Advertisement

K-State rookie head coach Jerome Tang, Wildcats ride their 'Crazy Faith' to verge of Final Four

NEW YORK — The program Kansas State coach Jerome Tang inherited almost exactly one year ago wasn't only coming off three losing seasons in a row, the Wildcats' worst such stretch since 1999-2003.

He also took over a team that was set to bring back just two contributors, point guard Markquis Nowell and forward Ismael Massoud, forcing the new hire and first-time college head coach to leap into the transfer portal to fill out a depleted roster.

Months later, with the No. 3 Wildcats set for an Elite Eight matchup with No. 9 Florida Atlantic, Kansas State players and coaches have donned shirts bearing the logo "Crazy Faith" above two numbers, 1 and 2, followed by 13 blank spaces — a visual representation of the two players who stayed and the baker's dozen that joined after Tang was hired last March.

"It's just a faith that can't be understated enough," Massoud said. "The amount of faith he had in me and Markquis and the belief that he had, him and the coaching staff, to be able to put a team around us and be able to build that foundation, to be able to do what we're doing today."

Kansas State's Jerome Tang has guided the Wildcats to the Elite Eight in his first season as head coach.
Kansas State's Jerome Tang has guided the Wildcats to the Elite Eight in his first season as head coach.

After 19 years as an assistant under Baylor coach Scott Drew, Tang has pulled off one of the most remarkable rookie coaching jobs in major-conference history. At the root of this unexpected success has been Tang's overwhelming and unshakeable faith — in himself, in his blueprint and in the players who bought into his vision for turning Kansas State into a championship contender.

"I’m just being me. I’m just who I am," Tang said. "I’ve always been like this. I’m not doing anything different than I have the last 19 years, I was just doing it behind the scenes. I’ve been the same guy all this time and I’m never going to change."

A longtime (and loyal) assistant

An early addition to Drew's staff in 2003, Tang was one of the key players behind Baylor's evolution from a program in shambles following the scandalous Dave Bliss era into one of the top teams in the sport and a national champion.

"The day he picked Kansas State, he’s thinking national championship," Drew said. "Where a lot of people take a new job and think, ‘Let’s just have a winning season.’ His vision and work ethic toward that vision is something that stood out with him."

Before that, Tang spent a decade as the head coach at Heritage Christian Academy in Cleveland, Texas, turning the school into a regional powerhouse.

That makes him a rare breed in college coaching: Tang has been in the business for 30 years while working at just three stops.

"I could have stayed at Heritage Christian and been the youth pastor at the church for the rest of my life," he said.

"I got to the point at Baylor that I told God that if he wanted me to be an assistant for the rest of my life, I was OK with that, because my identity was not going to be caught up in a title. If he wanted me to quit coaching and go into ministry and do something different, I was willing to do that, too."

Kansas State wasn't Tang's first opportunity to run his own program. But other options that arrived during his time with the Bears — especially after he was promoted to assistant head coach in 2017 — just didn't feel right; only the Wildcats were able to check all the boxes needed to pull him away from Baylor.

"He was selective in jobs he pursued," said Drew. "He turned down jobs that he didn’t feel called or led to go to."

How Kansas State reached verge of Final Four

In many ways, this is a team of this moment: Tang quickly turned Kansas State into a championship contender by building around transfers, at a time when deregulation of transfer rules has allowed players to trade one program for another without penalty.

In addition to Nowell and Massoud, newcomers such as forwards Keyontae Johnson and David N'Guessan and guards Cam Carter and Desi Sills transformed the roster and brought the Wildcats' overall talent level in line with the rest of the Big 12, viewed this season as the nation's best conference.

"He had a winning resume and I just wanted to be a part of that," Carter said of Tang. "I believe in everything that he believes in, which is winning."

WINNERS, LOSERS: See ya, top seeds. Hello, Elite Eight variety pack!

SCHEDULE, RESULTS: Complete 2023 NCAA men's tournament schedule, results and times

Even with this overhaul, the Wildcats were picked in the preseason to finish last in the conference. But Kansas State started 14-1 and debuted at No. 13 in the USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll after an overtime win against Baylor on Jan. 7, and then climbed into the Elite Eight after an epic overtime victory against No. 7 Michigan State.

This run has caught everyone by surprise — except for Tang and the Wildcats.

In phone calls and meetings last spring with Kansas State's holdovers and newcomers, Tang said he planned "on winning right away," Massoud recalled.

"You couldn’t write a better story," Massoud said. "Credit to him and his hard work and what he’s been able to do."

Added Carter, "He’s just one of us, for real."

Tang has Wildcats "trying to go 1-0 every day"

This month's surge belies the Wildcats' uneven stretch in January and February, when a team that excelled against non-conference competition hit a roadblock in league play.

After losing to Oklahoma on Feb. 14, which dropped the Wildcats to 7-6 in the Big 12, Tang told the team that he'd been in this spot before and knew how to fix things. Kansas State would then win four in a row to help lock down the No. 3 seed in the East Region.

"The thing he really emphasized that really helped us not look ahead and worry about what can happen, is just trying to go 1-0 every day," Massoud said.

"We came into the tournament knowing that no one thought we were going to be here. We still have a lot to prove and a lot of goals that we hope to accomplish. So we’re still hunting and we’re the ones chasing other people, too."

In a region that lost favorites Purdue and Duke on the opening weekend, Kansas State has filled the void by beating No. 14 Montana State and two college basketball bluebloods, No. 6 Kentucky and Michigan State.

"At this point, we're one game away, and everybody's goal is trying to get to the national championship," Keyontae Johnson said. "That was our goal from the beginning of the season. We're just going to keep with that, fight with a hunger and just stay together."

Chasing program and NCAA history

Tang is already the fifth coach in Kansas State history to win 20 or more games in his first season. But that's just the tip of the iceberg for what Tang has achieved and could still achieve as a rookie head coach.

  • He's the first coach in program history to reach the Sweet 16 in his first year. A win against FAU would make him the 11th coach in Division I history to reach the Final Four as a first-year, first-time head coach.

  • With a victory Saturday, he would tie his predecessor, Bruce Weber, for the most wins by a first-year coach in program history with 27.

  • Another win would send Kansas State to the Final Four for the first time since 1964, when the program was led by Hall of Fame coach Tex Winter.

  • And Tang could become the second rookie coach to win a national championship and the first to do so on a non-interim basis. In 1989, Steve Fisher of Michigan took over as interim coach after the regular season was completed.

"That's what we call crazy faith," Tang said, "At the Big 12 media day, people thought I was crazy. And now that we are here, they're like, man, what great faith."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: K-State's Jerome Tang, Cats ride 'Crazy Faith' to verge of Final Four