How Jerome Tang convinced elite basketball recruits to start looking at Kansas State

When it comes to the cutthroat world of basketball recruiting, Jerome Tang has Kansas State swimming in uncharted waters.

The Wildcats have made an impression on several of the nation’s top-rated prospects. Now, K-State is in the mix to land several five-star recruits, including one who holds scholarship offers from traditional blue bloods like Connecticut, Duke, North Carolina, Kansas and Kentucky.

AJ Dybantsa, the No. 1 player in the 2025 recruiting cycle, took a recruiting visit to K-State earlier this month. He watched as the K-State football team beat up on Tennessee-Martin and exchanged high-fives with fans who knew he was on campus.

He was just the first in line. Cam Ward, a four-star recruit, also made a trip to Manhattan and got a grand tour of the Little Apple. Darryn Peterson, a five-star recruit from Ohio, lists the Wildcats as one of his four finalists. And let’s not forget that Patrick Ngongba seriously considered K-State before he pledged to Duke last fall.

It has been shocking, for some, to see the Wildcats gain traction with so many elite recruits. Fans aren’t used to it. After all, K-State hasn’t landed a five-star prospect since 2009.

But that hasn’t stopped Tang from swinging for the fences.

“I’ve always taken the philosophy, or the approach, that a pretty girl won’t dance with you unless you ask her,” Tang said. “So I have got no problem asking.”

There are several reasons why K-State is suddenly challenging Big 12 rivals Baylor and Kansas for top-rated players after years of rarely getting involved with high-profile recruits.

For starters, Tang is an aggressive recruiter who helped Scott Drew land touted prospects for years when he worked as an assistant at Baylor. But there is much more to it than that.

The Wildcats have also made it clear that they aren’t afraid to spend NIL money. It sent shock waves through the sport when K-State promised to pay Coleman Hawkins more than $2 million to transfer in from Illinois during the off-season.

It’s hard for any recruit to ignore that kind of money.

“NIL definitely helps,” Tang said. “Our alumni have done a great job of helping and stepping up to the plate to help Wildcat NIL, along with some others. That’s been really important for us getting guys. It’s just a part of the business right now.”

Still, Tang likes to think the Wildcats are also able to resonate with recruits for traditional reasons.

K-State coaches make sure to host recruits on football weekends so they can show off the game-day atmosphere in Manhattan and show prospects how much support they can expect to receive from fans.

A bold recruiting approach and NIL money might be what gets Tang in the front door with elite players. He hopes to win them over with everything else.

“We’ve always had a terrific product here,” Tang said. “The fan base here is the best in the country. The league we play in is the best in the country. There are kids out there that value the family environment that we have here and the small-town feel and the college-town feel, being the pro sport in your in your town. That’s appealing to a lot of kids out there. It doesn’t matter if they’re four star, five star, whatever.”