An inside look at how Kansas State’s coaching search began and ended with Jerome Tang
Jerome Tang had a surprise for Gene Taylor when he welcomed the Kansas State athletics director into his home last weekend.
As soon as he opened the door for Taylor and three other K-State administrators who had flown to Waco, Texas to formally interview Tang for the Wildcats’ vacant basketball coach opening, “Wabash Cannonball” began blaring from a speaker inside his living room.
Tang didn’t thrust his body back and forth like K-State students do when the band plays the song at Bramlage Coliseum, but he might as well have. The energy and enthusiasm he displayed at the mere possibility of joining the Wildcats turned out to be a good omen.
About 90 minutes later, Taylor offered Tang his first head coaching job at the college level and Tang accepted. The following day, K-State announced the news. The following week, he arrived to a hero’s welcome in Manhattan via a private jet. It was a dream come true for Tang and a moment of validation for Taylor.
Tang was the first candidate K-State interviewed two weeks ago. Taylor and his team of advisers spoke with Tang inside Taylor’s hotel room. They went on to talk with six other coaches about the opening but kept coming back to the man who helped Scott Drew turn Baylor into a national power.
“He was really impressive then, just his energy and his enthusiasm and his humor. We felt an immediate connection,” Taylor said of Tang. “Then when we got to his house we got to get into a lot more basketball stuff. We talked about offense, defense, his recruiting plan and a lot of other stuff. He was very, very prepared.”
Other coaches linked to the K-State search included Brad Underwood, Chris Jans, Todd Golden, Andy Kennedy, Grant McCasland, Darian DeVries, Matt McMahon and KT Turner.
Taylor spoke to many of them informally via video chat, but the Wildcats only boarded a flight for one formal interview. That happened on Sunday morning when K-State administrators Casey Scott, Josh McCowan and Kenny Lannou joined Taylor on a plane bound for Waco.
Several other schools had also reached out to Tang about their openings, including Mississippi State, but Tang only seemed interested in talking with the Wildcats.
There were two reasons for that.
“The fans,” Tang said. “No doubt about it, it was the fans. The passion and the energy that we felt here. And then also Gene Taylor. His belief in me when he looked me in the eyes and told me that he wanted me to be his coach, it went straight to my heart. I am so thankful about this opportunity.”
Tang was at the top of K-State’s wish list from the beginning, and it was easy to understand why.
After watching Baylor rise to the top of the Big 12 standings and win a national championship with Tang serving as the Bears’ lead assistant, Taylor badly wanted to speak with him.
“I just really liked their teams the last few years,” Taylor said. “They are veteran teams without five-star recruits who turn into stars. They are tough minded and they rebound the heck out of the ball. They just get after you, and they play together. Baylor has had such a low number of transfers. I just really liked how they were put together, and that was before I knew who Jerome Tang was.”
Most impressively, Taylor said, once Baylor reached its first NCAA Tournament under Drew in 2008 the program never dropped off and put together a string of 15 straight winning seasons.
After 10 up-and-down seasons under Bruce Weber, that kind of consistency was a plus.
Still, many K-State fans wondered if Taylor might try and meet with Underwood after Illinois was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament on the same day he formally interviewed Tang.
But that was never in the cards. Taylor arrived at Tang’s house at 11 a.m. Sunday and offered him the job before they ate lunch. It was fitting that Tang was the first and last candidate they interviewed.
“We went in there thinking he was our No. 1 guy,” Taylor said. “After spending an hour with him in Kansas City we didn’t think we were going to spend three more hours with him, but we did. About halfway through we took a break. I looked at everybody and asked, ‘Are we on the same page here? This is our guy, right?’ Everyone nodded back at me. So I went back in there and told him, ‘You’ve made a big impression on us and we would like to offer you the opportunity to be our next head coach.’”
Tang wasn’t sure how to react.
After 19 years as an assistant coach at Baylor, taking over his own program was something he always aspired to do. To get the opportunity at another Big 12 schools seemed too good to be true.
He leaned back in his chair and didn’t say anything for a few moments.
“Then he told us, ‘I have prayed about this. This is something I’ve wanted. This is going to be good,’” Taylor said. “He didn’t get too emotional, but you knew it meant a lot to him.”
This story was originally published March 24, 2022 at 9:59 AM.