Making Presence Felt in Short Order

By: D. Scott Fritchen

Eric Stonestreet remembers pushing open the front doors to the Ice Family Basketball Training Center in early fall. First-year Kansas State basketball head coach Jerome Tang had invited Stonestreet to speak to his team. The Wildcats were newly assembled. Many players had been on campus for less than two months. But Stonestreet, a K-State graduate and two-time Emmy Award-winning actor, loved Tang's infectious energy, and wanted to send the new head coach, his coaching staff, and his team off into the season with a message to carry with them.

"My message was that my dream started in Manhattan, Kansas, and yours can, too," Stonestreet recalls.

Tang and K-State basketball have been a dream come true in 2022-23.

"Going to a game is an event," Stonestreet says. "Coach Tang is a treasure in Manhattan, Kansas, and Kansas State University is lucky to have him."

The 56-year-old Tang, formerly a 19-year assistant/associate head coach at Baylor, earned his first Division I head coaching job at K-State last March. He had two returning players and spent the summer finding 13 more. In October, Big 12 coaches picked K-State to finish 10^th in the league.

Three months later, Tang had K-State ranked No. 5 in the AP Top 25 poll. The Wildcats finished their regular season at 23-8 overall and tied for third at 11-7 in the nation's toughest conference in America. The Wildcats, who finished the regular season ranked No. 12 in the AP Poll, head toward the Big 12 Championship on Thursday as a likely top-four seed in the NCAA Tournament.

"We've surpassed the expectations that I had going in, and not just with what took place on the court, just the chemistry that they have off the court, and the way they really care about each other, and their care factor and willingness to be coached, and wanting to be coached," Tang says. "It's surpassed it."

The nation has taken notice of K-State — and Tang — during his first season.

"I like doing firsts," Tang says. "That's one of the things we prided ourselves on at Baylor was to 'be the first.' You ask players if they remember their first dunk, and they all remember their first dunk.

"I like firsts."

Tang, in his first year as a Division I head coach, was named Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year by a vote of the league's head coaches on Sunday.

"It's tremendous and well deserved," K-State athletics director Gene Taylor says. "When I called him, I said, 'The coolest thing about it is it's coming from your colleagues and the fact that they think you're one of the best in the conference this year is a big compliment.'

"I absolutely agree with them 100%. I'm really happy for him."

Tang sits inside the team meeting room on Monday. He wears a purple ballcap with a white Powercat and a black quarter-zip with another Powercat. Underneath the Powercat reads "ELEVATE" — that now-treasured word that Tang championed during his introductory news conference on March 24, 2022.

Asked to comment on his Big 12 Coach of the Year honor, Tang credits God for the opportunity. He thanks his coaching staff and support staff for his honor. He thanks his players, including All-Big 12 First Team selections Markquis Nowell and Keyontae Johnson. He thanks the wives who cook meals and allow the coaches to spend time in the office. He says that there are simply too many people to thank. Lastly, he thanks Baylor head coach Scott Drew, who allowed Tang to grow as a coach.

"It's an honor that your peers would vote you (as coach of the year)," Tang says. "I mean, those guys know what we go through day in and day out with a team just being a coach, so that's an honor."

Taylor, who has served as K-State athletics director since 2017, calls the achievements by Tang, his coaching staff, and players, "remarkable."

"I don't think anybody would've expected us and where we were mid-summer to be able to (get to this position)," Taylor says. "I think (Tang) thought we could get to the NCAA Tournament, but I don't know that he thought we could be as good as we've been. Credit him and the coaches and players. He's so humble. He says it's a team effort. That's just who he is.

"He's been amazing."

The Big 12 Coach of the Year honor came three days after CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein and College Hoops Today named Tang as its National Coach of the Year. He beat out Bill Self (Kansas), Shaka Smart (Marquette), Kelvin Sampson (Houston) and Mike Cronin (UCLA) for the top honor.

More accolades could certainly follow in the coming weeks.

"He's extremely hard working, high character, very loyal, very passionate, and he treats people the right way," Drew says. "He always sees the good. He has high expectations."

Lamar Hurd knows. Hurd, 39, currently provides basketball analysis and insight on all Portland Trail Blazers' broadcasts on Root Sports. He was starting point guard at Oregon State, shared the team's MVP award, and won the 2006 Pac-10 medal, which is awarded annually to one male and one female student-athlete who best exemplifies excellence on and off the playing field.

