Candidates emerge to become next Kansas State basketball coach

Kansas State Wildcats men’s basketball coach Bruce Weber resigned earlier in the week, and the program is now looking to find his replacement. On Monday, a few new candidates emerged for the open Kansas State job.

“Three guys in the mix for the Kansas State opening are USF’s Todd Golden, New Mexico State’s Chris Jans and Baylor assistant Jerome Tang, source told @Stadium,” Stadium’s Jeff Goodman tweeted.

Golden began his coaching career in 2012, serving as an assistant at Columbia until 2014. He then had a stint as an assistant at Auburn before becoming an assistant at San Francisco. In 2019, Golden became San Francisco’s head coach, and he has coached to a 57-35 record since, leading the Dons to the NCAA Tournament this season.

Jans has extensive experience as an assistant and as a head coach. He has been coaching since 1991, and is currently New Mexico State’s head coach.

Tang has been a vital part of Baylor’s rise, serving as an assistant under head coach Scott Drew.

More on Weber resigning as Kansas State’s head coach

Following Kansas State’s loss in the Big 12 Tournament, Weber gave a lengthy six-minute response in his postgame press conference reflecting his time as the Wildcats head coach. In ten years at Kansas State, Weber won 184 games, made five NCAA Tournament appearances, and won two Big 12 titles. He went to the Elite Eight in 2018.

Prior to Kansas State, Weber had stops at Southern Illinois and Illinois. He is one of ten Division I coaches to take three schools to the Sweet 16.

Following Weber’s decision, Texas head coach Chris Beard had some strong praise for the former Kansas State coach.

“Yeah, I absolutely can. Probably not in the best mindset to do that right now as accurate as I want, but I’ll try,” Beard said. “I think Coach Weber is a Hall of Famer: Southern Illinois; took a team to the Final Four at Illinois; and what he did at Kansas State has never been done before. He won the league twice, he made an Elite 8, did it the right way.

“He’s a Hall of Famer in my mind. I’m on the record with Bruce Weber. You guys can go back the very first game we played against him, he’s a coach’s coach. The game is better because Coach Weber was a part of it.”