K-State Q&A: Jerome Tang, Arkansas, the Wildcats’ next basketball transfer & more
Sporting events occasionally get delayed by weather.
Every now and then, K-State Q&A gets delayed by breaking news.
Such was the case on Friday when I had my weekly mailbag just about ready to go when my phone blew up. Jerome Tang emerged as a serious candidate at Arkansas, and the K-State topics I had lined up no longer seemed pertinent ... at least until we got some resolution on Tang.
Turns out, we didn’t have to wait all that long. K-State athletic director Gene Taylor and many others convinced Tang to stay in Manhattan on Friday night with a sweetened deal that will boost his salary and extend his contract beyond 2030.
For what it’s worth, high-ranking officials at K-State were prepared for that exact scenario. They knew some crazy things could happen when the coaching carousel started turning. Near the end of the regular season, I was told that the Wildcats were nervous about some of the potential jobs that were going to open up. Big Ten and SEC schools can offer more money. Some can also offer more prestige and other resources.
What might happen if they showed interest in Tang?
Well, K-State had a plan. It was confident it could fend off most other schools and keep its men’s basketball coach. Both sides were going to have to talk through some things and the Wildcats were going to have to pay up, but Tang would still be wearing purple in the end.
That’s pretty much what happened. But I will say the timing of the Arkansas opening put extra pressure on K-State to retain Tang. All the best candidates that Taylor could have targeted in a coaching search were hired by other schools weeks ago. There aren’t a ton of great options out there right now.
Some may not love the fact that Tang is getting a contract extension after going to the NIT, and I get that. But it had to be done. Think of it as an investment in the future of K-State basketball more than a reward for the season that was.
Now, let’s dive into your questions. Thanks, as always, for providing them.
It worries me that Jerome Tang was eager to interview for the Arkansas job. Kind of seems like he is more willing to leave Kansas State than I previously thought. Or maybe he only talked to them as a leverage play. Help it make sense! - Jeff M. via e-mail.
This isn’t the equivalent of Frank Martin leaving for South Carolina.
Arkansas is one of the best basketball jobs in the SEC and a higher-profile gig than Kansas State. I wouldn’t judge any coach for at least listening to a job offer from the Razorbacks.
They also have enough pop to reportedly be on the verge of hiring John Calipari away from Kentucky.
Did Tang do this just to sweeten his deal with K-State? Possibly, but I don’t think so.
An insider told me that both SMU and USC put out feelers to Tang when they were searching for coaches and he politely told them each “no thanks.” If all he wanted was a raise he probably could have used those opportunities as leverage.
Who is the next transfer that Jerome Tang brings to Manhattan? -Andrew B. via e-mail.
Many wondered how long it would take for the Wildcats to land their first incoming transfer during the 2024 offseason. Turns out the answer was “not very long,” at least compared to last year, when Michigan point guard Dug McDaniel announced his commitment to K-State earlier this week.
On the surface, McDaniel looks like a great fit for K-State. He can score (16.3 points per game), he can pass (4.7 assists per game) and he can shoot from 3-point range (36.8%). It’s hard to know for certain how any recruit or transfer will play in a new environment, but I have high expectations for McDaniel. He is a different type of guard than what the Wildcats had last season and he should make a positive impact next season.
Now K-State fans are on to another question. Who’s next?
The Wildcats are far from done with the transfer portal. And it sure seems like they are in good shape with a few other potential impact players. Don’t be surprised if CJ Jones, a 6-foot-5 guard from Illinois-Chicago, or Mikeal Brown-Jones, a 6-8 forward from UNC-Greensboro end up committing to K-State in the near future, possibly after the dead period comes to an end next week.
A few other names to watch: Rutgers center Clifford Omoruyi, Iowa State forward Omaha Biliew and Drexel forward Amari Williams.
Brown-Jones and Omoruyi probably excite me the most out of that group, just because I would love to see them together in the same front court. But they are all talented players.
Williams has reportedly lined up visits to four schools, and none of them are K-State. So the Wildcats might not be in the best position with him. But they have definitely shown interest so I included him above.
I’m hearing that K-State has really beefed up its NIL efforts for basketball, and it looks like Tang is putting that resource to good work.
