‘He’s beyond ready’: Why excitement is building around new K-State coach Jerome Tang
When Alvin Brooks III first learned that Kansas State was interested in hiring Jerome Tang as its new men’s basketball coach, he told his friend to let him know if he had any questions about the Wildcats.
Brooks and Tang have worked alongside each other as assistant coaches at Baylor for the past six years under Scott Drew. They are very close. But Brooks also worked at K-State and helped Bruce Weber win a Big 12 championship in 2013 before he joined the Bears. Few were more uniquely qualified to advise Tang about the job.
Surprisingly, though, Tang didn’t take him up on the offer.
“He did his own homework and his own research,” Brooks said in a phone interview. “I respect him for that. Obviously, it felt like it was a great fit for him and his family. We’re all thrilled for him. He’s beyond ready to be a head coach. I screamed into my phone when he told me he got the job. ”
K-State officially hired Tang on Monday after they agreed to a contract that will pay him upwards of $14.1 million over the next six years.
Most fans seemed to approve of the hire. Weber was never the most popular coach on campus. Even when he was winning, it seemed difficult for some fans to embrace him, especially on social media. But they suddenly seem much more unified with excitement now that Tang is at the controls.
A video message from Tang directed toward K-State students had piled up nearly 100,000 views as of Tuesday morning.
“I remember coming to your arena, you guys just packed in there loud and vicious,” Tang said on the video. “I was terrified to walk across the court. I need all of you screaming students, every single one of you who used to yell at me, to come join me. Let’s cheer together and make the octagon a place of doom, the toughest environment in college basketball and the best home-court advantage. We are going to do it together.”
Brooks is confident Tang can return excitement to Bramlage Coliseum as early as next season.
Why?
Even though Tang has never been a head coach before at the college level, he knows the Big 12 as well as anyone. The 55-year old veteran assistant has been by Drew’s side for the past 19 years at Baylor and he helped turn the Bears into the national power they are today.
In other words, he already knows what it takes to win in this conference.
“He has an advantage over many people, because he’s been in the Big 12 for 19 years,” Brooks said. “He’s been competing against the head coaches in this league for two decades. He’s very familiar with how to win in the Big 12. That gives him a head start.
“It can take some coaches time to adjust to this league. That’s one thing that really helped T.J. Otzelberger at Iowa State. He used to be in the Big 12 as an assistant and now he’s back in the Big 12 as a head coach. Obviously, he knows the league and they’re already in the Sweet 16.”
Brooks could tell that Tang saw potential in K-State basketball.
When word got out that he was on the Wildcats’ short list of candidates, Tang did his best to keep his conversations with K-State a secret. He didn’t want to be a distraction as the Bears prepared for the NCAA Tournament. But after Baylor’s wild comeback attempt fell short against North Carolina on Saturday, he told his fellow coaches he planned to formally interview with K-State athletics director Gene Taylor.
Awkward as it may be for Tang and Drew to coach against each other, no one stood in his way. Everyone at Baylor told him it was too good of an opportunity to pass on.
“It’s a great job,” Brooks said. “The best thing about it is the fan support. When you’re winning they take the program to a level that a lot of people can’t compete with.”
But there are challenges.
Brooks said the biggest one is location. There isn’t a large population of basketball recruits surrounding Manhattan. He noted that Baylor hosted more recruits on unofficial visits during his first summer in Waco, Texas than K-State did during his entire tenure with the Wildcats.
At K-State, he said, official visits are of the utmost importance. So is knowing where and how to look for prospects.
Those can be tricky things for some coaches to navigate. But it’s been done before. Tang seems up for the challenge of doing it again.
“The right coach can overcome all that,” Brooks said. “And I’m telling you, he’s the right coach. He will have great people on his staff and they will figure out a way to overcome anything. Like I said, he’s been coaching in the Big 12 for 19 years. He knows where to find players and how to win in this conference.”
This story was originally published March 22, 2022 at 10:11 AM with the headline "‘He’s beyond ready’: Why excitement is building around new K-State coach Jerome Tang."