Kansas State's Jerome Tang Calls PJ Haggerty BEST PG In The Country + What Went Wrong Last Season

Summary

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Eye On College Basketball – Kansas State's Jerome Tang Calls PJ Haggerty BEST PG In The Country + What Went Wrong Last Season

Date: October 23, 2025
Host: CBS Sports (Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander)
Guest: Jerome Tang (Kansas State Head Coach)

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Episode Overview

In this insightful episode, CBS’s Eye On College Basketball welcomes back Kansas State head coach Jerome Tang. The conversation is a candid, wide-ranging interview diving into the challenges Tang faced last season, his philosophy on scheduling, honest self-reflection, the evolving dynamics of managing a college basketball roster in the NIL era, and high expectations for standout guard PJ Haggerty. Tang also gives a detailed preview of his roster, sharing genuine excitement over team chemistry and leadership development heading into the new season.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Balancing Big 12 Scheduling & Non-Conference Methodology

[01:01] – [03:06]

• Tang strongly believes non-conference scheduling should prepare teams for the physical and mental grind of the Big 12.
  • “Scheduling a non conference is to prepare you for the Big 12…if you win 10 or more games in the Big 12, you’re going to go to the NCAA tournament. As long as you had a decent non conference, it doesn’t matter who you played, it was decent.” – Jerome Tang [01:40]
• Striking a balance is key: scheduling too many "cupcakes" doesn’t build resilience, but an overly difficult slate can be damaging if roster turnover leaves the team unprepared.
  • “If you play too hard of a schedule...now you're putting yourself at a deficit.” – Tang [02:13]
• Tang aims for 5–6 high-major non-conference games in addition to the 18-game Big 12 slate for approximately 23–24 high-level games per season.

Self-Reflection: What Went Wrong Last Season?

[03:06] – [05:54]

• Tang is forthright about last year’s struggles, naming himself as a primary factor.
  • “I went wrong...expectations without grace leads to disappointment and frustration. And I, for a long part of the season, was living in frustration and disappointment.” – Jerome Tang [04:01]
• He discusses how the advent of NIL has profoundly changed the locker room dynamic—not just for players but for coaches, too.
  • “Nobody talked about how [NIL would] impact me as a coach. How would I respond to paying guys? Guys are being paid and then they're still acting like 18 to 23 year olds. Their professionals, they're pros, money wise, but they're not professional.” – Tang [04:24]
• Tang credits his staff with giving him a needed intervention, making him realize he was the source of discord.
  • “We're sitting in the Virgin Islands...everyone is saying something. And I said, man, it sounds like y'all are saying that I'm the issue, but none of y'all have the balls to stand up and say, coach, you're the issue. And I heard it loud and clear.” – Tang [06:03]

Staff Accountability & Culture

[05:54] – [06:40]

• Tang praises his assistants for their honesty and willingness to call him out when necessary, specifically naming Bill Peterson and Matt Driscoll—veterans unafraid to challenge their boss in the name of improvement.
• The episode underscores the importance of healthy staff communication and coachable leadership.

PJ Haggerty: “Best Point Guard in the Country”

[07:16] – [08:19]

• Tang is unabashed in his praise for transfer PJ Haggerty:
  • “He’s the best point guard in the country and he just hasn’t been required to be a great leader.” – Jerome Tang [07:16]
• Haggerty’s playmaking, improvement as a passer, and increasing comfort as an on-floor leader draw rave reviews.
  • “He's a way better passer than I thought…he sees, makes adjustments on his own on the floor and moves guys around…makes great suggestions basketball wise. Now it's just about all the other little things, you know, off the court…” – Tang [07:41]

Roster Preview: Depth, Versatility, and Defensive Strategy

[08:19] – [11:06]

• Kansas State is unusually deep at guard (six-guard rotation), with athleticism and versatility throughout.
  • Bashir is tagged as a top shooter; Nate Johnson as an elite, multi-positional defender; C.J. Jones with high defensive potential; David Castillo playing at a “high, high level” [08:33–09:31].
  • Moby is also called out as a top defender along with Johnson, with both providing flexibility for diverse lineups [08:44].
• The team may feature four-guard lineups, leveraging size and switchability on defense.
  • “We wanted depth at the guard position because in college basketball you win with guards…And then I wanted bigger guards, more size because we struggled defensive rebounding.” – Tang [10:17]
• The stronger perimeter presence is expected to make inside play easier for forwards, and the gravity of shooters like Abdi and Andre is emphasized.

