MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State men’s basketball head coach Jerome Tang was selected as the Burns & McDonnell Coach of the Year at the 50th annual Kansas City Sports Awards presented by Populous held Thursday evening (June 8) at the Muehlebach Tower of the Kansas City Marriott Downtown.
One of the region’s longest running and preeminent sports awards programs, the event was held in conjunction with the Kansas City Sports Commission and Foundation.
“As Kansas City continues to generate unprecedented excitement for its national and international sporting events, these honorees represent the best of our local sporting community,” says Kathy Nelson, President and CEO of the Kansas City Sports Commission. “Together, these individuals and their organizations play a critical role driving fan engagement, awareness and opportunity for Kansas City.”
Along with Tang, the Kansas City Sports Commission and Foundation honored Kansas City Chiefs Defensive Tackle Chris Jones as the Polsinelli Sportsman of the Year, Kansas City Current Midfielder Lo’eau LaBonta as the Children’s Mercy Kansas City Sportswoman of the Year, Kansas City Chiefs General Manager Brett Veach as the McCownGordon Construction Executive of the Year and the late Grant Wahland Ron Labinski as the Spire Community Champion and T-Mobile Legacy Award winners, respectively.
The honor was yet another for Tang, who was named the Werner Ladder Naismith Men’s College Coach of the Year after leading the Wildcats to a 26-win season and a trip to the Elite Eight in 2022-23. He was also selected as the Big 12 Coach of the Year by both the league coaches and The Associated Press, while he was honored as the District Coach of the Year by the NABC and USBWA. He was the runner-up for AP National Coach of the Year.
Picked 10th in the preseason Big 12 poll and armed with just two returning players, Tang guided the Wildcats to a 26-10 overall record and a spot in the Elite Eight, which was the 13th in school history and the first since 2017-18. The 26 wins are the third-most in school history, trailing the school-record 29 in 2009-10 and the 27 in 2012-13, and just the eighth 25-win campaign and first since 2017-18. His win total was the second-most by a first-year Division I head coach, trailing Duke’s Jon Scheyer (27-9).
Tang and Texas’ Rodney Terry were the only first-year Division I head coaches to advance to his team to the Elite Eight in 2022-23. Overall, Tang is the 11th first-year head coach to direct his team to Elite Eight since 1996-97, while he is just the fourth first-time head coach to do so, joining North Carolina’s Bill Guthridge in 1997-98 and Hubert Davis in 2021-22 and Kent State’s Stan Heath in 2001-02.
Tang was selected as the 25th head men’s basketball coach at K-State on March 21, 2022, after serving as the one of the chief architects in helping build Baylor into a national powerhouse in his 19 seasons as an assistant and associate head coach from 2003 to 2022.