be important for K-State to have a new coach in place within the next three weeks.
“I don’t want to go to the Final Four with a coaching position in my back pocket,” Taylor said Thursday afternoon, a few hours after K-State announced that Weber was stepping down as coach after 10 years at the school. “That’s the worst thing you can do. So if we can get it before then that would be great.”
That seems to be one of the few stipulations that Taylor is putting on himself as he begins his first men’s basketball coaching search with the Wildcats.
He is open to both active head coaches and top assistants from all across the country. He is also willing to open up his proverbial check book for the right coach, though he said the Wildcats will have some monetary limitations. Their coaching salaries are competitive with their Big 12 peers, but they are never at the top of the conference. That isn’t going to change.
K-State has also hired the search firm TurnkeyZRG to help with the process. That is the same group that assisted Taylor when the Wildcats brought in Chris Klieman as their football coach.
Some of the top potential candidates include North Texas coach Grant McCasland and Baylor associate head coach Jerome Tang. K-State fans will also clamor for Illinois coach Brad Underwood to return to his alma mater.
“Right now, we’re putting feelers out to candidates to see what their interest is,” Taylor said. “And once we get that interest back then we’ll start putting together a timeline.”
Taylor said K-State could being speaking with coaches later this week. The expectation is that most interviews will take place remotely via video chat until they settle on prime candidates later in the process. The Wildcats will likely have to wait a little while before they can seriously engage with coaches who are leading teams into the NCAA Tournament.
Nevertheless, speed will still be important in this search. K-State has a lead over most other potential openings. Louisville and Maryland are the only two other power conference schools that are currently looking for a coach.
One more reason: The faster K-State can bring in a new coach, the faster that person can work on convincing Nijel Pack to stick with the Wildcats. The All-Big 12 guard could be a nice building block for Weber’s replacement.
“When I talked to the players today I asked for patience,” Taylor said. “I said, ‘Please, you have plenty of time. Let me get a chance to bring in a head coach that you have a chance to visit with. If you do want to transfer, that’s up to you, obviously, with the transfer portal.’ I asked them to trust us. Our guys came here for a reason. That reason hasn’t changed other than the coach.”
Taylor said none of K-State’s current assistants (Chris Lowery, Shane Southwell, Jermaine Henderson) will be considered for the opening. But it’s possible one of them could retained on staff by the next coach.
His expectation for this hire is to get K-State back to where it was at the height of Weber’s tenure, when the Wildcats were regularly going to the NCAA Tournament and competing for conference championships.
The goal is to find a coach who can do that in the next three weeks.
“I think we will get some great candidates,” Taylor said, “whether it is a sitting head coach or a top assistant. I think we are going to look at all of those and see what is out there and who expresses interest. We are going to start moving right away. We aren’t going to waste any time and start talking to people as quickly as we can.”
This story was originally published March 10, 2022 at 4:30 PM with the headline "Why Gene Taylor hopes to move quickly as Kansas State searches for basketball coach."