By Greta Klein
Sports Editor
X: @gmklein32
The vibrant colors of red and blue were swiftly replaced by purple as people filled the stands Tuesday at Hutchinson Sports Arena for the Dillon Lecture Series. The 2024 DLS was concluded by Jerome Tang, who will begin his third season as Kansas State’s men’s basketball coach.
Tang has been selected for many awards but most recently received the 2023 Werner Ladder Naismith Men’s College Coach of the Year after guiding the Wildcats to a 26-win season in 2022-2023 and its 13th trip to the Elite Eight.
Tang was chosen as the National Coach of the Year after leading K-State to the Elite Eight in his debut season, the third time ever a K-State coach won. He finished second in The Associated Press award and was a contender for almost every other National Coach of the Year award in 2022–2023. Additionally, he received the award from both the league coaches and the AP as the unanimous Big 12 Coach of the Year.
“I see my position more of a CEO,” Tang said. “You delegate power and you give those guys freedom to go do the thing that they’re special at.”
Tang’s coaching approach is unique, as he excels in having a close relationship with his players and understands his role on the team.
“My good friend Tim Maloney, who I coached at Baylor with, would always say, ‘Jerome, you teach basketball but you coach people right?’, it’s a teaching portion of things,” Tang said.
He wants to guide his players along the right path and help them achieve their goals.
“Coaching is when we’re taking them from where they’re at to where they want to go and the course to get there,” Tang said. “We have to help them understand and plan because everybody wants to do it in a straight line, and that’s not always the case.”
Tang does not only want to teach his players basketball but he wants that personal relationship with every member of the team.
“If the only time you spend together is on a basketball court, at the office, then you’re really not a family,” Tang said. “So every week we have family dinners. The guys are over the house, and one of the things I say is we don’t want them just to know where the bathrooms are, but will know where the knives and the forks are, so they feel at home.”
Whether interacting with his players, staff, or students on campus, Tang enjoys the environment that K-State has built around the university.
“One of the things that I think is a superpower as a staff is relationships,” Tang said. “We build great relationships, not just with our players, but with the community. I just love the students. I’ve always had a passion for the students, everywhere I’ve been, and one of the things that attracted me to K-State.”
Just as Tang enjoys interacting with the students and athletes on K-State’s campus, he also values his relationship with his coaching staff.
His success in landing NIL deals is a testament to his great regard for his players and connections. Along with the NIL, there are concerns about players transferring or making other deals.
“It’s just the nature of the business right now,” Tang said. “There’s a business portion to it, but then there’s the other side of it so we always feel like we build great relationships with our guys. One of the things we try to do is just make it hard for them to want to leave.”
Tang has developed that family atmosphere at K-State while also making it hard for his players to leave.
“Our purpose is to build great men who can be great husbands and great fathers,” Tang said. “I believe, because we live that example in front of them, they see it and they realize that it’s more than just basketball.”
