Why new Kansas State assistant Rodney Perry waited months to join Jerome Tang’s staff
Call it a poorly kept secret.
Shortly after Jerome Tang took over as the men’s basketball coach at Kansas State last March it was widely expected that Rodney Perry would leave his post with Kansas City’s Mokan Elite AAU team and join the Wildcats as an assistant.
The only mystery about the transaction was timing. When would it officially happen? The answer turned out to be early August. Five months was longer than most originally had in mind, but neither Perry nor Tang were disappointed by the wait.
“We’re both the type of people that when you make a commitment to something you have to be fully invested into that,” Perry said on Tuesday. “We figured it would not hurt in any way, shape or form. It might actually help us, because of me continuing to build relationships with the players I was currently coaching.
“I also had relationships with a lot of the other coaches and programs within the EYBL (Elite Youth Basketball League). Knowing that these are some of the programs and the coaches that we are going to be dealing with in the future, as far as our recruiting base goes, we just wanted to continue to build great relationships.”
It’s easy to see why Tang was interested in Perry as a member of his coaching staff. And why he was worth waiting to officially hire.
After deciding to remain with Mokan until the end of its summer season, Perry led his team to a championship at the prestigious Peach Jam tournament in July. Before that, he took Link Academy in Branson to a national runner-up finish.
Perry clearly knows a thing or two about basketball. He comes to K-State with 28 years of coaching experience, with 15 of them occurring at the college level. He has previously worked at Duquesne, Western Illinois, Oral Roberts and UMKC.
He also has valuable recruiting ties in important states for the Wildcats. Those will come in handy for a staff that has preferred to focus mostly on southern regions thus far.
“The Midwest is where I have a lot of connections,” Perry said. “Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Illinois and I also have some connections from the time I spent in Pennsylvania. I have a lot of positive connections to a lot of places because when you’re playing on the EYBL and you have 40 teams there from all over the country you build great relationships with them.”
Perry also has some history with K-State. He used to coach former players Will Spradling and Nino Williams when they suited up for Mokan Elite. That allowed him to make several visits to Bramlage Coliseum.
He has long admired the Wildcats, but only from afar. Now he is ready to join them as an assistant coach after a not-so-secret wait.
“The fan base is terrific,” Perry said. “There is a tradition here, having some teams that were able to win Big 12 championships and do well in the NCAA Tournament. It wasn’t long ago that Kansas State was in the Elite Eight. Those are things we want to do every year. My familiarity with K-State allows me to be able to convince some of the kids in the Midwest this is a place that you want to definitely come and be a part of.”
This story was originally published August 2, 2022 at 1:52 PM with the headline "Why new Kansas State assistant Rodney Perry waited months to join Jerome Tang’s staff."