Report: Kansas State hires Big 12 rival's assistant as men's basketball coach

Kansas State is finalizing a deal with Baylor assistant Jerome Tang to become the next men’s basketball coach, according to CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein. The decision comes shortly after former head coach Bruce Weber announced his resignation after 10 seasons with the Wildcats.

Jerome Tang spent 19 seasons at Baylor under head coach Scott Drew before getting his first chance to lead a program at Kansas State. Before joining the Baylor staff nearly two decades ago, he won four state championships in Texas with Heritage Christian.

The Big 12 rival takes over a Kansas State program which finished the 2021-22 season 14-17 overall and 6-12 in the conference. The Wildcats have finished in the bottom two spots of the conference in each of the past three seasons after making their last NCAA Tournament in 2019.

Bruce Weber resigns at Kansas State

Over 10 seasons at Kansas State, Bruce Weber won 184 games, made five NCAA Tournament appearances and won two Big 12 championships. In 2018, he took his team to the Elite Eight. Following the announcement that Kansas State head coach Bruce Weber would resign from his role, athletic director Gene Taylor provided a statement on the coach’s decade-long tenure.

“Coach Weber has provided selfless leadership to our basketball program and university for the last decade,” Director of Athletics Gene Taylor said in his statement. “With two conference championships and an Elite Eight run in 2018, our program reached exceptional levels of success under his direction. His development of young men on and off the court, while representing K-State in a first-class manner with the highest level of integrity is unmatched in today’s game and something all K-Staters should take great pride in.”

While Weber did not provide a statement in the press release but offered a very candid press conference on Wednesday night before making this decision on Thursday morning.