Team Chemistry, Leadership, & Off-court Development

[11:06] – [12:15]

• Tang spotlights the team's unified spirit and willingness to face adversity together, referencing team-building activities like “Shark Week” and a retreat conquering fears.
  • “…This is a group of guys that you don't mind going through tough times with…they haven't shied away from it, man.” – Tang [11:29]
• He expresses excitement to see if their shooting prowess and chemistry translate against live competition.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Expectations without grace leads to disappointment and frustration.” – Jerome Tang [04:01]
• “He’s the best point guard in the country and he just hasn’t been required to be a great leader.” – Jerome Tang on PJ Haggerty [07:16]
• “We're sitting in the Virgin Islands...it sounds like y'all are saying I'm the issue, but none of y'all have the balls to stand up and say, coach, you're the issue. And I heard it loud and clear.” – Jerome Tang [06:03]
• “You guys. Y'all just smash it like Brandon Davies.” – Jerome Tang, complimenting the hosts’ show style [13:48]

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Lighthearted Closing: Tang on the Podcast’s Appeal

[12:51] – [13:54]

• Tang enjoys the hosts’ insight and their personal, relatable banter—highlighting stories about family misadventures and inside jokes like the hand, foot, and mouth (coxsackie) story.
• “When you're you and he's him…It's like I’ve lived that. I just relate to you guys. And so it's fun to listen to guys I can relate to.” – Jerome Tang [13:12]

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• [01:01] – Tang’s scheduling approach for balancing Big 12 and non-conference play
• [03:06] – What went wrong last season and personal growth
• [05:54] – Staff accountability and culture
• [07:16] – PJ Haggerty as “best PG in the country” and leadership development
• [08:19] – Deep dive on roster strengths and positional versatility
• [11:29] – Team chemistry, preseason insights, and building resilience
• [12:51] – Tang’s appreciation for the Eye On College Basketball pod and hosts’ style

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Summary

This episode is a masterclass in honest coaching leadership, program-building, and embracing both accountability and optimism. Tang’s candor about struggles in the NIL era, the intricacies of scheduling for competitive success, his faith in transformative transfers like PJ Haggerty, and humorous asides about the podcast itself provide fans and insiders alike with both entertainment and deep strategic insight.

Transcript

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[Host]

I am so pleased and happy to be joined by Jerome Tang of Kansas State who I think is one of the coaches that actually sometimes listens to the show.

[Jerome Tang]

Right.

[Host]

Like you actually.

[Jerome Tang]

Yeah, all the time.

[Host]

Okay, more of us. Right, more of us.

[Jerome Tang]

Right, more of us.

[Host]

There we go. Jerome Tang, welcome to the Ion College basketball podcast. Absolutely love it. I want to get to a lot here in a little bit amount of time, but we were just talking before we went live about your schedule. It is a solid schedule, but I want to know the methodology when it comes to playing in the Big 12. It's an absolute grind. How you balance the Big 12 schedule with. You don't want to get into a spot where you are near the bubble cut line and then you look back at your non con and say did we not schedule one more good game that we might have needed to. So what is your personal methodology on how you try and schedule who you schedule in the non con? Knowing the meat grinder that's awaiting for you from January to mid March?

