K-State Q&A: Jerome Tang’s successor, interim coaches and new football uniforms
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Wildcats are 1-2 with Driscoll after Tang’s firing.
- Dowling drew scrutiny for sitting alone on bench and tuxedo Instagram posts.
- Jerrod Calhoun, Josh Schertz and others are targets; hire likely after tourney.
As I was scrolling through my mentions during Kansas State’s 79-70 basketball loss at Colorado earlier this week, I came across a comment that made me laugh out loud.
It read: Will Gene Taylor fire Matthew Driscoll?
That question came from @BenKohl on X, and it made me chuckle again when I wrote it in the second paragraph of this mailbag. Why? Because, at first glance, it’s a ridiculous idea.
Taylor, the K-State athletic director, has already fired Jerome Tang and named Driscoll as the team’s interim head coach. Sure, the Wildcats haven’t played any better with Driscoll in command. And he insists on praising Tang at every postgame news conference, which is awkward for the school.
But if K-State got rid of him, the program would need to name a double interim head coach. I’ve never heard of that before.
The Wildcats are 1-2 with Driscoll in the lead chair. They experienced a brief spike in performance in his first game, as K-State thumped Baylor 90-74 at Bramlage Coliseum. But that result hasn’t aged well. Baylor has lost 11 of its past 15 games, and Scott Drew admitted he was an “emotional wreck” in the aftermath of Tang’s dismissal.
Kudos to K-State for the win, but Baylor was due for a beat down on that day.
Since then, K-State has lost by 28 at Texas Tech and by nine at Colorado. The Wildcats trailed by more than 20 in both games and led for a combined total of 3 minutes, 46 seconds of game action.
That’s ... Not great.
Still, the more I think about that question, the more I wonder if K-State would be better off replacing at least one coach on its interim staff as this nightmare of a season comes to an end. I say that because of a picture that has been circulating on social media that shows assistant coach Jareem Dowling sitting all by himself on the bench at CU Events Center while K-State’s other coaches are up on the court discussing strategy with players during a game stoppage.
It sure seems like Dowling has checked out.
Granted, he has never done much in-game coaching for the Wildcats, so it’s hard to tell. Over the past four years, he’s been more of a hype man than an assistant coach during games. He was fun when K-State was winning in Year 1 of the Jerome Tang era. Now, fans are trying to figure out why he is one of the Big 12’s highest-paid assistant coaches at $550,000 per year.
He usually does stand up and interact with officials or fans during dead balls, though. Sitting on the bench and literally doing nothing is new.
Combine that with the fact that Dowling has shared a picture of Tang and himself wearing tuxedos every single day on Instagram since K-State made a coaching change, and it makes me wonder how much he truly wants to be on the bench right now.
Driscoll is trying. He may be a little weird and say some goofy things. But I don’t doubt that he wants K-State to finish the season strong. Same for most of the K-State assistants, who were up and helping players during timeouts at Colorado. They want to be here. Can we say the same about Dowling? That picture from Boulder was not a good look for him.
K-State might be better off with former players Jordan Henriquez and/or Clent Stewart on the bench.
Now, let’s move on to the rest of your questions. Thanks, as always, for providing them.
Is there a requirement that a coach has to give a post-game press conference? I know it makes you, @WyattWheeler_ @RyanGilbert_ and @DerekYoungKSO jobs easier, but dang these are getting to be a bad look for the university -@the_funky_andy via X.
Big 12 policy is for both head coaches to hold a short news conference after every league game.
I’ve been covering the Wildcats since 2009, and during that time I can’t think of a game that ended in silence from the head coach.
So I expect Driscoll’s press conferences to continue. Player availability seems like more of a wildcard.
In any case, I understand your concern. Driscoll has gone out of his way to praise Tang in all three of his pressers. That was understandable after the Baylor game, but at some point he needs to move on and represent the university instead of his friend.
That being said, I honestly didn’t have any problems with what he said after the Colorado loss. He gave his players more credit than I would have for not quitting, but it’s fair game for him to say that.
Jerome Tang had a good recruiting class on paper in his first season, but they all transferred. One in particular, point guard Dai Dai Ames. He now averages 15.9 PPG for California, but not necessarily a big name in college basketball. Do you think things would be much different if he stayed? -@AdamMeyer35 via X.
Dai Dai Ames is averaging 16.6 points per game at Cal.
Dorian Finister is averaging 14.5 points and 4.7 rebounds per game at Louisiana.
Ugonna Onyenso is averaging 6.3 points and 4.8 rebounds per game at Virginia.
K-State would be better off with all three of them right now. But what the Wildcats really need is a true point guard. They haven’t had a great distributor since the days of Markquis Nowell.
It would have been fun to watch Ames grow and mature in Manhattan. He has game. And he scored 25 against K-State earlier this season. Unfortunately, it’s hard to keep any college basketball player over the long haul these days.
Who is the next basketball coach? -@catsfan20022002 via X.
Here’s a full list of names to watch as K-State takes its first steps toward hiring a new men’s basketball coach.
Jerrod Calhoun from Utah State appears to be the early favorite. K-State is interested in him, because he has won consistently at both Youngstown State and Utah State. And he appears on his way to a second straight NCAA Tournament with the Aggies. It sounds like he is ready to coach in a power conference. He could be a good fit here.
But I have also heard buzz about Creighton assistant Alan Huss. He used to play for North Kansas City High School and he has head coaching experience from his days at High Point. He is the head-coach-in-waiting at Creighton. But maybe the timing works better for him with the Wildcats.
Josh Schertz of Saint Louis is also near the top of the list. But plenty of schools will be interested in him. K-State will face strong competition.
Casey Alexander of Belmont or Ben Jacobson of Northern Iowa would fit the exact mold of an experienced head coach that Gene Taylor has said he is looking to hire.
Some fans like the idea of Chris Beard of Ole Miss. I think he would welcome a move back to the Big 12, but the Rebels haven’t won a game since Jan. 17. He isn’t exactly a hot commodity right now.
K-State isn’t expected to make a hire until teams start bowing out of the NCAA Tournament. Much can happen between now and then.
Any way you can predict Shane Southwell’s future? I’m afraid we’re going to miss out on a future great coach, yet we really have to hire a proven head coach this time. Or so it seems -@kstatefanfirst via X.
He may land a courtesy interview with K-State, but I can’t picture a scenario in which Shane Southwell is seriously considered in this coaching search.
Former K-State basketball players have lobbied for him to get a look on social media. I understand why. He is a former K-State player and assistant coach. He knows what it takes to win in Manhattan.
But he’s never even been an associate head coach before.
The jump from Northwestern assistant coach to K-State head coach is simply too big for him to make right now.
Brad Korn (head coach at SEMO), Alvin Brooks III (associate head coach at Kentucky) and Eric Pastrana (associate head coach at Miami) are all coaches with K-State ties who have more experience than Southwell.
Will lavender football jerseys make their debut before or after 2028? -@coachjeromecf via X.
Gene Taylor has said that he views lavender as strictly a basketball color. So K-State fans may have to wait a while on that one.
But Collin Klein told me in an exclusive interview that he is “open” to the idea of alternate uniforms.
“Gene and I have had discussions,” Klein said. “We’re putting a lot of different things on the table. I’m open to it. I think we’ll kind of see how these discussions go.”
Klein went on to say that K-State will wear its traditional purple-and-silver uniforms in his first game as head football coach. But there is hope for fun, new uniforms down the line.