Jerome Tang Previews the Start of Practice

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State head men's basketball coach Jerome Tang met with the media on Monday afternoon (Sept. 22) to preview the start of practice, which kicks off on Tuesday afternoon (Sept. 23) at the Ice Family Basketball Center.

Links to the audio and a transcript of Tang's availability are above.

The fourth-year head coach and his staff welcome 14 players for the 2025-26 season, including 4 returning lettermen (senior C.J. Jones, juniors Mobi Ikegwuruka and Taj Manning and sophomore David Castillo) and 10 newcomers. Among those newcomers are 5 Division I transfers (Abdi Bashir Jr., P.J. Haggerty, Marcus Johnson, Nate Johnson and Khamari McGriff), 4 international players (Dorin Buca, Andrej Kostic, Stephen Osei and Elias Rapieque) and a top-100 high school prospect (Exavier Wilson).

K-State finished the 2024-25 season with a 16-17 record, including a tie for ninth in the Big 12 with a 9-11 mark. Among the Wildcats' 16 victories were five over Top 25 teams, including No. 3 Iowa State on the road. The team has won 61 games in Tang's tenure, including two postseason appearances (2023 NCAA Elite Eight, 2024 NIT).

The team will have 32 days until their first exhibition game against Missouri on Friday, Oct. 24 and 39 days until the lone home exhibition against Newman on Friday, Oct. 31. The season opener against UNC Greensboro is set for Tuesday, Nov. 4.

Tickets for the 2025-26 season are currently on sale with a variety of options and packages. Fans can purchase tickets by calling toll free at (800) 221.CATS (2287) and/or online at www.kstatesports.com/tickets.

HEAD COACH JEROME TANG
On what he is looking forward to finding out about the team…
"You know, just like once you start grinding, you know, we get to spin, we try to do a little bit of a lot to try and put some things in place, so that when you start practice, they kind of have an idea of a little bit about everything you want to do. And now we get to spend a chunk of time on certain things and, you know, not have to worry, necessarily, about a minute restriction thing. So, if we allot 15 minutes to work on something, and I don't like how it's going, I can just reset the clock and we'll add another 10-15, minutes, because you have four hours in a day that you can practice. Not that I want to get to that every day, but you know, just the ability to spend some time and work on some things, whether it's offensively, defensively, segments, different things."

On what he is emphasizing with his backcourt…
"We have to be a better defensive rebounding team, and we can't turn the ball over."

On what his impressions of Shark Week…
"Really good, really good. Learned a lot. They learned a lot. Guys, I thought did a great job. Everything that I wanted to happen in it happened. They had to come together. They had some setbacks and had to overcome some things. They had to rally around each other and help each other."

On what you are emphasizing with David Castillo…
"You know just his confidence has to continue to grow and him not worry about making mistakes moving on to the next thing. And physically, he's done a great job. Phil's [Strength and Conditioning coach Phil Baier] done a great job of his body, he's going to be able to impact defensively on the ball. Then it's just having the confidence to make mistakes and play through it and then get to the point."

On the international players on the roster…
"A lot to like about all of them. We added three, well, actually four. Stephen [Osei] is from Canada, and so he played junior college basketball last year. Mobi [Ikegwuruka] is a returner. Elias [Rapieque] played professionally in Germany for probably last three or four years. You know, just at a young age, being around grown men who was their livelihood, and therefore their approach to the game was different than, you know, the normal kid who grows up playing either high school basketball or even at another college. So [he's] been used to being around pros and having different goals, whether it's being on the Euro Cup team or Euroleague team where, you know, he [Rapieque] had the same role of being a ball mover, body mover, rebounder, defender to or playing on the team one level down, still professional, but being more, you know, having to be more of a weapon offensively, having a bigger role on the offensive end, he can adjust to either one. Andrej [Kostic] is just a talent at 18 years old, he's just really talented and played grown men and every level he's played at, he has a gift how he can shoot the ball so, as gifted as he is, talent wise, still has to learn to grow and mature in his approach, but he's got a supreme confidence about himself, and that comes from playing at a real high level at a young age, and then watching other professionals prepare. And then Dorin [Buca], I mean, a young fellow. He's just, I get more impressed with him every single day when he tells you a story that he had lived at home with his mom for eight years. Since a very, very young age, he's been away from home and had to learn how to take care of himself and do his own laundry. He tells me that he can make a great tiramisu. That's what he tells me, so we're gonna get the ingredients and put him in the kitchen and figure that out. But man, there's a lot to like at 7-foot-2 and for him to have played as much basketball and grow and learn and be able to bring that to the equation, it's really impressive. His toughness, you know, it's just a sponge, just soaking up everything so it's fun to be around these guys. Fun to talk to them. They have so many different life experiences that they can draw from. And they all have real great personalities."