[Jerome Tang]

Yeah, well for me scheduling a non conference is to prepare you for the Big 12. Right. And I mean that's 18 this year. Meat grinders. And so what I want to do is try and go on the road and play in a tough road environment that's going to help prepare us because in the Big 12, if you win 12 or plus 12 or more, I'm sorry, 10 or more games in the Big 12, you're going to go to the NCAA tournament. As long as you had a decent non conference, it doesn't matter who you played, it was decent. So if you're, if you play a bunch of cupcakes right, you're probably not preparing yourself to do well in the Big 12. And if you play too hard of a schedule right then like now you're putting yourself at a deficit. And it's hard to win 10 games in the Big 12 because the goal is to get to the NCAA tournament. Get to the NCAA tournament, anything can happen. Now there are some guys and some years you're looking at it and you're saying, okay, I want to schedule for Seeding, but when you're rebuilding your roster every year, like it's hard to determine whether you're scheduling for seating or. And the schedule is being done before you're fin recruiting.

[Host]

Yes.

[Jerome Tang]

So there's a lot of that that goes into it. And so I figure, you know, five to six high major in the non conference to go with your 18 in the conference. That puts you at 23, 24 games of high major games. I mean, I think that's fair.

[Host]

I have high hopes for your program this season. I do expect a bounce back, some quick self evaluation, what went wrong last season, and that could have been something even before you played a game. But just before we look ahead and see how you've changed and what you've changed. And I know you hold yourself like plenty accountable and all this stuff. Jerome. But like what, where were the Mrs. And were you surprised by them? Did you have a sense maybe privately in the lead up to the season that okay, maybe we don't have what I thought we had? I'm just, I'm just curious. You know, I love talking to coaches about the big successes, but I often find I learn more from you guys when you're really able to reflect and tell me, okay, here's actually where I have my fault and where I went wrong.

[Jerome Tang]

Well, we won six games in a row in conference and four of them were against ranked teams. So we had plenty talent. We went wrong. It's. I went wrong and I told my staff I wouldn't talk about this anymore, but I'll do this with you.

[Host]

I appreciate that.

[Jerome Tang]

Jerome. There's a saying that expectations without grace leads to disappointment and frustration. And I, for a long part of the season, I was living in frustration and disappointment. And because I wasn't and I wasn't the best version of myself. And I say that to tell you that everybody talked about how would nil impact the players in the locker room. Nobody talked about how it impact me as a coach. How would I respond to paying guys? Guys are being paid and then they're still acting like 18 to 23 year olds. Their professionals, they're pros, money wise, but they're not professional.

[Host]

Right, Right.

[Jerome Tang]

They haven't learned how to have a routine and, and they haven't matured to the point where, you know, if somebody, the people that work at cbs, if you don't do your job, you're supposed to be a professional, they're gonna fire you and bring somebody else in. Well, when they don't do their job in college athletics, we don't get to fire and bring somebody else in. And that's not what our calling is. And I was viewing it too much like that, and it was frustrating me. And then I wasn't being the best version of myself to help our team. And when I was final with it and my staff brought it to my attention and I was able to get past that, then our team started playing the way that they were capable playing or was able to get to where they were capable of playing. But we screwed up in the non conference too much because of me. And so that, you know, I was able to evaluate myself and say, where am I lacking? What do I need? Where's the program lacking in the. Where college basketball is going? What do I need to put into the program that's not here right now? Because I spend so much time fundraising right now, roster management and recruiting, that I don't get to do a lot of the player development things and. And other things that I love doing. So I had to bring people in to do those things so that now we have a better plan moving forward.

[Host]

And so for. To a certain extent, I think the. The picture you painted there was your staff kind of came in and opened up the curtains on you, like, they brought it to you. And it was maybe intervention's too strong of a word, or maybe it was.

