Tang Leading Quick Resurgence
Jan 18, 2023 | Men's Basketball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
He stood upon the scorer's table, the proverbial mountain top, Tuesday at 8:45 p.m., just moments after No. 13 Kansas State defeated No. 2 Kansas, 83-82, in overtime at a raucous Bramlage Coliseum. A sold out 11,000 fans had been in the stands, and a couple thousand had since stormed onto the court, a purple flood covering the hardwood, as white "WE OWN THIS STATE" signs paraded above the heads of students.
Jerome Tang, K-State basketball's energetic first-year head coach, began to chant into a microphone: "K-S-U! K-S-U!" as ESPN cameras rolled to a nationally-televised audience that witnessed a Sunflower Showdown Classic between two top-15 teams in Manhattan. There was an unwritten message that accompanied Tang's gesture. The 56-year-old native of San Fernando, Trinidad, who for the previous 19 years was an ever-present voice as an assistant coach and associate head coach under wildly-successful Scott Drew at Baylor, wants America to know about the K-State Wildcats, and wants fans to celebrate being purple, and to not roll with the off-color chant K-State students typically directed toward their instate rivals.
"This is a special place, Manhappiness," Tang says. "This is a really special place. I want the country to know how special it is, not be known for the 'dumb' chant."
Much in the same vein, K-State, which improved to 16-2 overall and 5-1 in the Big 12 Conference and is now tied with Kansas and Iowa State atop the league standings, has drowned out the incredulous voices of doubters who questioned whether a first-year Division I head coach could recharge the K-State basketball program that had fallen off in recent years, by emphatically stamping its name among the most-feared teams in the nation, and behind a leader of men who gives praise to God for each and every opportunity, and who has built a foundation with staying power in the nation's No. 1 conference.
There was no confetti on the court at Bramlage after the emotional victory, of course, as Tang held tight to two truths in recent days that 1) a win over KU would not guarantee a Big 12 trophy, and 2) a win over KU would not guarantee a national championship trophy, yet the win did snap a seven-game losing skid to the Jayhawks, who had largely controlled the series over the past decade, and the win did reiterate what Tang has stated all along: He is here to elevate.
Some believed he was brought to Manhattan to elevate the K-State basketball program. We didn't know that he would also elevate the entire K-State Nation.
Which is what he did when he stood upon the scorer's table and magically steered any negativity toward a heated rival into a positive chant. KSU! KSU! KSU!
"I really want them to understand that we don't have to degrade the other team," Tang says. "We can dislike them, but let's cheer for us. Let America hear 'Kansas State,' and not hear the other name."
K-State, prior to this season, was affixed with a name of its own: Underdog. Picked to finish 10th in the Big 12 standings, the Wildcats might now play out the rest of their days with a target affixed to their back. Currently listed as a No. 4 seed in the 2023 NCAA Tournament by bracketologist Joe Lunardi, K-State faces Texas Tech on Saturday and with a win could slide into its first top-10 ranking since 2012 early next week.
"This is not an anomaly," Tang says. "This is who we are going to be moving forward. Every one of (our players) has bought into what it takes to not just be a good team but to be a great program."
K-State is off to its best start since 2009-10 and its best start to a league season since 2007-08 while going 10-0 at home for the first time in six years. K-State has had 24 first-year head coaches in its history. Tang joins Frank Martin (2007-08) as the only ones to beat Kansas in their first-ever matchup against the Jayhawks.
Tang's players readily cast the spotlight upon their head coach, who expertly assembled a staff, and built a roster from the ground up shortly after his hiring on March 21.
"If you all saw who he is every day, there's so much knowledge that he's passing down outside of basketball," senior point guard Markquis Nowell says. "He teaches us a lot of life lessons, and he's a really good man and teaches you about God and love and how it's not just about these wins, but about the bigger picture and knowing you're supposed to have success. That's what he's emphasized.
