Two-hundred-and-twenty-two days have passed since Tang stood upon a black platform in the Shamrock Zone amid purple balloons and wore a dark suit and a purple-and-white striped tie, and announced his aim to elevate the K-State men's basketball program, and now here he is, in the flesh, and K-State has beaten Washburn 76-49 on the first evening of November, and he wears a purple sweatshirt with a white Nike logo and "WILDCATS" embroidered in script, and he takes a seat in a chair in the postgame interview room after coaching his first public game in Manhattan.
"Man," he says, "the student section was incredible tonight."
Two full sections of K-State students gave the players a victor's welcome long before tipoff, as a DJ spun jams, and the cheerleaders cheered, and under a purple-toned hue emitting from beneath the Jumbotron at center court, this appeared to be the perfect sweet symphony that players such as Tomlin and Carter yearned for when they signed their pledge to play for Tang and the Wildcats.
"It felt good," Carter says. "It started from warmups. I had chills."
Sitting by Nowell and Carter inside the postgame interview room, Tomlin nods.
"First time," he says. "It was crazy, definitely."
And this was at an exhibition game.
"Man, for an exhibition game and to have two sections of the stands filled with students, I mean, that was incredible," Tang says. "I'm so thankful for the students and the fans who were there. You just felt the energy in the building. This is a good start and we're going to build it from here. The goal is to have this place called the Octagon of Doom again.
"We have to do our part as a team, though. We have to play at a level that they want to come see us play."
Perhaps Terence Mann said it best that day by the cornfield in Iowa.
Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past.
K-State has won 19 regular season conference titles and joins Kansas and Baylor as the only Big 12 Conference teams to capture a league title at least twice in the past decade. K-State has appeared in 31 NCAA Basketball Tournaments. K-State made it to the national title game in 1951 and has been to four Final Fours and 13 Elite Eights and 17 Sweet Sixteens.
Carter arrived at K-State as innocent as a child, except he was longing for the present and the possible future for the Wildcats.
"We're around a group of guys that want to win and we're going to win," he says. "That's what I'm looking forward to."
Yes, this was Washburn, and yes, this was an exhibition game, but athleticism doesn't lie, and this has the makings of being arguably the most athletic K-State team since the 2010 Elite Eight squad. Tang, the former 19-year assistant/associate head coach at Baylor, brought in length, and experience — the average age of each player on roster is 21 — and a former SEC Preseason Player of the Year and junior college All-Americans and high school products who've won multiple state titles.
"This team is tough, gritty, selfless, and a bunch of winners," Nowell says. "That's how I'd describe this team. We have a great group of guys who want to win bad and we have a great coaching staff that wants to win just as bad."
The Wildcats demonstrated themselves to be an up-tempo, aggressive, high-flying, fast-paced, decisive, aggressive, defensive-minded, above-the-rim squad that played hungry and balanced. And they have room still to grow.
"We have a lot of guys who can do different things with the basketball," Nowell says. "Coach always says simple is harder and it's much more difficult to do. If we can be more simple we'll limit our turnovers."
K-State led Washburn by as many as 36 points and shot 44% (28-of-63) from the floor, including 21.7% (5-of-23) on 3-pointers, and dished out 17 assists while committing 19 turnovers. K-State had 54 rebounds, 12 steals and seven blocks. K-State held Washburn to just 25.9% (15-of-58) from the floor, including 27.8% (5-of-18) on 3-pointers and forced them into 20 turnovers.
"I was pleased with how we turned turnovers into offense," Tang says. "I think we can definitely do better, but I saw guys turn over and we quickly transitioned. Sometimes, early on we were causing turnovers in practice and then holding the ball, and now the quicker we can go from defense to offense and get easy buckets — especially when you get into the Big 12 it's so hard to score in the halfcourt that you've got to be able to transition and get buckets."
And this is already better. It's a new brand of basketball. It's a Tang style of basketball. Fast. Tough. Gritty. Blue collar. It's a throwback, as fans yearn for the past, and what can come. And headlights, they'll come, too, they'll file into the west stadium parking lot from various cities and towns, a pilgrimage to witness the wins and breakthroughs and big wins and to take part in this new tradition, the hand-slap line, which is something so simple, yet so powerful — this bond between players and fans — at the start of a new dawn.
"I'm really happy for these guys to experience (our fans)," Nowell says. "I'm glad we pulled off a win. I'm glad that Coach Tang got his first win — not officially — but it's a win. A win is a win.
"Coach Tang is an every-day guy. From the day he was hired, he's been like that ever since. Coach Tang is a really good guy and a really good coach. He wants to win so bad and the guys just want to do it for them and especially for ourselves."
After K-State players strolled around Bramlage slapping hands with the fans and after the DJ played his last beat and the last of the players disappeared into the locker room, and after Nowell, Carter and Tomlin discussed the game and the fans and their aspirations, Tang takes center stage inside the postgame interview room shortly before 9:30 p.m. And he smiles. It is the perfect ending to a long day.
"I celebrate all wins," he begins.
Then he chuckles.
"I told the guy who was walking me up here normally I'm eating Chick-fil-A right now," Tang continues. "I've never been in this area. This is kind of cool. It was fun to be out there and see the guys really get after it. They flew around the first half and played with great passion and shared the ball and sometimes they shared it too much and gave it to the other team, so we're going to try to cut down on that.
"But overall, it's a great start and we have a long way to go."
Monday will arrive soon. And so will the fans.
"We'd love to have a sellout, but we understand we have to earn it," Tang says. "Our fans have been unbelievable. They've been engaging, they've helped us in recruiting. You see what they do for the football team. Fans impact winning. They do. They impact winning. And I'm so thankful that we have fans here in Manhattan that want to impact winning, so they're going to show up and they're going to help us."
Johnson's gesture, how he rubbed his hands as if concocting a plan, is no stretch, for there are plans, grand plans, and K-State has the guy and his staff and players in place to accomplish the mission.
Tonight, the Wildcats dine on Chick-fil-A.
On Monday, it's time to eat.