Kellis Robinett of the Wichita Eagle posted a couple of articles this week about K-State basketball and there were some interesting quotes from Jerome Tang and Gene Taylor. Tang talked about how basketball recruiting is going and Gene Taylor talked a little bit about Name, Image, and Likeness. Here are some quotes of note from the articles.

“This is no offense to the staffs before me or any of the players, but when I was coming in I thought there were only three guys I would want to stay.”…Jerome Tang, May 12, 2022

JM: According to Tang, K-State had only three Big 12-caliber players on the roster. Nijel Pack, Marquis Nowell, and Ish Massoud. It is really no surprise that the program was struggling to compete.

“It is really cool to be able to put your team together, though. It is a little bit trickier than I thought it would be with all the different variables that are at play. But I wouldn’t trade it. I am just grateful that two of the three guys that I wanted to stay decided to stay with us.”…Jerome Tang, May 12, 2022

JM: I take it that by “different variables,” he means Name, Image, and Likeness challenges.

“I need four (more) guys who can play 30 minutes per game and average double figures. That is where my focus is right now.”…Jerome Tang, May 12, 2022

JM: This will be a challenge for Tang.

“I knew it would take a little time to put it together. I can’t tell you that there’s not a little bit of anxiety about some of it as it is going along, but we’re not going to take a bad player to fill a roster spot. We’re not going to do that. All the guys we get to come in here are going to be Big 12 players. Those are all going to have to be impact guys.”...Jerome Tang, May 12, 2022

JM: This is a much different philosophy than Bruce Weber had. I felt like many times Weber was offering scholarships to players just to fill up his roster. He was recruiting based on potential, if you will. Tang wants his recruits to be able to play in the Big 12 right away.

“Nijel (Pack) is a great kid and a great player. But that is a lot of money to a kid who hasn’t stepped foot on your court.”…Gene Taylor, May 13, 2022

JM: Yes, $800,000 is a lot of money, but John Ruiz and LifeWallet was willing to pay it. I’m still not convinced that K-State will be able to recruit and keep players with that kind of money being offered by other programs out there.

“We don’t approach anybody that’s not on campus. Our target audience is student-athletes at Kansas State today. They are 100% within the lines. High school kids don’t have any impact with us.”…Aaron Lockett, May 13, 2022

JM: Aaron Lockett and Curry Sexton started The Wildcats Den to raise Name, Image, and Likeness funds for K-State athletes. It sounds like they are doing things the right way and are approaching it how it is intended to work. Unfortunately, other schools around the country are using Name, Image, and Likeness as a recruiting tool as we saw with Miami’s recruitment of Nijel Pack. We’ll see how this plays out, but it appears that K-State is already losing out on some recruiting battles because of this.

“I’m sure we’ve lost a kid or two because somebody at another school isn’t doing things the right way, but we’re still getting good kids.”…Gene Taylor, May 13, 2022

JM: Will the NCAA step in and try to regulate this or is it too late? It’s a very strange time in college sports.

Do you think Jerome Tang will be able to fill the basketball roster by this fall? He doesn’t seem very worried, but I remain skeptical that he will be able to do it.

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