Does the addition of Michigan transfer Dug McDaniel free up Dai Dai Ames to be more of a scorer? -@_andrew2024 via X.
Landing one of the most talented point guards in the transfer portal should free up the entire roster to do different things next season.
I imagine the entire starting lineup will find it easier to score if McDaniel lives up to expectations.
You never know how a transfer is going to fit until he arrives on campus. There are certainly some warning signs with McDaniel, like Michigan suspending him for six road games because of academic issues and the team only winning eight games last season. But I’m willing to chalk those up to Juwan Howard and Michigan problems that could easily be forgotten at K-State.
Remember, former K-State point guard Markquis Nowell came to Manhattan after he left Arkansas-Little Rock under less than ideal circumstances.
I like what I have seen from McDaniel. The 5-foot-11 guard has impressive range and can make 3-pointers from the logo. He can also drive past defenders and score at the basket. He’s a bucket-getter. But the most impressive part of his game, for my money, is his passing.
He dished out 4.7 assists per game last season while only averaging 2.4 turnovers. An assist-to-turnover ratio of 2-to-1 might not sound amazing for a point guard, but he should be a huge upgrade for a team that turned the ball over on more than 21% of its possessions last season.
Tylor Perry, Arthur Kaluma and Cam Carter were all good players, but none of them were all that good at driving into the lane and then kicking the ball out to open shooters. That is one of McDaniel’s strengths.
That should open up scoring opportunities for every shooter on the roster.
I also like the idea of K-State using two point guards in the same lineup. Turnovers should come way down with multiple ball-handlers/passers on the floor.
What did you think of the Michigan kid’s commitment video? Spoiler alert: The clip with Bill Self made me guffaw. - Phil M. via e-mail.
I don’t really have a strong opinion on it, one way or the other.
K-State fans seemed to like it, which was good. KU fans seemed to have the opposite reaction, which may or may not be good.
If McDaniel never loses to the Jayhawks then it won’t ever be an issue. Heck, it might make him a beloved figure in Manhattan. If the Jayhawks use it as motivation and sweep the Wildcats next season then it could become a talking point or something that he regrets doing.
But I did think it was funny. And it probably shows that McDaniel is coming in ready to win as a Wildcat.
The moment Bill Self said he called Jerome Tang to congratulate him about getting the Kansas State job and shared that his voicemail had already been changed to “It’s a great day to be a Wildcat” it became an instant social media hit for EMAW nation. You see fans use it all the time on X.
Let the record show that McDaniel was the first recruit to use it.
What is harder to cover -- a coaching change or conference realignment? -@RobHud3 via X.
Oh, that’s a good question.
Conference realignment is probably more challenging, just because it’s so hard to identify what information is real and what information is pure speculation or wishful thinking. That’s one topic where you can talk to five different sources from within the same conference and hear five completely different outlooks on the situation.
With school presidents and regents involved there is also a lot of politicking that leads to fluid situations. The Big 12 was proclaimed dead multiple times and it’s still here. The Pac-12 was supposed to expand until it didn’t. Washington and Oregon seemed to go back and forth endlessly on what to do about the Big Ten.
Gene Taylor told me a story once about how he turned his phone off before a round of golf during conference realignment thinking that things were going to happen one way. Then he checked his messages at the turn and thought something completely different. When his 18 holes were over something else ended up happening.
Here’s hoping we don’t have to deal with much of that in the future.
A coaching search is stressful, just because there is so much interest in every little development that happens along the way. I don’t sleep all that much during coaching searches. But I wouldn’t say they are difficult to cover, especially after you have lived through one or two of them.
Most beat writers generally look to avoid covering both coaching searches and conference realignment, because they can create headaches. The silver lining to them is reader interest. There is no shortage of that for either topic.
We all got a brief taste of a coaching search on Friday.
Who are the football players making a name for themselves during spring football practice? -@bfullingt1 via X.
In no particular order ...
Redshirt freshman safety Jack Fabris
North Dakota transfer offensive lineman Easton Kilty
Austin Peay transfer defensive end Travis Bates
Sophomore defensive end Tobi Osunsanmi
Penn State transfer wide receiver Dante Cephas
Junior running back La’James White
Redshirt freshman safety Wesley Fair