"We're supposed to win these types of games and we're supposed to win national championships. Being around him is a joy because we're learning from him each and every day."
Nowell, a certain All-Big 12 candidate, joined junior forward Ish Massoud as the only two holdovers from a year ago. It was Nowell, who put a bug into the ear of K-State Athletic Director Gene Taylor to consider Tang for the head coaching job, after Nowell said that he personally studied his own potential coaching candidates.
"I sent a text message and a couple days later Coach Tang was our head coach," Nowell says. "I just thank Mr. Gene Taylor for allowing that to happen for us."
It's K-State fans thanking Taylor as well. Almost every remaining home game is now sold out at Bramlage.
Kansas head coach Bill Self believes that Tang should gain Big 12 and National Coach of the Year consideration.
"He's been great," Self says. "It was a great hire. I think he's represented our league and obviously over here about as well as you possibly can. He and (Iowa State head coach) T.J. (Otzelberger) to me are the two leading candidates for coach of the year in our league and national coach of the year, too. Nobody has done a better job assembling talent in a short amount of time and getting them to play as hard and as well together as what those two guys have that I've seen."
Since December 31, K-State has beaten No. 24 West Virginia (82-76 in overtime) and posted back-to-back road victories at No. 6 Texas (116-103) and at No. 19 Baylor (97-95 in overtime), meaning K-State beat three consecutive AP Top 25 teams for the first time in school history. Consequently, it vaulted K-State from the unranked to No. 11 for the greatest jump by a team in the history of the Big 12. After a 65-57 win over Oklahoma State, the Wildcats suffered an 82-68 loss at No. 17 TCU this past Saturday.
Now K-State has won four of five meetings against AP Top 25 opponents after the win over No. 2 Kansas, which is the highest-ranked foe the Wildcats have toppled since a 56-54 win at No. 2 Baylor on February 4, 2017.
"Coach, when he first came here, he said he wanted to elevate the program," says senior transfer Keyontae Johnson, who had 24 points and eight rebounds against Kansas. "In order to elevate we have to win games. Having the fans here just helps us win, win, win. He didn't want this game to just be all packed out because we're playing KU. He wanted to show how hard we've been working and how our game can really show everybody what we're capable of doing."
In a heated battle against Kansas that featured 13 ties and nine lead changes, it was Nowell and Johnson who showed exactly what they're capable of doing, as they provided the final fireworks. Coming out of a 60-second timeout, Nowell combined with the 6-foot-6, 230-pound Johnson for a game-winning alley-oop dunk with 25 seconds remaining in overtime. On the play, Nowell sent a high pass from just inside the Powercat logo at midcourt to Johnson, who caught the ball in midflight and dunked over Big 12 Player of the Year candidate Jalen Wilson.
"We made eye contact, he threw it, and I had to make a play. He did (the same thing) against Oklahoma State. There's no second guessing. You just have to go with the moment."
Seconds after the alley-oop, Massoud forced junior Dajuan Harris, Jr., into a turnover on the baseline with only a few seconds left to preserve the victory.
Since Nowell became just the third Division I player to average 30 points and 10 assists in a three-game stretch over the past 25 seasons, linking his name to the likes of Ja Morant, Trae Young and Michael Beasley due to his eye-opening exploits — he combined for 68 points and 23 assists against the Longhorns and Bears — defenses have clamped down on the 5-foot-8, 160-pound floor leader for the Wildcats.
Against Kansas, senior transfer guard Desi Sills took the opportunity to shine. Sills, a steady sixth-man who came to K-State from Arkansas State, racked up a season-high 24 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the floor, including 2-of-3 on 3-pointers, and 8-of-9 from the foul line, in 34 minutes of action.
"My teammates found me early," Sills says. "My teammates told me to believe in my work and trust my work and go out there and be the dog that they know I am."