Hurd was also a star under Tang when Tang cut his teeth as head coach at Heritage Christian Academy in Cleveland, Texas, between 1993-2003. Tang took a birth-through-high school private school of 145 total students from obscurity to four TAPPS Division A state championships and a top-25 national ranking — an absolutely incredible feat.

Upon Tang's hiring at K-State, Hurd predicted good times would follow for the Wildcats. But…

"I just didn't know it would happen this fast," Hurd says. "I don't feel comfortable writing off anything with him. If you'd asked me before the season if I thought he'd be Big 12 Coach of the Year and Kansas State would finish third, I wouldn't have said 'no.' I can't say no with Coach Tang because I just know the affect he has on things that he is a part of. I've seen too much of it. Maybe if I hadn't seen as much I'd be more willing to definitively proclaim that it would be too crazy this year or in five years, but I've seen too much of this stuff.

"I fully expect they will win a championship while he is there. If you trace it back, there's been a consistent building process that's led to the top of the mountain. I don't think it'll be any different at Kansas State."

Tang has famously made his presence felt — and he's bringing everybody to the mountain top with him.

K-State enjoyed eight consecutive sellouts to end its home schedule, capped by an 85-69 victory over Oklahoma last Wednesday that made for one of the most remarkable K-State Senior Nights in recent history. More than once, Tang's postgame celebrations with the K-State student section at Bramlage Coliseum have started off ESPN's SportsCenter and the love affair has touched every corner of the Little Apple. One day, Tang is reading to children at an elementary school, the next he is attending a Boys & Girls Club event, and the next he is sharing a couch with students to discuss a variety of topics as a part of a K-State Sports video production.

"Coach Tang is a difference-maker, and he has re-defined the K-State culture on campus and in the Manhattan community," K-State President Richard Linton says. "His players, our students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members love his passion. He puts the K-State family and our people first — always. We are fortunate to have him on our team."

Tang knows no other way.

"I've had a blast," Tang says. "I've said all along basketball just happens to be what I do. I've been gifted. My gift is ministry. Whether that's standing behind a pulpit delivering a message or just being out and touching peoples' lives and making somebody's day better, that's part of my gift. My passion just happens to be basketball. God happened to put me in a position where I could use my passion on a platform that brings Him honor and glory, and in turn makes other peoples' day a little bit better.

"This community has been wonderful in how they've received me and my family. It's just fun to be around the kids and their excitement and joy. Our young people, our communities, deserve to have someone who really appreciates them and enjoys being around them."

Nowell has experienced the joy. The senior point guard and fellow returning player junior Ishmael Massoud helped recruit their current teammates to Manhattan. Things can move fast during college basketball season.

The joy that Nowell feels when he's around Tang is boundless.

"Coach Tang has 'Crazy Faith,' as he calls it, in all his players, and you don't see that often," Nowell says. "For him to have that crazy faith in us, it just gives us confidence that we need to go out there and perform. It's just a blessing to have a coach like that coaching you, and you get to see him every day. We always learn something new from him on the court or off the court.

"He's one of the biggest blessings that I could have and K-State could have."

The very fingerprint of the immigrant from San Fernando, Trinidad, who migrated with his parents to St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands until age 10, who took Heritage Christian Academy to unfathomable heights, then who joined Baylor and earned his college degree in 2007 while helping rebuild the program in Waco, Texas, now rests everywhere in Manhattan.

"It's what he's been able to do not only from a basketball perspective but from beyond the court," Taylor says. "It's just his involvement with the community and engaging the community and the students and the energy in the building — all of that has been a major impact on our program."

Kim Tang, Jerome's older sister, is among his biggest supporters.

"I've seen this coming since Jerome was coaching the boys in Cleveland, Texas," she says. "We were just waiting for the opportunity to come for him, and it did. From a child, Jerome has always been very sweet and loving. He's really honest. He's not going to lie. He's giving. He just has that magnet that draws people to him. There's nothing he would've give you.

"My heart — I'm so proud."

Stonestreet is proud as well.

"I've been impressed with Coach Tang since the moment he was hired," Stonestreet says. "He called me and welcomed me any time to come visit the program. He said he wanted me around anytime because he wanted to show his kids that success starts in Manhattan, Kansas. He welcomed me and gave me a few minutes with everybody.

"My message was that my dream started right here in Manhattan, Kansas, and yours can, too. I said to control what you can control. I tried in my career to out-prepare everyone and to be ready for whatever came along my plate more than anyone else. You can't control what you can't control.

"It was a pleasure to get to talk with the team."

This season, Tang and his team have had everyone talking.

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Keyontae Johnson

Markquis Nowell

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