On the heels of K-State’s win, Tang selected Naismith Coach of the Year finalist

MANHATTAN, Kan. (WIBW) - Kansas State University’s Head Coach Jerome Tang is a finalist for the 2023 Werner Ladder Naismith Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year following the Wildcats’ NCAA win against Kentucky on Saturday, March 18.

Fans will have a chance to vote for a winner starting Tuesday, March 21. The voting ends at 11 a.m. (CT time) on Wednesday, March 28. Fans are only allowed one vote per day. To vote for the Coach of the Year, click HERE or on Twitter at (@MarchMadness and @naismithtrophy). The fan vote will account for about 5% of the total vote.

The Naismith Coach of the Year award will be granted to the winner on Sunday, April 2.

Other finalists for the award include Purdue’s Matt Painter, Houston’s Kelvin Sampson, and Marquette’s Shaka Smart.

Tang is also a finalist for many other Coach of the Year awards. He is a finalist for the Joe B. Hall Award (top first-year Division I head coach), the Ben Jobe Award (top Division I minority coach), and the Jim Phelan Award (Division I Coach of the Year).

Tang became K-State’s 25th men’s basketball head coach in March 2022. Since he began, his 25-9 record is described as the best in the nation as a first-year Division I head coach, following Duke’s Jon Scheyer, who currently has a 27-9 record.

Originally picked 10th in the Big 12 preseason, the team led by Tang has won 25 games and is now part of the sweet 16. As K-State rose from being picked last in a Big 12 poll to tieing for third place, Tang was selected as the consensus Big 12 Coach of the Year, receiving the honor from the league coaches and AP.

Tang is the seventh K-State head coach in history to receive Coach of the Year honors. The second coach to receive the recognition was Bruce Weber in 2013. He won this honor in his first season.

K-State’s next tournament game is Thursday, March 23, against the 7-seed Michigan State (21-11) starting at 5:30 p.m. on TBS. The game will be held in Madison Square Garden in New York City.

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