K-State Q&A: Jerome Tang, Texas, soaring basketball expectations, Sugar Bowl and more

Most fans only care about one thing when it comes to athletic directors.

Do they hire winning coaches?

The answer to that question has been a resounding yes for Kansas State AD Gene Taylor, and that is one of the main reasons why I expect new volleyball coach Jason Mansfield to be a success with the Wildcats even though I don’t know much about that sport beyond the words bump, set and spike.

Taylor has been on fire with his coaching hires of late. Chris Klieman just led the K-State football team to 10 wins and a Big 12 championship. Jerome Tang has guided the men’s basketball team to a 13-1 start, including a stunning victory over Texas in which K-State dropped 116(!) points on the Longhorns.

Before that, Taylor hired Craig Bohl (current Wyoming football coach), Saul Phillips (hired away by Ohio men’s basketball) and Klieman (hired away by K-State) at North Dakota State.

Not too shabby.

I asked Taylor if he felt like he was on a roll with all those coaching hires. His response: “So far so good. But once you start patting yourself on the back you’re not far away from someone slapping you in the face.”

He also said he is hoping to go quite a few years before hiring another new coach at K-State. Right now, his priority is retaining Klieman and his top assistants with new contracts and lucrative raises.

Add a successful string of coaching hires onto new facilities in football, volleyball and track & field and K-State appears to be in excellent overall shape moving forward. Mansfield should benefit from a strong foundation and Taylor’s seal of approval.

That’s it for this week’s lead in. Now, let’s dive into your questions. Thanks, as always, for providing them.

In that scenario, K-State may only need to win five more games in Big 12 play to lock up a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

That would give the Wildcats an overall record of 19-12 and a 7-11 mark in Big 12 games. Iowa State made it into the Big Dance with those numbers last season. The conference is even stronger now. I think that resume would be enough to get K-State in rather comfortably.

Who knows? Maybe 6-10 would be enough if the six wins came against the right opponents.

The beautiful thing about this question is that I think the Wildcats are going to sail over those numbers. Joe Lunardi currently has them as a No. 4 seed, for crying out loud. Maybe we need to start asking what it would take for them to get a No. 1 seed.

Bart Torvik (let’s use him instead of Ken Pomeroy this week) projects K-State to finish 22-9 with a 10-8 mark in the Big 12. He has the Wildcats as 60% or higher favorites in seven of their remaining games.

K-State is also passing the eye test.

The Big 12 can chew up and spit out just about any team, but it seems like the Wildcats are more than capable of holding their own.

I think it’s more than reasonable for fans to expect the NCAA Tournament at this point.

K-State is one of two Division I schools that has never won a national championship in any sport. But that streak ends this year.

It’s natty or bust for Jerome Tang in Year 1!

Before I go any further, let me make it perfectly clear that I’m joking. The words “national championship” and “reasonable expectations” don’t belong in the same sentence unless we’re talking about Alabama football.

That being said, Tang has significantly raised basketball expectations in Manhattan. A trip to the NCAA Tournament seems likely right now, and anything is possible once you get there.

I would not have pegged Iowa State as a Sweet 16 team a year ago, but the Cyclones got that far. I would not have labeled the Barry Brown/Dean Wade team as an Elite Eight squad in 2018 but K-State nearly got to the Final Four that year.

On the flip side, some of the best teams in the history of college basketball have flamed out in the Round of 64.

The NCAA Tournament is wildly unpredictable. My advice would be to aim for a top 5 finish in the Big 12 standings and hope for the best in the postseason.

Probably not.

I just got done scrolling through the latest mock drafts and you won’t find Johnson’s name on them anywhere, even in the second round.

So it’s hard for me to envision him climbing all the way up into the lottery of the 2023 NBA Draft. But he is certainly playing well enough to be worthy of a draft pick right now.

Johnson has scored double figures in all 14 games for K-State this season and he is averaging 18.4 points and 6.9 rebounds.

The crazy thing about the Texas basketball coaching search is that no name is out of bounds.

The Longhorns have so much money that I could throw out Mike Krzyzewski, Mark Few, Jay Wright, Brad Underwood, Gregg Popovich, Brad Stevens, John Calipari and Bill Self as candidates and no one could say with absolute certainty that those candidates would say no to the job.

So, sure, there is probably a scenario in which Tang becomes a candidate for that job.

A few national reporters, such as Jeff Goodman, have suggested he would be worth a call.

