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Kansas State

Kansas State HC Jerome Tang is the Big 12 Coach of the Year

On3 imageby: Derek Young03/05/23DerekYoungKSO
On3 image
Jerome Tang/Kansas State Athletics

To the surprise of very few, Kansas State head coach Jerome Tang has been named as the Big 12 Coach of the Year by his peers. In recent weeks, both Kansas head coach Bill Self and Texas basketball boss Rodney Terry had been mentioned as contenders for the title won by the K-State first year coach.

Tang led Kansas State to a 23-8 overall record that included an 11-7 finish in the league. Thanks to massive consecutive road wins at the beginning of the conference slate over his old boss and long-time friend Scott Drew and Baylor and then versus Texas in Austin, K-State began the Big 12 with a 6-1 record and led the conference.

That also included wins over West Virginia, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and arch-rival Kansas where the fans stormed the court afterwards. KSO captured video of it.

Before arriving in Manhattan and being the new coach of Kansas State, Tang was an assistant at Baylor for 19 seasons and even won a national championship with the Bears in Waco. He took over K-State after Bruce Weber and the Wildcats parted ways.

Kansas State was 14-17 a season ago and missed their third straight NCAA Tournament. In Tang’s first season, the Wildcats are expected to receive a berth to the NCAA Tournament and were contending for the conference championship at one point.

K-State also was 15-1 at Bramlage Coliseum (with the only loss coming versus the Longhorns) and sold out nearly every home game during league action.

He will be a head coach in the Big 12 Tournament for the very first time when his club meets TCU at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City on Thursday night at 8:30 p.m. CST. The Wildcats split the series with the Horned Frogs during the season.

They will play in the semifinals on Friday evening if they defeat TCU.

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