On what stood out during summer basketball training…
"Their approach, and I think I can say that about most of the guys, if not all of them, they have a very mature approach to the game. They show up early, they work hard, they come back late. They have a real professional approach. They know how to talk to people, you know, whether it's their teammates, whether they need encouragement at times or they need somebody to get on them at times. They take coaching well, and they bring really great energy to practice, and particularly Abdi [Bashir Jr.]. Abdi's got a gift for leadership and just love the energy that he brings."

On Nate Johnson…
"He's a talented man, like you don't win MVP of the league [Mid-American Conference] and defensive player of the league and not be a really good player all the same one. And sometimes he coasts when he should dominate. Our goal as a staff is to be able to draw out of him where he dominates like the whole time he's on the floor practicing. Such a nice young man, and he likes his teammates. His teammates like him, that sometimes, like I need him to be mean and nasty on purpose. And so that's a growth that has to take place, but he's a joy to be around and a pleasure to coach."

On the offseason additions of Bill Peterson and Mattew Driscoll on staff…
"Personally, it's just been incredible. I love coach [Bill] Peterson, love coach Matthew Driscoll. Coach [Driscoll] taught me how to be a college coach, you know, and Carrie, his wife, are my daughter's godparents, so just having somebody around like that is just a blast, just a lot of fun. And professionally, it's been awesome, because there's just so much that you have to do. And he told me the other day, said 'Man, I mean, I've been a head coach, I know what the busy is like, but you just have, like, so much that you have to do.' And there are just so many things, and to know that you don't have to worry about certain things, or he sees certain things, so he knows how to get everybody else to see things that need to be seen. You know, it just helps you so much. And so, I just, I feel weight lifted off just because I know things are gonna get done, I don't have to worry about as many things. So, the professional side of things, but also the personal side of things."

On roster versatility …
"Our staff did a great job of bringing talented, mature guys together, and now it's up to those guys to figure out which eight guys are gonna play. Whichever eight guys prove that they can be consistent and provide the toughness and competitiveness that we need, and shot making ability, those guys will then determine how they are used. I'm excited about finding that out, to answer the question in the next couple of weeks here, which guys are gonna separate themselves."

On Marcus Johnson…
"Yeah, Marcus Johnson is a weapon, right? We've got a gift. But like, you know the difference between a weapon you can use at certain times, and a player can do it all the time. That's where we have to get him to grow and turn from it just being a weapon to being a player."

On where P.J. Haggerty can take that next step in development…
"Well, there's another level to play other than this and I think he wants to get there. And so, I mean, that's what he heard from all the NBA scouts who wanted him to play hard all the time, be a better on the ball defender, but I just need him to just be P.J., you know. His teammates love him, and they, I mean our guys, they really like each other, and they get along, but I don't need him to be liked every day in practice. So, it's just that bringing that killer instinct that he's going to bring on game day to do it in practice, because it's going to make his teammates better."

On the non-conference schedule…
"Yeah, we play in a league that has great road environments and so we might as well start preparing for it early. Creighton's like top 15 in the country, probably, preseason. And I think by the time we play Indiana, they'll probably be in the top 20 in the country also. So, every night in the Big 12 [Conference], we're going to play a team with a number next to their name. So, we get used to it."

On personal adjustments to his coaching…
"Yeah, I think I've been pretty transparent with the fact that I wasn't the best version of myself last year, and part of that is because I was like, we were paying players and expected them to be professionals when they were still 18 to 23 years olds. So, my approach, expectation without grace leads to disappointment and frustration. I spent a lot of last year with expectations, but I didn't apply the grace that needed to be applied, so I was frustrated and disappointed a lot, and it reflected in how I taught the guys, how I cared for the guys, and just my response to certain things, and it stopped me from being the best version I could've been that year."

