Jerome Tang was introduced as Kansas State head coach a few months back, and has been hot on the recruiting trail since his plane's wheels touched the ground in Manhattan. Kansas State was a bottom feeder in 2021-2022, and by all counts looks to rebound heavily this season. They may have found the right guy for the job, as Tang has brought on key transfers in Cam Carter, Jerrell Colbert, and David N'Guessan. All will be immediately eligible and make immediate impact as they did at their previous schools. Colbert in particular transferred from a reeling LSU program that was rocked by NCAA violations, and was a key player for them last season. As far as high school recruiting, today Tang nabbed 2023 4 star guard Dai Dai Ames, who is K-State's highest ranked recruit since Wally Judge. Though not eligible this coming year, he will be a force in the 2023-2024 season. For this year K-State has brought on 3 Star guard Dorian Finister and 3 star forward Taj Manning, who I assume will make immediate impact as K-State's roster is a bit...depleted.
The question at hand is, will this surge in recruiting, one that K-State really hasn't seen in years, be enough to put them into contention for a hotly contested Big 12? My answer, quite frankly, is not immediately. I think one year of development under Tang will bring them out of the basement, but will have them sitting in the middle of the pack with the likes of Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Oklahoma State (though I think OSU could very well be in contention) Mind you this is WITHOUT Nijel Pack and a few others that have left the program. Give it one more year, and I think K-State could very well make a case. Tang I think will play the long game though and use this year as development as most first year coaches tend to do, but fret not K-State fans, as a KU fan I believe your time is coming. Tang I can already tell is a great coach and great recruiter, a Scott Drew product that has all the possibility to shine if he plays his cards correctly. Time will only tell...still think they have zero chance of beating KU in the next 3 years though...just marinate on that.
Burn Notice: 8/10 Light Boil
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