Tang delivered an Elite Eight finish in his first season, but Kansas State didn’t make the NCAATournament in 2024. In 2025, they finished below.500, despite spending heavily. This season is an extension of similar struggles. It forced athletic director Gene Taylor to act even though Tang’s buyout was worth more than $18 million.
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Who is Jerome Tang?
Jerome Tang is a Trinidadian-American college basketball coach who was recently let go as head coach at Kansas State University. Tang was born in Trinidad and Tobago. He moved to the U.S. Virgin Islands and then to Texas when he was 10 years old. He worked as an assistant to Scott Drew at Baylor for almost 20 years, helping the Bears win the NCAA Championship in 2021. In March 2022, he got a job at Kansas State.
Powered by Markquis Nowell and Keyontae Johnson, they reached the Elite Eight under Tang in 2023. He claimed the Big 12 Coach of the Year award and signed a lucrative seven-year contract extension. But he was in for a whirlwind collapse.
Who Are the Top Coaching Candidates for Kansas State?
Kansas State needs a new coach, and the timing is perfect. There are a lot of interesting choices for the Wildcats to make. For example, there are hot mid-major coaches who are winning big right now and experienced power conference names who want to make a comeback. Let’s look at five coaches who might help in Manhattan and what makes each one interesting.
Casey Alexander:
Alexander has spent 15 years proving himself at schools like Stetson, Lipscomb, and Belmont, where he is now the MVC’s best player. He has had six straight seasons with at least 20 wins, taken teams to the NCAA tournament in March, and made deep runs in the tournament that show he knows how to win when it counts. The question isn’t if he’s ready for the big time; it’s if Kansas State is the right place for him to finally make that leap.
Calhoun Jerrod:
Josh Schertz
Bryan Hodgson
Before becoming the head coach at Arkansas State and South Florida, where he’s currently leading the AAC, Hodgson was known for being a great recruiter at Alabama. People know that he’s interested in the Syracuse job if it becomes available, but Kansas State should still talk to him. It’s worth going after a coach like him who can recruit and build programs from the ground up, even if he might be dreaming of going somewhere else.
Travis Steele
Steele has Miami-Ohio undefeated in mid-February, which is already impressive. But he also has something else going for him: he’s already been a coach in a power conference at Xavier. Yes, things didn’t go well there, but he learned from great coaches like Kelvin Sampson and Chris Mack, and now he knows what to do. In reality, Steele’s worst seasons at Xavier were better than what Kansas State is going through right now. This means he is a proven upgrade who has something to prove.
What Are the Reasons Behind Kansas State’s Coaching Change?
Kansas State’s decision to fire its head coach wasn’t just because the team wasn’t doing well; the 1-11 Big 12 record and two straight losing seasons didn’t help either.
Jerome Tang reached his breaking point when he publicly criticized his own players, saying they “don’t deserve to wear this uniform” and promising that most of them would be gone by next year. He said he was embarrassed for the university and the fans and called the whole thing “ridiculous.” Kansas State did something very unusual: they wore blank jerseys with no player names on the back in their next game against Houston.
The fall from grace disappointed everyone. From a 26-game winning season and a spot in the Elite Eight to missing the NCAA Tournament for the third year in a row and disgracing his own players, Tang couldn’t have asked for a bitter ending. Unless they pull off an unlikely Big 12 Tournament miracle, their season will end shortly with an interim coach.