To quote Tang, K-State has some "dudes." Five different players have led the team in scoring this season, led by Johnson, who averages 18.7 points and 7.2 rebounds. Nowell averages 16.4 points and 8.4 assists, and 6-foot-10, 210-pound junior transfer Nae'Qwan Tomlin averages 11.1 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.2 blocks. Tomlin had his first-career double-double with 15 points and a game-high 10 rebounds against the Jayhawks.
Meanwhile, K-State did all it could do to slow Wilson, whose game-high 38 points tied the Bramlage Coliseum opponent record matching the 38 by Georgia State's Anton Reese on November 28, 1998. Wilson went 12-of-25 from the floor, including 3-of-10 from 3-point range, and was a near perfect 11-of-12 from the line.
The star of the night, for as much as he might downplay it, was the man holding the microphone immediately after the game, spreading a positive chant — KSU! KSU! KSU! — while continuing to thrill fans and elevate a program that seems poised for a special season.
Tang gives thanks to God after every game. He shares praise.
"It's not me. It's our staff," he says. "I have a great staff. Rodney Perry did an unbelievable job with the scout and on the defensive end of things, Marco Borne, Ulric Maligi and Jareem Dowling — I just have a terrific staff."
In outlasting its rival, K-State is off to its best start in more than a decade, and has turned ardent doubters into gushing admirers. While there are no gimmie games in the Big 12, and more nights than not the contest will be decided by a few plays in key moments, the Wildcats have proven themselves solid in the clutch, all under a first-year head coach of a program picked last in the conference — one that appears to be a serious contender for a Big 12 crown.
"Coach Tang gives you that confidence that you'll win every game," Nowell says. "Throughout the game, you just try to stay focused one play at a time and stay the course, but once that final buzzer went off, I was just happy, because I knew the journey it took for this program. Coach Tang has elevated this program to what it is now.
"And it's going to get even better."
He stood upon the scorer's table, the proverbial mountain top, Tuesday at 8:45 p.m., just moments after No. 13 Kansas State defeated No. 2 Kansas, 83-82, in overtime at a raucous Bramlage Coliseum. A sold out 11,000 fans had been in the stands, and a couple thousand had since stormed onto the court, a purple flood covering the hardwood, as white "WE OWN THIS STATE" signs paraded above the heads of students.
Jerome Tang, K-State basketball's energetic first-year head coach, began to chant into a microphone: "K-S-U! K-S-U!" as ESPN cameras rolled to a nationally-televised audience that witnessed a Sunflower Showdown Classic between two top-15 teams in Manhattan. There was an unwritten message that accompanied Tang's gesture. The 56-year-old native of San Fernando, Trinidad, who for the previous 19 years was an ever-present voice as an assistant coach and associate head coach under wildly-successful Scott Drew at Baylor, wants America to know about the K-State Wildcats, and wants fans to celebrate being purple, and to not roll with the off-color chant K-State students typically directed toward their instate rivals.
"This is a special place, Manhappiness," Tang says. "This is a really special place. I want the country to know how special it is, not be known for the 'dumb' chant."
Much in the same vein, K-State, which improved to 16-2 overall and 5-1 in the Big 12 Conference and is now tied with Kansas and Iowa State atop the league standings, has drowned out the incredulous voices of doubters who questioned whether a first-year Division I head coach could recharge the K-State basketball program that had fallen off in recent years, by emphatically stamping its name among the most-feared teams in the nation, and behind a leader of men who gives praise to God for each and every opportunity, and who has built a foundation with staying power in the nation's No. 1 conference.
There was no confetti on the court at Bramlage after the emotional victory, of course, as Tang held tight to two truths in recent days that 1) a win over KU would not guarantee a Big 12 trophy, and 2) a win over KU would not guarantee a national championship trophy, yet the win did snap a seven-game losing skid to the Jayhawks, who had largely controlled the series over the past decade, and the win did reiterate what Tang has stated all along: He is here to elevate.
Some believed he was brought to Manhattan to elevate the K-State basketball program. We didn't know that he would also elevate the entire K-State Nation.