On what associate head coach Matthew Driscoll brings to this team…
"Well, great energy, first. Second is that he knows that's why I brought him in here, and so he's very passionate about that area, particularly on the offensive end, and the attention to detail and the execution of what we want to do. And so, he fights for it every day, and you need that. You need guys and staff that are going to fight for their area because it's important to them. Because they know at the end of day, and I'm gonna turn around to look at him, so he's told me multiple times since then, they're like, we're not scoring, well don't look at look at me if we're not going to spend time on this, you know. If he sits still for any amount of time, he's going to fall asleep."

On the lessons learned from last season…
"Well, what I took from it is that we had a good enough team to win games, and when we didn't win, then it wasn't players, it was the staff, it was me, and so I had to be better. If I was better, they would have had a better outcome. So yeah, I mean, our guys showed that they had the ability to play at a really high level, both at home and on the road, and we just didn't do a good job of getting it out of them and I say we, but I really mean me, right, because I wasn't the best version of myself. If I'm not at my best, then it trickles down to everybody else. But I'm excited about this week and really, really looking forward to seeing how good we can become, how quickly we can become at the level I see for this team."

On what players have stood out so far in the preseason…
"You know, we got a couple of dudes that are different. Mobi's athleticism is different, right? Abdi's shot making ability, Andrej's shot making ability is a little bit different, you know, Dorin's size is different. So, there's those multiple guys that add something a little bit different, and then whenever you have a returning All-American in P.J. Haggerty that's going to help you. So, you know, I think it's a collection, like our goal is to figure out how we can make the sum better than the individual parts by themselves."

On getting C.J. Jones back from the portal…
"I'm fired up about C.J. coming back. I don't know what the details were on his side and his family, choosing to put his name in the portal. And then at some point in time, he decided that maybe that wasn't the best decision for him, and worked through the staff, it came to me. I mean, I just wasn't fired up at first, but thankfully, you have got a staff around you that's going to look you in the eyes and say, 'don't be an idiot, let's examine this and let's look through it.' And had some really good conversations with C.J., I told him once I made the decision that he could come back, that nothing that happened was going to affect what's going to go forward. And he's been great, so, excited to have him. I think he's going to contribute to us winning this year, I mean, he started for us last year. There are not very many, 6-foot-5 guys with 6 '7" wingspan that can play the point, so God blessed him with the measurables but now he's got to continue to work from the time so that he can become the best player he's getting."

On Khamari McGriff…
"I was telling the staff today I like the job he's done with his body. Phil's (Baier, strength and conditioning coach) has done an unbelievable job. Our goal this summer was to get him quick, thick and nasty, in a way, and he's done it at least, adding 20 pounds of muscle, if not more. Just looked different out there running into guys and stuff. Now he's got to learn how to move with that extra 20 pounds. Giving somebody 20 pounds to move around with, they might have moved the same way. As for his ability to finish around the rim, I think he's like close to 70% if not higher, finishing at the rim, and a lefty, so he does a good job. Really, really good teammate, you know, and very mature in how he handles tough situations."

On Exavier Wilson…
"You know, I think, Exavier might be drinking out of a water hose right now. You know, fire hose is just coming at him a lot. But he is tough, he's fast, and [graduate assistant and former Baylor player] Mark Vital calls him his little Pitbull, right? Like you just see he's oozing with potential and he's not afraid. You know, those three things allow him to be a really good basketball player."

On how having a deep guard room helps Exavier Wilson's development…
"I don't know how much it helps him, but it helps me. A lot of good guards really help you. I'm excited about our group."

How to follow the 'Cats: For complete information on K-State men's basketball, visit www.kstatesports.com and follow the team's social media channels on X, Instagram and Facebook.

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Abdi Bashir Jr.

Dorin Buca

David Castillo

P.J. Haggerty

Mobi Ikegwuruka

Marcus Johnson

Nate Johnson

C.J. Jones

Andrej Kostic

Taj Manning

Khamari McGriff

Stephen Osei

Elias Rapieque

Exavier Wilson

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