[Jerome Tang]

No, it was. We're sitting in the Virgin Islands and, you know, we're talking about what the frustrations are, what's going on, this and that, and they're kind of telling me everyone is saying something. And I said, man, it sounds like y' all are saying that I'm the issue, but none of y' all have the balls to stand up and say, coach, you're the issue. And I heard it loud and clear. And I was like, man, y' all gotta be willing to confront me. And the great thing is I got guys on my staff, Bill Peterson and Matt Driscoll, you know, who are both willing to come sit down in my office and say, men, this is dumb, what we're doing right now, or we need to do this differently. And, you know, and so. And I appreciate that.

[Host]

That's good stuff. That's where we're digging a little bit into the weeds, which hopefully our viewers and listener appreciate, though, because you and I both know there are definitely right or wrong. There are staffs that wouldn't do that in this sport with their head coach, and there are probably some head coaches that wouldn't want to necessarily hear that. So for you to have that amount of trust, communication, obviously a really healthy thing for you and your program. I love to hear that. Let's talk about this team. We do have to start with PJ Haggerty. We bumped into each other by coincidence last night. I know you are so excited about what he can do. You think he really could wind up being one of the best, if not the best players in the entire league?

[Jerome Tang]

He's the best point guard in the country and he just hasn't been required to be a great leader. They've just asked him, hey, just go get us buckets. And he's learning how to be a great leader and he's embracing it. And I'm excited. It's been so much fun being around him and coaching him and just watching him grow as a, as a leader. Because he can hoop.

[Host]

Yeah, right. He can hoop natural, Hooper.

[Jerome Tang]

Yeah. And he's a way better passer than I thought. Right. We thought we'd have to teach him ball screen reads and certain things and man, he's like embraced it. He sees it, you know, he sees, makes adjustments on his own on the floor and moves guys around based on the play that we're going to run in order to get the right guy shots and makes great suggestions basketball wise. And now it's just about all the other little things, you know, off the court, how you develop relationships with your teammates and the energy you bring to practice and, you know, how you talk to guys and how guys like to be talked to. You know, knowing every guy is different and, and, and he's embracing the whole thing.

[Host]

Okay, shine a light on your other guys and how they are playing with PJ and how kind of the collective unit is, has been lifted there. I know you're super deep at guard, right? So who, who, who and how have they stood out in the, in the weeks leading up to the opener here?

[Jerome Tang]

Well, I'll be. Bashir can really, really shoot the ball. Nate Johnson is a beast. He can guard multiple positions. He's, he's a big time athlete.

[Host]

Is he your best defender?

[Jerome Tang]

Well, him and Moby. Okay, him and Moby and, But we need one at the guard spot. We need one at the forward spot that can guard one and a half, you know, and because, you know, Abdi's learning to be a better defender. He's never been required to do it, but he's, he's, he's pouring into it to try to be. Andre Kostic is learning how to be a better defender, but Andre and Abdi can really, really shoot the ball. We have six guards. C.J. jones has a chance to be really, really special for us because of what he can do at 65 defensively, how he can get to the rack and finish. And it's just, just so many things. Like everybody's getting better and David Castillo's playing at a high level right now. High, high level. So I love. We have six guards that are, they're really good.

[Host]

Are you going to run out some four guard lineups, like because of your depth?

[Jerome Tang]

I think it's going to require me to do that at times. You know, where you have four guards, but when Andre's six, seven and Abdi six six and.

[Host]

Right. I understand. So like guard slash, wing. But maybe, you know, sometimes this can benefit coaches depending on style and certainly personnel. If you're going to be a little bit of a zag to some most other teams in the league when it comes to like when they got to play you and they got to prep you and they got to scout you and if it's a two day turnaround, that can really work to your advantage. Was this an intentional portal approach or did you just kind of get to a point where it's like, well, we got the guys we like and I really like them and now look at this. We have six guards and wings that we know we can go with and so let's just adjust to what we want to do with the personnel that we wound up having. Or did you kind of seek to have this relative roster build when you went into the portal?

