Jerome Tang, Kansas State Wildcats Men's Basketball Head Coach

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Get a wedding suit as unique as you with Indochino. Go to Indochino.com and use code PODCAST to get 10% off any purchase of $3.99 or more. That's I-N-D-O-C-H-I-N-O dot com promo code PODCAST. There's the inbound. They get it to Fierro. High arching three at the buzzer and it's over. K-State beats Kentucky 75 to 69. The team from the Little Apple is headed to the Big Apple to play in the Sweet 16. You're listening to the Zach Gelb Show. We continue the Zach Gelb Show coast to coast on CBS Sports Radio. How about the story of the Wildcats of Kansas State?

Just unbelievable. Before the year picked to finish last in the Big 12 and now they're going to be dancing coming up on Thursday night in the Sweet 16 at Madison Square Garden up against Tom Mizo at Michigan State. The head coach at Kansas State is Jerome Tang in his first year and he's kind enough to join us right now on the Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio. Coach, first off, congratulations. I would ask you how you're doing, but I think I know the answer to that one. Zach, thank you for having me on.

You're absolutely right. Doing wonderful. We're in New York City right now and very excited to be here. How do you process going to the Sweet 16? You've had a few days after the Kentucky game. Just how do you process it, Coach, what your group has accomplished? Well, you're obviously excited about what's been accomplished, but there's still so much more work to do. We took a brief time to celebrate it together and enjoy what's been accomplished, but then it's about getting refocused and realizing that we have other goals that we want to accomplish.

So to do that, we've got to get locked in and get the laser focus that the guys had in order to get to this point. How do you explain, Coach, your team's success this year and your number one? Oh, man, great chemistry and crazy faith.

We say all the time that what people call crazy, one day they'll call faith another, and for us we call it crazy faith and just a faith in each other, a faith in the God that we serve, just a faith in our hard work. And that if we trust and believe each other and to just stay together and work every day to get one percent better, that we could be where we're at. And I can't tell you at the beginning of the year that we thought we'd be here, but I thought we could be an NCAA tournament team, and then once you get into the tournament, anything can happen. So when did you know that, hey, this group is probably better than what people were talking about them before the year? Well, I knew we were better than, I said to myself, when they picked us last in the Big 12, I said, well, there are going to be 10 teams in the Big 12 to go to the NCAA tournament. Because I thought, I knew what an NCAA tournament team looked like from my time at Payless, and I thought we had that. And so I just meant that our league was really, really good. You know, when we went to the Caymans and we won those three games in three days, that said a lot about our toughness and our resilience and, you know, just the chemistry that we had. And then the road trip to open the Big 12 when we went to Texas and to Baylor and won those two big games, you know, that really raised the bar for what we could accomplish this year.

This is your first year at Kansas State. We know the nature of the sport, a lot of transfers moving in and out of the program. It's never easy to build trust when we're talking about a coach with players. How did you build that trust?

What seemed to be very quickly here in your number one? Well, I try to be real transparent in recruiting. And, you know, if you tell kids the truth and they don't come, you can live with it. And when you tell them the truth and they come and you keep your word, then they can live with that too. And so we just try to be really honest in recruiting because kids have the right to go wherever they want to go now.

I mean, it's free agency. And if you lie to them, they're going to be out the door. And so we just laid out to them, tell them they got to get better. We try to find guys who have winning DNA. They've won in high school or college. Because guys who have won before, they understand that there's a sacrifice that has to take place for your team to win. And we felt like we put the right set of guys together.

Jerome Tang here with us, Kansas State, Thursday night at Madison Square Garden up against Michigan State. We always talk about culture, coach, and a lot of times people don't explain their culture. So what is the culture of your program when you're talking to these recruits and they ask you, what can I expect if I go and commit to Kansas State? Well, man, you know, my faith is extremely important to me. And, you know, Jesus came to serve. And so I see that leadership is service.

And my job is to serve and love our guys. And that when they leave here, they know that they were loved and they were cared for. You know, we tell our guys we want to do things out of a motive of love, not out of a motive of hate. And too many people talk about guys, people who didn't believe in them, you know, and that motivates them. We want to be motivated by the people that believe in us. And there's a second thing, so we're going to play with love and we're going to play with joy.

And joy for me means Jesus first, other seconds, yourself last. And finally, guys are going to know they're going to get to play with freedom. You know, if you come in and you work hard and you put in the time in the gym on game day, you're going to be able to play free and be yourself. And so we try to keep it simple. And it's hard, right? Basketball is a very simple game, but it's hard to do simple.

And so we just try to do simple a little bit better. You had to wait a long time for this opportunity, Coach Jerome Tang. You had Baylor from 2003 up until last year when you took this job at Kansas State. Did you ever doubt that you would become a head coach one day with how long you had to wait? Yeah, you know, you obviously have doubts, but you know, probably about four or five years ago I just told the Lord, I said, God, if you just want me to be an assistant coach for the rest of my life, I'm good with it.

Because I felt I had the best job in America. And if you want me to get out of coaching altogether and do something totally different, I was good with that. And I think when I resolved myself to the fact that a head coach title didn't define me as a man, but my faith in Christ and the way that I impact people's life, that's what it does. And I was able to relax and become a better person, hopefully a better husband, father, and a better coach. And so I was really more prepared for this opportunity that came along because of that. And during that time, God blessed me to be able to win two Big 12 championships and a national championship.

So I wouldn't have changed the way I got here and how long it took for anything. We all know waiting stinks, and I'm a very impatient person, coach, but I do think when you have to wait longer than you should have, when you finally get that opportunity, it motivates you, I think, a little bit more to prove people wrong on what they were missing out on for all those years. You know, like I said, I try to tell our guys, let's not prove people wrong, let's prove people right. I've had a lot of people that believed in me and they felt like I deserved the opportunity a long time ago.

