K-State Q&A: Jerome Tang’s first impression, Brad Underwood, spring football and more
Jerome Tang did more than simply win his introductory news conference earlier this week. Kansas State’s new men’s basketball coach had the crowd cheering like he just threw down a windmill dunk against KU inside Bramlage Coliseum.
He was charismatic. He was funny. He was high energy.
It was basically the polar opposite of when Bruce Weber was introduced to fans 10 years ago.
What does that mean for his future with the Wildcats? Nothing, really. Fans weren’t excited about Weber, but that didn’t prevent him from winning a pair of Big 12 championships and reaching the NCAA Tournament five times over the next seven years. Tang could just as easily struggle out of the chute in Manhattan. There is no correlation between winning a press conference and winning basketball games.
So why am I leading this week’s mailbag with it? In this case, I think Tang firing up K-State fans is important because it’s the first time I have seen the fan base unified around their coach since Frank Martin was in town. Sure, there were times when Weber had more lovers than haters, but he was never totally embraced. Even when he won big, at least a small segment of fans was still disappointed.
Perhaps that can change now that Tang is calling the shots at Bramlage Coliseum. It would be nice to look at Twitter following a loss and not see people that use the Powercat as their avatar not completely melting down for once.
I think Tang has a bright future ahead of him in Manhattan. He was a big reason why Baylor is now a national power. He knows the Big 12. He is building a strong coaching staff. And first-time head coaches like Tommy Lloyd (Arizona), Mark Adams (Texas Tech) and Hubert Davis (North Carolina) absolutely killed it this season.
Can Tang follow in their footsteps? Maybe. Maybe not. But he has already destroyed the basketball apathy that existed at K-State.
That is a promising first step.
Now all he has to do is win some basketball games.
I think it is doubtful that Shane Southwell will be retained.
He was not in attendance for Tang’s introductory news conference, and that is not a good sign for his chances. It’s more likely that Curtis Kelly stays on as a graduate assistant to try and keep a familiar presence on the sideline.
It’s too bad, because I think Southwell is a rising star in the profession and would be a strong asset to Jerome Tang’s coaching staff. But he has already promised spots to Ulric Maligi and Jareem Dowling. Marco Borne is also coming aboard as director of basketball operations from Alcorn State.
My guess is he wants to bring in his own guy for the last coaching spot. It might be wise for him to look at someone with regional recruiting ties.
Boosting Kansas State’s presence in Kansas City seems like a good idea.
Poaching a respected assistant from another Big 12 coaching staff, especially one who has strong recruiting ties in Texas like Ulric Maligi, seems like a terrific hire for Tang.
I also like what Dowling brings to the equation.
I have heard that Tang will have a larger coaching staff, in terms of analysts and support staff, than Weber did. That is also encouraging.
We will have to wait and see what kind of recruits Tang is able to lang with this group of assistants, but “bringing in dudes” seems to be his top priority at the moment. And he has hired some recruiters who seem more than capable of him doing that.
Everything Tang has done so far has provided a jolt of energy to the basketball program. He can top it by landing a few big-time recruits this spring.
E-MAIL QUESTION: Did Gene Taylor actually try to bring Brad Underwood home to Kansas State where he belongs or were those rumors just wishful thinking from Kansas State fans? - Andrew B.
Let’s put it this way ...
Brad Underwood was never as close to taking the K-State job as some donors and fans wanted to believe, but he considered it much more seriously than national reporters have suggested.
He was a candidate for the position and never told the Wildcats he wasn’t interested. He just never said he definitely wanted the gig, either.
K-State used back channels to communicate with Underwood. The Wildcats let him know the job could be his if he wanted it. They gave his agent a ballpark figure on what they could pay him in terms of salary. There was quiet confidence that K-State had found enough money to cover Underwood’s buyout and to make him a competitive offer. But Underwood never did more than listen.
Taylor never spoke to Underwood.
With Illinois in the NCAA Tournament, Underwood wasn’t available to talk about other jobs.
But even if timing wasn’t an issue, I have my doubts Underwood would have taken the job. He has a good thing going at Illinois. Part of me also wonders if he was just keeping K-State on the hook to get himself another raise with the Fighting Illini.