Which is what he did when he stood upon the scorer's table and magically steered any negativity toward a heated rival into a positive chant. KSU! KSU! KSU!
"I really want them to understand that we don't have to degrade the other team," Tang says. "We can dislike them, but let's cheer for us. Let America hear 'Kansas State,' and not hear the other name."
K-State, prior to this season, was affixed with a name of its own: Underdog. Picked to finish 10th in the Big 12 standings, the Wildcats might now play out the rest of their days with a target affixed to their back. Currently listed as a No. 4 seed in the 2023 NCAA Tournament by bracketologist Joe Lunardi, K-State faces Texas Tech on Saturday and with a win could slide into its first top-10 ranking since 2012 early next week.
"This is not an anomaly," Tang says. "This is who we are going to be moving forward. Every one of (our players) has bought into what it takes to not just be a good team but to be a great program."
K-State is off to its best start since 2009-10 and its best start to a league season since 2007-08 while going 10-0 at home for the first time in six years. K-State has had 24 first-year head coaches in its history. Tang joins Frank Martin (2007-08) as the only ones to beat Kansas in their first-ever matchup against the Jayhawks.
Tang's players readily cast the spotlight upon their head coach, who expertly assembled a staff, and built a roster from the ground up shortly after his hiring on March 21.
"If you all saw who he is every day, there's so much knowledge that he's passing down outside of basketball," senior point guard Markquis Nowell says. "He teaches us a lot of life lessons, and he's a really good man and teaches you about God and love and how it's not just about these wins, but about the bigger picture and knowing you're supposed to have success. That's what he's emphasized.
"We're supposed to win these types of games and we're supposed to win national championships. Being around him is a joy because we're learning from him each and every day."
Nowell, a certain All-Big 12 candidate, joined junior forward Ish Massoud as the only two holdovers from a year ago. It was Nowell, who put a bug into the ear of K-State Athletic Director Gene Taylor to consider Tang for the head coaching job, after Nowell said that he personally studied his own potential coaching candidates.
"I sent a text message and a couple days later Coach Tang was our head coach," Nowell says. "I just thank Mr. Gene Taylor for allowing that to happen for us."
It's K-State fans thanking Taylor as well. Almost every remaining home game is now sold out at Bramlage.
Kansas head coach Bill Self believes that Tang should gain Big 12 and National Coach of the Year consideration.
"He's been great," Self says. "It was a great hire. I think he's represented our league and obviously over here about as well as you possibly can. He and (Iowa State head coach) T.J. (Otzelberger) to me are the two leading candidates for coach of the year in our league and national coach of the year, too. Nobody has done a better job assembling talent in a short amount of time and getting them to play as hard and as well together as what those two guys have that I've seen."
Since December 31, K-State has beaten No. 24 West Virginia (82-76 in overtime) and posted back-to-back road victories at No. 6 Texas (116-103) and at No. 19 Baylor (97-95 in overtime), meaning K-State beat three consecutive AP Top 25 teams for the first time in school history. Consequently, it vaulted K-State from the unranked to No. 11 for the greatest jump by a team in the history of the Big 12. After a 65-57 win over Oklahoma State, the Wildcats suffered an 82-68 loss at No. 17 TCU this past Saturday.
Now K-State has won four of five meetings against AP Top 25 opponents after the win over No. 2 Kansas, which is the highest-ranked foe the Wildcats have toppled since a 56-54 win at No. 2 Baylor on February 4, 2017.
"Coach, when he first came here, he said he wanted to elevate the program," says senior transfer Keyontae Johnson, who had 24 points and eight rebounds against Kansas. "In order to elevate we have to win games. Having the fans here just helps us win, win, win. He didn't want this game to just be all packed out because we're playing KU. He wanted to show how hard we've been working and how our game can really show everybody what we're capable of doing."
