Jerome Tang's unconventional journey to become Kansas State's head basketball coach

MANHATTAN — To call Jerome Tang's path to Kansas State unconventional would be a huge understatement.

Forget for a minute the 19 years he spent as a Baylor assistant before finally getting his big shot with the Wildcats. Other than the length of his tenure with the Bears, that part is not highly unusual.

No, the fact that Tang got in the coaching profession at all is what makes his story so intriguing.

He was born in Trinidad and lived in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, until the age of 10, when his family moved to Texas. And while he played high school basketball, by his own admission his talent did not match his love for the game.

"I wasn't very good," he said. "But I got better. I kept improving.

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"I was extremely passionate about the game. Because I saw how much I improved, it let me know like these guys have more talent in their pinky than I have in my whole body. And if I could improve at the level that I improved at, then I feel as talented as they are if they're willing to put the work into it and I'm willing to give them the road on what to work on, (they could succeed)."

Planting the coaching seed

Tang went off to North Central Bible College — now North Central University — in Minneapolis on a bible school scholarship with no intention of continuing his basketball career. Then a coach saw him shooting around in the gym one day and convinced him to try out for the team.

"It was the first time in my life anybody asked me to try out for a team," Tang said. "I made the team. I didn't play a lot, but I made the team."

It was there that Tang first entertained the thought of becoming a coach.

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"Because of my experience in high school, when I got to college, I listened to the stories of some of my teammates, who would talk about their high school coaches," Tang recalled. "And I said, 'I want to be a high school coach because I want kids to have a great experience and understand that they can get better and improve.'

"I used to watch Rick Pitino tapes (on) player development. I never wanted a kid that I coach to leave and say, 'Man, my high school coach didn't do this.' I wanted them to have the best high school experience they could have."

Funny thing was, that epiphany notwithstanding, Tang's road into coaching still involved several more twists and turns.

First of all, he dropped out of college.

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"Some of it was finances. Some of it was immaturity," Tang said. "That's why I can speak to these guys about the importance of developing good habits at a young age."

A foot in the door at Heritage Christian

He did go back to school and played junior college basketball for a year before returning to Texas to go to work. That's when a position opened at Heritage Christian Academy near Houston and he landed the job as head coach — without the benefit of a college degree.

"I've been coaching ever since," Tang said with a smile.

He quickly built Heritage Christian into a Texas powerhouse, winning four state championships before taking the program national over his last three years.

With his team competing at a national level, it brought college recruiters to Heritage Christian, which in turn gave Tang an up-close look at the college game from a different perspective.

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"It allowed me to develop relationships (and) to figure out what kind of guys that I wanted to work with and didn't want to work with," he said.

Baylor comes calling

Enter Scott Drew, who had just been named head coach at Baylor in 2003.

Drew met with Tang and the two immediately hit it off. But it took a dinner at Tang's home to convince Drew to hire him for his coaching staff.

"One thing my dad always said is, you get to know someone when you go to their house (for dinner), so he said going to see coach Tang and spending time with his family was a great idea," Drew said.

Of course, Tang's track record at Heritage Christian played a role as well.

"The first reason I hired him is he was at Heritage Christian High School and built it into a powerhouse and they didn't have best facilities (or) resources," Drew said. "And he was able to transform and change that.

"And several people that I respected talked very highly of him. And then when I had a chance to meet him … he's a great guy. He's an outstanding husband and brother. Role model. Great Christian man (of) high character and great energy."

But there was still a hitch. Tang, for all his success, had never completed his college degree.

Drew, with the approval of his administration, still hired Tang on the condition that he work to get his degree while still working full time at Baylor.

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"He stopped (college) because he needed to support his family and his degree was very important to him," Drew said. "I respected him for wanting to do it and I know the importance of it.

"And he said, 'It's not going to interfere with work,' and I think he worked, like all of us those first few years, on five, six hours of sleep, only he probably just got four because the last two were spent studying."

Tang finished up his last 70 hours or so online and through Baylor, and in 2007 got his bachelor's degree from Charter Oak State College.

Looking to leave a legacy at K-State

Fast forward to 2022, and here he is, the 25th head coach in Kansas State's storied basketball history. He's also the Wildcats' first Black head basketball coach and the fourth in any sport at K-State. It's his first head coaching job at the college level.

"That actually gave me goosebumps when someone that I'm really close to called to tell me about it as I was trying to research the job," Tang said. "But my dad is half Black and half Chinese, my mom is Indian, I was born in Trinidad, I was raised in St. Croix (and) I grew up in Texas. I lived in Minnesota for a while.

"I've got a little bit of everything in me, so that is pretty cool."

But that in and of itself is not enough, Tang added.

"It's pretty cool to be a part of history and be able to leave a legacy for my kids, but I've got to make sure that it's a great legacy," he said. "So we've got to get players and we've got to win."

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Jerome Tang's road to become Kansas State coach not a typical one