But I would not be worried about Tang leaving for any job after one season with the Wildcats, even the deep-pocketed Longhorns.

He seems way too loyal to abandon the school that gave him his first head-coaching gig and the players that have already signed up to help him build something special in Manhattan.

I also have my doubts Texas is all that interested in him. The Longhorns strike me as a school that much rather hire an established head coach with a sexy name like Calipari. Royal Ivey would also make for a great fit.

Scott Drew would seem like a better candidate than Tang.

My advice to any K-State fan is to take it as a compliment that Tang’s name is being mentioned for any other jobs. I wouldn’t waste any time worrying about him being hired away. There is nothing substantial linking him anywhere else right now.

The Wildcats could really use a deep threat at receiver and a talented linebacker to help replace Daniel Green.

You probably thought I was going to say running back, but with K-State’s entire offensive line set to return and block for D.J. Giddens I think the Wildcats will find a way to run the ball effectively next season even without Deuce Vaughn.

A deep threat would open up the full potential of the offense. K-State will probably look within here. Could that be R.J. Garcia or Sterling Lockett?

The Wildcats also have some up-and-coming linebackers that they like. Maybe Gavin Forsha, Jake Clifton, Desmond Purnell or Tobi Osunsanmi are ready to hit the ground running next season.

Let’s put it this way: I expect all the assistant coaches that Chris Klieman badly wants to retain to remain on his K-State staff.

Coordinators Joe Klanderman and Collin Klein will probably get bumped up close to $1 million in salary. I don’t see them going anywhere this offseason.

Some position coaches may have opportunities to become coordinators elsewhere, and that could be difficult for them to turn down. Klieman might also not hate the idea of change at certain spots.

A small amount of coaching turnover is healthy.

But K-State did seem to find a terrific mix of minds and personalities on its coaching staff this past season after replacing a few names in previous years. Running it back with this group seems like a good strategy. So I’m not expecting any big changes.

Traveling to and from New Orleans was awful.

I insisted on flying to the Sugar Bowl because the thought of driving 30 hours round trip was enough to make me faint. But I very much wish I would have put those miles on my car in hindsight.

My original plan was to fly out of Kansas City on Southwest, but my flight got canceled with no option of re-booking. I ended up flying on American out of Manhattan a day later than originally scheduled.

Flying home was even more of a headache. I was supposed to fly out of New Orleans at 1 p.m. on New Year’s Day and spent a full day at the airport until we finally took off at midnight because of mechanical issues on our plane. Then came a night’s stay at an airport hotel in Chicago and another delay trying to get back to Manhattan the following day.

Midway through our flight home the pilot came on and said we might be diverted to Omaha because of bad weather in the Little Apple. I wanted to scream. Fortunately, we did land in Manhattan.

I did hear lots of travel horror stories while I was delayed. Some K-State football players told me they encountered so many issues getting to New Orleans that some of them were diverted to Houston and ended up driving the rest of the way via a shuttle service.

Two players were on the same flight as me leaving New Orleans. At one point, we were all talking and Will Howard dropped by to brag about his flight leaving a mere six hours after its scheduled departure time. Lucky guy.

Other people reached out on Twitter to say they avoided the New Orleans airport and flew out of Memphis, which was six hours away.

Ugh.

But I digress ... the time I spent in New Orleans was great. If you take away the travel headaches, it was one of the best bowl trips I have been on. The weather was good, the food was delicious and Bourbon Street was entertaining.

I would give it a 8 out of 10.

My only complaint about the bowl set up was the press box inside the Superdome. It was 50 degrees up there. Good thing I had my winter coat handy.

This answer probably depends on how Texas basketball plays the rest of the season.

That 48-0 football victory over Oklahoma State looked great at the time, but the Cowboys turned out to be a sinking ship. Darn near everyone beat the Pokes late in the season and now seemingly half the team is in the transfer portal.

If Texas remains a top 25 team all season, then it is definitely scoring a 116 points against the Longhorns. Heck, maybe that doesn’t even matter. That was the most points any K-State team had scored ... ever.

Dropping 116 on any conference opponent is very impressive.

This story was originally published January 6, 2023 at 10:59 AM with the headline "K-State Q&A: Jerome Tang, Texas, soaring basketball expectations, Sugar Bowl and more."

Kellis Robinett

The Wichita Eagle

Kellis Robinett covers Kansas State athletics for The Wichita Eagle and The Kansas City Star. A winner of more than a dozen national writing awards, he lives in Manhattan with his wife and four children.