[Jerome Tang]

Well, we wanted depth at the guard position because in college basketball you win with guards. And then I wanted bigger guards, more size and because we struggled defensive rebounding and I believe that. And we switched so much on defense that I didn't want to have a big of a mismatch on the switch to a forward. I thought that would help us defensive rebounding. But I really love our forwards too. You know, we got five of them that and maybe six if I. Whether we decide to redshirt Stephen Ose or not. Okay. That they're pretty good and they're going to, it's going to be better for them because of how much gravity people are going to. Abdi creates, Andre creates, PJ creates. It's going to make the game easier for those guys to be scores, finishers and productive.

[Host]

Okay, one more on just the preseason. Anything we haven't touched on that you just, you're particularly excited about, be it a moment in practice or just a general feeling you have over the past four to six weeks. Jerome Just, you know, set the table here. On what Case Day fans really should be excited for once we get to the real games. Less than two weeks away. What's. What's in the air there?

[Jerome Tang]

Yeah. You know, during the season, there's gonna be highs, there's gonna be lows, you're gonna face adversity, and. And this is a group of guys that you don't mind going through tough times with. And we've gone through it, you know, I mean, like, you know, Shark Week and, you know, the team retreat that we did where they faced their fears of heights and all the. All the different things we've done, they've, like, they haven't shied away from it, man. And so you love that and you love how they're Will hold each other accountable, you know, and the growth that's taking place. And we got some shop makers, man, so that makes it easy. I just. I'm looking forward to find out whether our defense sucks or whether they're really as good of shop makers. Okay. That's shown in practice. And, you know, because in practice, K State wins, K State loses.

[Host]

Yes. Correct. Yes. Okay, we'll get you out of here on this. I'm going to put them on the spot here. Do you have a particular podcast joke theme episode, anything about the pod? Let's just talk. Let's talk about us. Okay. Let's talk about me and Paris. Now, we've had enough about Jerome Tang, this program. Anything in particular that. We so very much appreciate the fact that you listen, but if we got a coach here that actually listens to the show and is psych, I don't even know why Jerome would do this. But regardless, anything you want to prop up on the show that we can put on, like, a scissor reel to, like, promote the show here. What is it about our nonsense that you actually want to tolerate on a weekly basis?

[Jerome Tang]

First of all, you guys really know basketball, but you go a little bit deeper in some of your. Your talks, but it's none of that. That, like, it's the. When you're you and he's him. And when Parrish was talking about his kids and the baseball bat and the putting the hole in the wall or the spray paint.

[Host]

Yes.

[Jerome Tang]

Right on the house. It's like I've lived that. Right. And it just, like, I just relate to. To you guys. And so it's fun to listen to guys I. I can relate to. Okay.

[Host]

Did you listen to the recent episode where I dropped the coxacky on. On gp?

[Jerome Tang]

Did you hear that yet? No. Okay, well.

[Host]

Okay, well, you're gonna have to listen to that if you can relate to any. Any of your children having had hand, foot and mouth disease or whatever, which is coxackie. He thought I said something else. It was. It was a moment you're going to appreciate. Just text us when you listen to that. So.

[Jerome Tang]

I don't think we've ever had the hand foot.

[Host]

Okay, well, I hope. I hope you don't. I hope you don't. But no, it was. It was.

[Jerome Tang]

You guys. Y' all just smash it like Brandon Davies.

[Host]

There we go.

[Jerome Tang]

You smash it like Brandon Davies all the time.

[Host]

This guy right here, the best. Jerome Tang, head coach of Kansas State. You are among the very, very best. Appreciate you coming on. This will not be his last appearance on the pod. Thank you so much.

[Jerome Tang]

Thank.

[Host]

You. Can be anything this time. Now streaming on Paramount Plus. Someone is trying to frame us until.

[Jerome Tang]

Our names are cleared.

[Commercial Narrator]

More fugitives from interval.

[Jerome Tang]

Tony and Clyde with better snacks.

[Host]

NCIS Tony and Ziva. Now streaming on Paramount plus.