SEAN BOSTON
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Kansas State University men's basketball coach Jerome Tang is the latest to speak at the Sports Arena as part of the Ray and Stella Dillon Lecture Series.
Tang is well-known for his interaction with the K-State student body in Manhattan.
"We build great relationships, not just with our players, but with the community," Tang said. "I just love the students, I've always had a passion for the students everywhere I've been. One of the things that attracted me to K-State, as an assistant, when we would play in Bramlage the students would tear up the newspaper and toss it in the air, I just thought that was the coolest thing. I'm so thankful they do it and I get to be on that side now."
Tang took over the K-State program in 2022 after 19 years as an assistant at Baylor University.
"The truth is that I didn't have other opportunities," Tang said. "I did explore other places and they all said no. Gene Taylor was the person dumb enough to say yes, or smart enough to say yes. I know as frustrating as it was for me, knowing that I could do the job given the opportunity, I firmly believe God blocked those doors, cause there were things I still needed to learn, there were experiences that I still needed to have, and in his perfect timing, he opened the right spot for me."
Tang is also well-known for his passion that he has for his players.
"I have this really good friend named Tim Maloney. Coach Maloney and I coached at Baylor together," Tang said. "He would always say 'Jerome, you teach basketball, but you coach people,' it's a teaching portion of things, I had this really great bible quiz coach growing up named Norma Schuler and she was just one of the most positive people that I've ever been around. It didn't matter how bad things were, Sister Schuler would have just the right words to say to make you feel better. I saw what she did for each of us individually and I thought man I'd love to have that kind of an impact. As a high school coach, I taught Bible and history at Heritage Christian Academy, so there is always a teaching portion to it, but I think you teach the material, but you're always coaching people."
Tang says Wichita State head men's basketball coach Paul Mills is a good friend of his and had a great quote.
"He said, 'hey Jerome, you know one of the definitions for coach it's a vehicle that takes people from one place to where they want to go, from where they're at to where they want to go,' I think that's a great illustration of what coaching is. We're taking them from where they're at to where they want to go. The course to get there, we have to help them understand and plan, cause everyone wants to do it in a straight line, and that's not always the case."
There are two simple solutions to how Tang always keeps an upbeat energy and passion around his team.
"We win, or we learn," Tang said. "There's always something when it happens, you can learn something from it. Our thing in recruiting is when one of my staff members calls and says 'hey this kid committed to another school,' I say God's got somebody better for us. God's faithfulness in my life allows me to know that if something doesn't go the way I want it to go, it's because he has something better in mind."
Tang is gearing up for his third season in the Little Apple, which the Wildcats will open their season on Oct. 29 with an exhibition game against Fort Hays State.
"I like our guys, we have talented kids, but they're kids," Tang said. "We're probably spending more time coaching maturity, teaching them how to be professionals, not pros, but professionals. How do they wake up every day, what do they do, every decision they make during the day, because every decision matters. If it was just basketball, they're talented, we're going to be pretty good."
When recruiting, Tang looks for student-athletes that smile.
"After you get past the talent, I like guys who smile," Tang said. "I've never seen a guy who frowned have a high motor. I dislike walking into a room, where you know somebody is going to have a frown on their face. They're going to suck the energy out the building, so if I talk to a guy for five minutes and I don't make him laugh, or he don't make me laugh, I move on. I like seeing them smile with their teammates, it says a lot about them."
Tang says the family aspect is important in his everyday life in Manhattan.
"We say if the only time you spend time together is on the basketball court at the office then you're really not a family," Tang said. "Every week we have family dinners, one week it's catered, one week it's potluck, so our wives cook, we don't do the wives cooking every week, cause as husbands we want them to not be mad at us. The guys come over to the house, and one of the things I say is we don't want them to only know where the bathrooms are, we want them to know where the knives and forks are, so they feel at home. There's nothing like having the guys over to the house, they're sitting in the living room, watching TV, eating and then one of them falls asleep, you know that they feel comfortable enough to fall asleep on your couch."
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HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Kansas State University men's basketball coach Jerome Tang speaks Tuesday at the Dillon Lecture Series at Hutchinson Community College.
Tang was selected as the 2023 Werner Ladder Naismith Men's College Coach of the Year after guiding the Wildcats to a 26-win season and its 13th trip to the Elite Eight in his inaugural season, recently completed his second season as the 25th head men's basketball coach at Kansas State.
Coach Tang is just third coach in the program's history to be selected National Coach of the Year, joining Fred "Tex" Winter (who presented a 2003 Dillon Lecture) in 1958 and Jack Hartman in 1980, while he is the fourth head coach from a Big 12 institution to earn the honor from the Naismith Trophy. He was a candidate for nearly every other National Coach of the Year honor in 2022-23, including finishing as the runner-up for The Associated Press award. In addition, he was the consensus Big 12 Coach of the Year, earning the honor from both the league coaches and the AP.
Since 1982, the Dillon Lecture Series has provided distinguished and notable speakers that many in Hutchinson, Kansas and surrounding communities might not have the opportunity to experience.
From poets, politicians and space scientists to American heroes, each is chosen by the Dillon Lecture Committee by following the teachings of Chinese philosopher Kuan-Tzam - “learning is the key to enlightenment” - to educate and inspire audiences across a wide age span.
All lectures are held in the Hutchinson Sports Arena beginning at 10:30 a.m. and last one hour.
TICKETS: General admission tickets are $10. Students and school groups are admitted free of charge with a school ID. Tickets are available online (www.hutchcc.edu/dls) or at the Sports Arena on the day of the lecture.