At one point during the search process, a K-State insider told me he genuinely believed Underwood was going to be the team’s next head coach. But that was under the assumption that Underwood would take a hometown discount on his salary to leave Illinois, when in actuality he probably wanted significantly more money than the $4.1 million he was already bringing in. That insider’s confidence quickly faded.
That being said, the Wildcats really liked Tang.
He was the first candidate they interviewed. They also flew to Waco, Texas last weekend and offered him the job before Illinois was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament. If Gene Taylor was dead set on making a run at Underwood, he would have waited.
Even had Underwood said he wanted the job, there’s a chance K-State would have hired Tang anyway. That is how impressed they were by him.
I think things worked out for the best. Tang seems like a good fit. Fans like him so far. And his contract, which features a starting base salary of $2.1 million, is much more affordable.
Taj Manning, a three-star power forward currently playing in Indiana, is the only player that K-State has signed for the 2022 recruiting class.
If he still wants to attend K-State and play for Tang, I think the Wildcats will honor his commitment and welcome him to Manhattan even though the current coaching staff didn’t recruit him.
But if he decides he wants to play elsewhere, K-State will release him from his scholarship and allow him to pursue other opportunities. The ball is in his court.
Who are some recruits on Tang’s wish list?
I don’t have any names to give you at the moment. But Tang was a busy recruiter at Baylor. I imagine he will pick up where he left off and continue talking to prospects from Texas. That seems to be where he wants to look for most of his new players.
It also depends on how many current players opt to transfer.
None of K-State’s returning players have entered the transfer portal yet, but that could change over the weekend after Tang puts them through their first few workouts. It should be apparent rather quickly which players fit his coaching style and which players don’t.
Tang said he doesn’t want to recruit out of the transfer portal as much as some coaches. He would rather bring in high school players, develop them, love them and graduate them the old school way like he did at Baylor. But the Wildcats could really use a veteran big man next season. I suspect they will try to bring in at least one forward or center from the portal.
There is an alternate dimension out there in which the coronavirus pandemic never happened, Bruce Weber took his touted group of 2019 recruits to Europe for a string of summer exhibition games and came back ready to shine in 2020.
In that dimension, I like to think the Wildcats never cratered the way they did at the height of the pandemic.
But we don’t live in that universe.
The Wildcats are free to schedule another foreign trip whenever they choose. It just depends on when COVID is no longer thought to be a risk and when they want to go.
This summer feels a little too early. But it could happen next year.
With Ayoka Lee and Serena Sundell returning for another season together, there is really no reason why the Kansas State women’s basketball team can’t host games in the NCAA Tournament next year.
Jeff Mittie’s team will be bringing back a lot of fire power and experience from a team that just won 20 games. If they build on what they accomplished while reaching the Round of 32 this season, they should be in the running for a No. 4 seed or better in 2023.
That is the goal I would set for them.
Lee will be a preseason Player of the Year candidate. Her supporting cast will be a year older and stronger. They might as well think big.
Your uncle agreed to that bet?
Enjoy your Adrian Martinez jersey, I guess.
As long as Martinez is healthy, he should be the starting quarterback for Chris Klieman’s football team next season. The Wildcats haven’t given up on Will Howard. There is hope that as he matures he could still win some games at K-State. But he isn’t ready just yet.
Howard had his opportunity to seize control of the quarterback position in the final game of the regular season against Texas last year and he squandered it by throwing for just 65 yards in a 22-17 loss that cost Courtney Messingham his job as offensive coordinator.
Instead of rallying around Howard, K-State went out and found a transfer quarterback. Martinez didn’t come here to sit. K-State didn’t bring him here to sit. He will start.
Unless something physically prevents him from playing at his highest level, I don’t see how Martinez loses the starting job to anyone next season.
But, yes, if those players signed off on fans purchasing jerseys with their names on the back of them, they should receive a little cash when you buy your custom threads next fall.
This story was originally published March 25, 2022 at 10:25 AM with the headline "K-State Q&A: Jerome Tang’s first impression, Brad Underwood, spring football and more."