Why Jerome Tang shares his phone number with K-State students every new academic year
Kansas State men’s basketball coach Jerome Tang is not afraid to do things in his own unique way.
This is true both on and off the court.
Tang reminded the world of his bold personality earlier this week when he attended freshman orientation for K-State’s newest batch of students inside Bramlage Coliseum. When it was his turn to speak to the large group of freshmen, he shared his cell phone number and told everyone in attendance to reach out whenever they needed help on campus.
Within 24 hours, Tang said he had already heard from about 100 of them.
“I got a lot of FaceTime calls from people who didn’t believe it was my number,” Tang said, “so then you answer and you get (a lot of surprised yelling). My wife loves it, because she is always next to me and she just cracks up.”
Tang did the same thing a year ago. He plans to keep doing it as long as he remains with the Wildcats.
“I have had parents reach out for their children that are struggling and just ask if I would check on them,” Tang said. “A young man yesterday said he needed some gas, so I met him at the gas station and put some gas in his car. I have also had them say, ‘Coach, we have got this going on. If you can stop by.’”
Last year, Tang said he received closer to 300 calls. It makes sense that K-State students would want to talk to Tang. He is extremely popular on campus after he guided the Wildcats to 26 victories and a trip to the Elite Eight. K-State athletic director Gene Taylor has said the university is closing in on a contract extension for him.
Some of his coaching peers from across the country have called him crazy for sharing his cell phone number with random students. In all honesty, he used to think the same way.
But one of his closest friends in the coaching industry convinced him otherwise.
Matt Driscoll, who currently coaches at North Florida and previously worked with Tang as an assistant at Baylor, started to give out his number at freshman orientation many years ago. Tang learned to love the idea so much that he copied it in Manhattan.
“I thought he was crazy,” Tang said. “I told him, ‘You have got 3,000 freshmen.’ And he said it was the best thing he had ever done. I am glad he shared that with me.”
Why?
“It has been so helpful for me to get to know about the college life and what is going on,” Tang said. “For me to stop by for five minutes and say hi means so much to them and I learn so much. I have been as rewarded as much in this as anyone else.”
This is a good time of year for Tang to focus on helping others, in addition to his duties with the K-State basketball team.
The Wildcats just returned from a 10-day foreign tour of the Middle East, where they won two of three games against professional competition in Israel and Abu Dhabi. Now that they are all home, he gave his players a few weeks off to recuperate and to adjust to the new school year.
If you have his number, he is happy to talk.
In his mind, more people who work on college campuses should try to connect with students ... even if they are strangers.
“I have got two kids on campus,” Tang said. “I hope that a professor or someone else on campus will show an interest and see if they are having a good or a bad day and be willing to put their arms around them and understand they are people away from home for the first time.
“They just need to know somebody out there cares about them.”