And those are the people that I'm hoping that I'm validating their thoughts and their compliments and their belief in me, not invalidating those who maybe didn't. Well, we had Scott Drew on, who I know is one of your biggest supporters, and you guys have a very close relationship. And earlier he told me you should win the National Coach of the Year. When you hear that, what does that mean to you? It means that I had a guy who went from being a colleague to a boss and a colleague to being a friend and a brother that did a great job of helping prepare me for this opportunity. It means that I coach really, really good players who had a great season, and it means that I have the best staff in America because they do an unbelievable job of making me look really good. So I always say it's a team, a staff, and a coaching tree honor right now.

And just be small. You know who Scott Drew is as a person. How did you guys initially link up at Baylor? Man, he got the job at Baylor, and somebody that knew me and knew him called him about me, and he told him he already knew he was going to hire. And then he spoke to someone else and they mentioned my name. And they spoke to someone else and they mentioned my name. And so after hearing my name three times, he thought, let me do a little research on this. And then I reached out to him because he had a foreign kid that had committed to him. And at the time, the prep school, the private school I coached at, we had I-20.

We brought in foreign kids. So I reached out to him about that young man coming over from Africa. And we got to talking, and he asked me about meeting with him, and I refused to meet with him.

And whenever you tell Scott Drew, no, it just drives him crazy. So he did everything in his power to make sure that we got to meet. And then, thankfully, my dad told him to come have dinner with me. And he came to my house and met my wife and my son, who was two at the time, and then felt comfortable offering me the job.

And now the rest is history. Coach, before we let you run, Jerome Tang here with us. This is your first year in the Sweet 16, Kansas State will play Michigan State coming up Thursday evening at Madison Square Garden. I want to ask you about some of your players. We all remember the scary situation in 2020 with Keontae Johnson when he collapsed during a game at Florida, and now he's with your program and he's having a sensational season. Can you just discuss what you've seen from Keontae this year and just your relationship with him? Obviously the stuff that everybody's seen, the numbers he's put up and big shots he's made, everybody sees that, and that's been wonderful. I'm so thankful that he's been able to play the game that he loves again and be able to pursue the NBA. But what I've been most impressed with is what he does off the court with his teammates, the time he spends with them, how he's such a great teammate. I tell you, he's just an unbelievable human being and a pleasure to coach. I can't brag on him enough on what he does. He spends time with our walk-ons.

He goes to school and reads to kids. He spends time in the community, and every day he's extremely thankful for the opportunity he's been given, and we're just blessed to be around him. The first thing I realize about Marquis Doyle when I watch him, he has tremendous grit and heart. How do you look back at what you guys have been able to do together this year with Marquis? He's a big heart, super competitive.

Some people say it's a chip. We say it's a boulder on his shoulder. I absolutely love coaching him because he's got a world of confidence and there's nothing on the court he doesn't think he can't do. I love watching him play post-defense. Everybody in America tries to post him up, and you just can't do it. He's going to fight you.

He'll follow you before he lets you post him up. That kind of competitiveness, man, you can win with him. So thankful that he's my point guard. I saw after the game, Coach Calipari, after he did a number on Kentucky, called in that little kid. I guess Marquis now has talked with Coach Cal. What happened there and how did you react to that one after Coach Cal called in that little kid? I heard the comment, and initially you were a little taken back by it. All the credit in the world to Coach Calipari because he realized that maybe what he said was offensive. Maybe calling a little kid was his term of endearment because he has a little point guard inside of your wheeler also.

So it was probably for him a term of endearment where somebody else might have taken it as an insult. But Coach Cal reached out to him and apologized and talked to him. So it just shows what a great human being Coach Calipari is and why he's such a great coach and so successful.

Before we let you run, Jerome Tang is having a remarkable year one at Kansas State. Michigan State coming up Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, the world's most famous arena. You always know that coaches, those teams are going to come prepared.

What stands out to you the most with Michigan State? Coach Izzo has a little toughness about them. They're going to fight you for every inch. They're going to bump every cut.

They can test everything and just really get after you. The two guards are really good. The Houser kid is shooting 90% from three in the last five games.

It doesn't look like he misses. They're really embodied who we all have known Tom Izzo to be over all these years. Just really tough, really smart, play together. I'm a huge fan of Tom Izzo. He's always been really kind to me when I was an assistant. It's awesome to be able to stand across from him and our teams compete against each other.

I spoke to him the other day. I really wish it was me and Coach Izzo playing one on one. I wouldn't do a free throw contest with him.

I've seen him shoot free throws and he doesn't miss. It's going to be our teams playing against each other. That's going to be a lot better for everybody.

I love that answer. Coach, continued success. It's been awesome watching your team. Good luck the rest of the way and enjoy this coming up on Thursday night. I'd appreciate you doing this. Thanks a lot.

Go Cats. Planning a wedding can be intimidating, but finding the perfect suit shouldn't be. Indochino makes it easy to get a fully customized suit right from home. With dozens of high thread count fabrics, patterns and colors to choose from, Indochino lets you fine tune every detail and design a suit tailored perfectly to your body and your personality. Set up your measurement profile on Indochino's website and choose fabric and customizations without leaving the house. Or book a showroom appointment and let Indochino's dedicated style guides help you and your wedding party look flawless for the big day. Their experts have been dressing grooms and groomsmen since 2007. And with suits starting at just $4.99 and fitted shirts at $89, Indochino is bespoke without the premium price tag. Get a wedding suit as unique as you with Indochino. Go to Indochino.com and use code PODCAST to get 10% off any purchase of $3.99 or more. That's I-N-D-O C-H-I-N-O dot com promo code PODCAST.