by Jordan Beckley
Jerome Tang passed all the tests in Year 1.
After a rough ending to the Bruce Weber era, Kansas State turned to Jerome Tang and hired him to be a head coach for the first time at the collegiate level.
Tang left his National Title winning associate head coaching job at Baylor to take on a program that had finished last or 2nd to last in the same conference for three straight seasons. The Wildcats were once again picked to finish last in the Big 12 … but Tang had other ideas.
Jerome Tang transformed Kansas State through the transfer portal and was ready to compete right away. K-State would win 26 games, make the NCAA tournament and tie with Tang’s former team, Baylor, for 3rd place in the conference. Tang leaned heavily on a strong collection of upperclassmen. His best players were Marquis Nowell and Keyontae Johnson who broke out to be 1st Team All-Big 12 selections and stars of March Madness. Nowell and Johnson led the Wildcats on a run to the Elite Eight that gave the K-State program a national spotlight.
The premiere season success for Tang was emphasized by their run to the Elite Eight, but other great moments like a season sweep of Baylor and a table setting win against rival Kansas were just as sweet in the moment. But what comes next?
Kansas State has been a school consistently reaching the precipice without ever reaching immortality. The fans deeply hope that Jerome Tang can bring his National Championship pedigree to Manhattan and push them over the edge that he reached in year one.
Let’s discuss Tang’s journey to K-State, a history lesson of the “almosts” in Wildcat history and what comes after nearly making the leap.
Building Baylor with Scott Drew
Jerome Tang started coaching in 1993 at Heritage Christian Academy in Cleveland, Texas just outside of Houston.
After spending a decade at the High School level, Jerome got a call from Scott Drew. In the midst of one of the biggest scandals in College Basketball history, Drew was becoming the head coach of the Baylor Bears and wanted Tang on his staff.
It was quite the endeavor. Sanctions from the NCAA, severe recruiting restrictions, a dispersion of the former roster (well before the portal era), terrible optics, very little support, and all sorts of other obstacles had Scott Drew and Jerome Tang starting from worse than square one. Baylor, Drew and Tang struggled to turn it around. Hampered by the sins of the previous regime, Baylor only won 21 games in Drew’s first three seasons.
The tides would turn eventually for Tang and Drew. By Year 5, they made the NCAA tournament. By year 7, they had made the Elite Eight. In Year 16, Drew promoted Jerome Tang to associate head coach. Baylor was about to go on to play its best stretch of basketball ever. All the work and results slowly culminated in year 18 with a National Championship. Scott Drew hadn’t just completely rebuilt Baylor; he took them to new heights.
Baylor hadn’t made the Final Four since 1950 before Scott Drew. Before Drew took over, the Bears had only made the tournament once since the 1950 season. I’ll say that again. Baylor made one NCAA tournament in the 53 seasons before Scott Drew became head coach.
Scott Drew built a historically bad Baylor into a National Title winning program. And Jerome Tang was with him every step of the way. Kansas State has a much better track record than Baylor.
Now, the Kansas State basketball experience has been defined by the “almosts”, the “nearly won”, the precipice of greatness. The Wildcats hope that Tang can take what he learned at Baylor and carry them over the mountain.
Kansas State Always on the Precipice
K-State’s memorable Elite Eight run last season is all too familiar for Wildcat fans. The Wildcats fell just short of the promised land of the Final Four and that has been the story forever for Kansas State.
In fact, Tang is now the third straight head coach to make the Elite Eight. Bruce Weber did it in 2018 before Tang and Frank Martin did it in 2010 before Weber.
Falling just short of the goal is the story of Kansas State basketball. The Wildcats are always on the verge of immortality.
Kansas State has had eight appearances in the Elite Eight since they’re last Final Four all the way in 1964. 8 Elite Eights and they lost all of them! I mean try flipping a coin and landing on heads each time. Only 1 in 128 combinations have you landing on heads 8 in a row. So, only one in 128 versions of Kansas State’s story has them losing in the Elite Eight that many times in a row without winning.
