An inside look at Jerome Tang’s recruiting style and how he navigates NIL at K-State
It didn’t take long for Cam Carter to realize he wanted to continue his college basketball career at Kansas State.
Carter, a 6-foot-3 freshman transfer from Mississippi State, felt an instant connection with new K-State coach Jerome Tang when they spoke on the phone. Then their relationship grew even stronger when Carter took a recruiting visit to Manhattan last month.
“Coach Tang called me five times on the day my name went in the transfer portal,” Carter said in a phone interview. “By the time I went on my visit, it was pretty much a done deal. The coaches showed me so much love. Coach Tang did an awesome job hiring them, because they made me feel like we were family from Day 1.”
Recruiting has never been more unpredictable than it is right now for college basketball coaches. The one-time transfer rule has led to a massive spike in players switching teams every offseason. And the introduction of name, image and likeness deals for student-athletes has made some recent commitments feel like NBA transactions with lots of money involved. But that doesn’t mean Tang is radically changing his recruiting approach.
Tang spent nearly two decades recruiting heralded players to Baylor as an assistant coach by building relationships. He intends for that to remain his foundation now that he’s selling prospects on the Wildcats.
“He checks up on me every day,” Carter said, “just like my mom or dad would do.”
Two months into his tenure, his style has worked with the majority of recruits and transfers who have visited campus.
“We spend a lot of time with them,” Tang said. “That is the most important thing. We obviously want them to feel the energy that exists in Manhattan for this university and this basketball program. But we just want to spend a lot of time with them and get to know them and let them get to know us. That’s why kids pick schools. They don’t pick schools for buildings or meals. They pick schools because of people and opportunity. That’s what we want them focusing on.”
That approach has helped K-State sign LSU transfer Jerrell Colbert, junior-college transfer Nae’qwan Tomlin, and high school recruit Dorian Finister. Taj Manning also decided to honor his commitment to the Wildcats after visiting with Tang in Manhattan.
What was it about those recruiting visits that convinced them all to sign scholarship papers?
“It was like no other,” Finister said. “The facilities were great, the support is great, everything about it was great. It made me feel at home and I am big on home. I am going to miss everyone (in New Orleans). I went up there and they really made me feel like I would survive and get better.”
Carter remembers every stop on his visit.
The first thing he did was meet K-State coaches at the football stadium for photos. Carter tried on lavender and purple uniforms, getting a feel for what it would be like to play for the Wildcats. Then the coaching staff took him out for dinner.
He toured campus the following day, met counselors and strength coaches and go to know his future teammates. Usually, K-State would have squeezed in time for him to play pick-up games in the team’s practice facility. But that wasn’t possible with only Markquis Nowell and Ismael Massoud returning next season. They played the video game NBA 2K instead.
Nowell and Massoud have been heavily involved with every recruiting visit. With so much space on the roster, playing time is a big selling point.
Because he is originally from Louisiana, K-State coaches also made sure to show Carter that the fast-food scene in Manhattan includes a Popeyes and a Raising Cane’s.
“They aren’t the healthiest places in the world, but those are five-star restaurants in New Orleans,” Carter said. “That made me feel even more at home.”
NIL deals have also been a hot topic. Tang now expects to address that subject with every player he recruits in some fashion.
K-State was on the losing end of NIL deals when Nijel Pack transferred to Miami and landed a sponsorship deal with LifeWallet for $800,000 plus a car, and when Antoine Davis opted to remain at Detroit with the help of a creative NIL opportunity that could potentially be worth six figures.
Tang downplayed the significance of NIL deals at his introductory news conference, saying he would rather help his players get to the NBA and earn millions. His stance seems to have changed at least somewhat since then.
“I’m all for kids making money off their name, image and likeness,” Tang said. “I believe that there’s opportunity for them here at Kansas State. But it’s become more than that. Unfortunately, NIL was never intended to be what it’s become right now. That has been a tough thing to maneuver and understand how to stay in the limited guidelines that were given to us. It’s just another variable brought into the equation that we have to solve as coaches.”
With six open scholarships remaining, Tang will get plenty of chances to figure things out before the end of this recruiting cycle.
He may tweak a few things here and there, but don’t expect his core recruiting philosophy to change.
This story was originally published May 12, 2022 at 5:00 AM.