In a heated battle against Kansas that featured 13 ties and nine lead changes, it was Nowell and Johnson who showed exactly what they're capable of doing, as they provided the final fireworks. Coming out of a 60-second timeout, Nowell combined with the 6-foot-6, 230-pound Johnson for a game-winning alley-oop dunk with 25 seconds remaining in overtime. On the play, Nowell sent a high pass from just inside the Powercat logo at midcourt to Johnson, who caught the ball in midflight and dunked over Big 12 Player of the Year candidate Jalen Wilson.
"It wasn't a fluke play," says Johnson, the former Florida star who missed two seasons due to a medical emergency. "That's an option in the play call. I didn't have to spin, but I felt that he was overplaying it so the spin move was the only option for me to (get the ball). I told (Nowell) right before the timeout I was going to do it and if it wasn't open I was going to set a screen.The perfect play@MrNewYorkCityy ➡️ @keyontae pic.twitter.com/Y0CD8VYiT5
— K-State Men's Basketball (@KStateMBB) January 18, 2023
"We made eye contact, he threw it, and I had to make a play. He did (the same thing) against Oklahoma State. There's no second guessing. You just have to go with the moment."
Seconds after the alley-oop, Massoud forced junior Dajuan Harris, Jr., into a turnover on the baseline with only a few seconds left to preserve the victory.
Since Nowell became just the third Division I player to average 30 points and 10 assists in a three-game stretch over the past 25 seasons, linking his name to the likes of Ja Morant, Trae Young and Michael Beasley due to his eye-opening exploits — he combined for 68 points and 23 assists against the Longhorns and Bears — defenses have clamped down on the 5-foot-8, 160-pound floor leader for the Wildcats.
Against Kansas, senior transfer guard Desi Sills took the opportunity to shine. Sills, a steady sixth-man who came to K-State from Arkansas State, racked up a season-high 24 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the floor, including 2-of-3 on 3-pointers, and 8-of-9 from the foul line, in 34 minutes of action.
"My teammates found me early," Sills says. "My teammates told me to believe in my work and trust my work and go out there and be the dog that they know I am."
To quote Tang, K-State has some "dudes." Five different players have led the team in scoring this season, led by Johnson, who averages 18.7 points and 7.2 rebounds. Nowell averages 16.4 points and 8.4 assists, and 6-foot-10, 210-pound junior transfer Nae'Qwan Tomlin averages 11.1 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.2 blocks. Tomlin had his first-career double-double with 15 points and a game-high 10 rebounds against the Jayhawks.
Meanwhile, K-State did all it could do to slow Wilson, whose game-high 38 points tied the Bramlage Coliseum opponent record matching the 38 by Georgia State's Anton Reese on November 28, 1998. Wilson went 12-of-25 from the floor, including 3-of-10 from 3-point range, and was a near perfect 11-of-12 from the line.
The star of the night, for as much as he might downplay it, was the man holding the microphone immediately after the game, spreading a positive chant — KSU! KSU! KSU! — while continuing to thrill fans and elevate a program that seems poised for a special season.
Tang gives thanks to God after every game. He shares praise.
"It's not me. It's our staff," he says. "I have a great staff. Rodney Perry did an unbelievable job with the scout and on the defensive end of things, Marco Borne, Ulric Maligi and Jareem Dowling — I just have a terrific staff."
In outlasting its rival, K-State is off to its best start in more than a decade, and has turned ardent doubters into gushing admirers. While there are no gimmie games in the Big 12, and more nights than not the contest will be decided by a few plays in key moments, the Wildcats have proven themselves solid in the clutch, all under a first-year head coach of a program picked last in the conference — one that appears to be a serious contender for a Big 12 crown.
"Coach Tang gives you that confidence that you'll win every game," Nowell says. "Throughout the game, you just try to stay focused one play at a time and stay the course, but once that final buzzer went off, I was just happy, because I knew the journey it took for this program. Coach Tang has elevated this program to what it is now.
"And it's going to get even better."
Players Mentioned
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