Last year it was Tang and Marquis Powell with a thrilling Sweet Sixteen win against Michigan State before failing to get by 9 seed Florida Atlantic. The Wildcats were in one of the wildest brackets in 2018 when Bruce Weber led the 9 seeded K-State past 16 seed UMBC and 5 seed Kentucky, before falling short of the Final Four to 11 seed Cinderella Loyola Chicago. Frank Martin’s 2010 team were at the brink of the Final Four before Butler and Brad Stevens ended the season for the Royal Purple.
Kansas State was built by coaches Jack Gardner, Tex Winter and Jack Hartman. Jack Gardner coached from 1946-53 and made two final fours in 1948 and 1951. Tex Winter followed Gardner and made the Final Four in 1958 and 1964. Jack Hartman took over after Winter and would start Kansas State’s long journey back to the Final Four.
Hartman would go to 7 NCAA tournaments as head coach and lost in the Elite Eight four times. Two of those losses came with two-time Big 8 Player of the Year Lon Kruger in the 1972 and 1973 tournaments.
Kruger would return to his alma mater as the next head coach after Hartman in 1986. In 1988, Head Coach Kruger, Mitch Richmond and the Wildcats fell again in the Elite Eight to in-state rival Kansas with Danny Manning and the Miracles on their way to a National Championship.
Lon Kruger eventually would go onto make two Final Fours, one with Florida and one with Oklahoma and Buddy Hield. Kruger finally made his Final Four. Bruce Weber had made the Final Four with Illinois before coming to the Little Apple. Frank Martin got to the Final Four at his next stop with the Gamecocks. The Wildcat fans are still waiting for theirs.
Kansas State fans have been tortured as a good, but not great program who is constantly being overshadowed by their Blue Blood bigger brother, Kansas. Sound familiar Purdue fans?
The program has only won two Big 12 (or any other varying size of the conference) Titles since the Hartman era in 1977. The Wildcats shared both those Regular season titles. One with Kansas in 2012-13 and one with National Runner-up Chris Beard and Texas Tech in 2018-2019. The Wildcats haven’t won a Conference Tournament since 1980.
The Wildcats once again were on the precipice with Jerome Tang last year. The fans hope that he is finally the one to push them over the threshold. Yet, what happens after the breakthrough year?
What happens after the “Almost” year?
Tang and the Wildcats “almost” did it last year. This year will look a lot different.
Almost every single player on the roster last campaign came from the transfer portal within the past two seasons. The transfer portal continues to provide resourceful first year coaches the opportunity to succeed instantly. And Tang is resourceful.
Tang will lose nearly every single player from their rotation last season. Marquis Nowell and Keyontae Johnson are gone. In come coveted transfers Tylor Perry from North Texas and Creighton transfer Arthur Kaluma. Tang even grabbed Samford guard Ques Glover from the portal earlier this month.
Tang is in his first opportunity as a Head Coach has shown to be relentless in his recruiting efforts. Along with a trio of highly rated transfers, Tang is bringing in trio of 4-star recruits in Dai Dai Ames, RJ Jones and Macaleab Rich.
One step at a time, Tang is building the pedigree of Kansas State. If Perry, Glover, or Kaluma become an All-Big 12 guy, Kansas State will continue to ascend as a destination. But what happens if Kansas State loses steam?
The year after the “almost” season for Bruce Weber and Frank Martin were decent seasons with decent tournament seeds. Both teams lost early in March Madness. Ultimately, those coaches lost momentum and left Manhattan.
Kansas State wants to keep the momentum around Jerome Tang going. Both parties are close on an extension as the Athletic Department wants to lock up their guy.
Scott Drew and Jerome Tang worked together to build back Baylor from the depths to become a recruiting destination, a winning program, and one that could make it over the hump and reach immortality.
Jerome Tang is trying to do the same thing in Manhattan. He wants a seat at the table. He wants to bring the Wildcats over the precipice and bring them that first Final Four since 1964. He just has to do it by winning one day at a time.