I want Coach Tang to stay. I think the world of him.

[SCKSCat]

I am sad Jack Hartman is dead. I often wonder if we had treated Altman better if we would have kept us from going through the period of hell we did.
As far as Weber goes at the end, not getting a coaching offer from another program shows me others had the same thoughts about him.

[katlander]

It seems like our coaches of the 60s through the 80s were mostly loved. Seemed to be few if any fans who were not happy with our coaches.

This all started with Kruger' messing up. Maybe we should have worked through it with him, but things were different then.

Altman was too young, and we knew it but hired him anyway. Our big mistake was not giving him more time. If we had he would have been successful, maybe one of our best ever.

Asbury is the worst hire made IMO. Just not a fit and a jerk in some respects.

Woolridge was a nice guy but we should have gotten a more proven commodity. I thought he did okay.

Huggy was a big time hire and we took a chance on him. He turned the program around but did not stick around.

We hired assistant frank Martin largely in order to keep our top level recruiting class.

Martin was a loose cannon but was a winner. Players had enough anger outbursts and there were compliance issues and he was gone.

Weber came in and ran a clean program and was a great defensive coach. He struggled with recruiting and player retention. When he got the right players to stick around we won championships. It was a roller coaster ride and he was unable to make the climb while in the hot seat and he was gone.

In comes Tang and probably the best fit since Kruger or Altman. Granted he is out there with the religious thing but most of our fan base is okay with it. He is great with the students and recruits and has brought energy to the program.

You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.” I understand why some may have issues with Tang but do not know of a coach who could please more K-Staters than Tang, and if there is someone out there, we probably couldn't get him.

Lets give Tang his 5 years and see what happens. Time holds the key to many answers.

[Snyder]

It seems like our coaches of the 60s through the 80s were mostly loved. Seemed to be few if any fans who were not happy with our coaches.

This all started with Kruger' messing up. Maybe we should have worked through it with him, but things were different then.

Altman was too young, and we knew it but hired him anyway. Our big mistake was not giving him more time. If we had he would have been successful, maybe one of our best ever.

Asbury is the worst hire made IMO. Just not a fit and a jerk in some respects.

Woolridge was a nice guy but we should have gotten a more proven commodity. I thought he did okay.

Huggy was a big time hire and we took a chance on him. He turned the program around but did not stick around.

We hired assistant frank Martin largely in order to keep our top level recruiting class.

Martin was a loose cannon but was a winner. Players had enough anger outbursts and there were compliance issues and he was gone.

Weber came in and ran a clean program and was a great defensive coach. He struggled with recruiting and player retention. When he got the right players to stick around we won championships. It was a roller coaster ride and he was unable to make the climb while in the hot seat and he was gone.

In comes Tang and probably the best fit since Kruger or Altman. Granted he is out there with the religious thing but most of our fan base is okay with it. He is great with the students and recruits and has brought energy to the program.

You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.” I understand why some may have issues with Tang but do not know of a coach who could please more K-Staters than Tang, and if there is someone out there, we probably couldn't get him.

Lets give Tang his 5 years and see what happens. Time holds the key to many answers.

Pretty darn good analysis Kat!
I agree with you and will go a step further. I am not a church person (never have attended in my life and would be described as agnostic) and Coach Tang and his love of his religion and outspoken manner does not bother me one bit. He is a wonderful program builder, communicator and a guy that puts K-State in the spotlight big time. I'm approaching retirement age so I have been around for a while, and have never been more psyched for K-State Basketball!

[SCKSCat]

https://www.kansas.com/sports/college/b ... 36040.html

How seriously did he listen to the Razorbacks? Well, Tang provided an answer to that question and several others while he was a guest on ESPN Central Texas radio earlier this week.

“It really wasn’t that difficult of a decision,” Tang said.

"I think about both of my kids being students at K-State and my parents just moving to Manhattan. That is where we are going to be best. You only get so long to live life with your kids on a daily basis. I don’t want to miss any of those years with them. I asked (my son) Seven to move from Baylor to Kansas State and transfer. I couldn’t see myself doing that to my kids again and moving to another spot if we want to be together.”

After thinking it through, K-State became the obvious choice for him.

Tang said he is “humbled” to coach at the same school where so many other great coaches have worked. He then rattled off Jack Hartman, Tex Winter, Cotton Fitzsimmons, Lon Kruger, Dana Altman, Bob Huggins, Frank Martin and Bruce Weber by name.

He considers it an honor “to be mentioned anywhere near them.”

“I didn’t see (Arkansas) as moving up, because I believe I am in the best place in America,” Tang said. “I firmly believe we are going to win a national championship here. We have everything in place and they are providing me the resources and my staff the resources. Our fans are great and we play in the best league in the country

Yes he did pay homage to both Martin and Weber. Maybe it is time for this fanbase and heal and move on to a new day and era.

[Tbonespop]

It seems like our coaches of the 60s through the 80s were mostly loved. Seemed to be few if any fans who were not happy with our coaches.

This all started with Kruger' messing up. Maybe we should have worked through it with him, but things were different then.

Altman was too young, and we knew it but hired him anyway. Our big mistake was not giving him more time. If we had he would have been successful, maybe one of our best ever.

Asbury is the worst hire made IMO. Just not a fit and a jerk in some respects.

Woolridge was a nice guy but we should have gotten a more proven commodity. I thought he did okay.

Huggy was a big time hire and we took a chance on him. He turned the program around but did not stick around.

We hired assistant frank Martin largely in order to keep our top level recruiting class.

Martin was a loose cannon but was a winner. Players had enough anger outbursts and there were compliance issues and he was gone.

Weber came in and ran a clean program and was a great defensive coach. He struggled with recruiting and player retention. When he got the right players to stick around we won championships. It was a roller coaster ride and he was unable to make the climb while in the hot seat and he was gone.

In comes Tang and probably the best fit since Kruger or Altman. Granted he is out there with the religious thing but most of our fan base is okay with it. He is great with the students and recruits and has brought energy to the program.

You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.” I understand why some may have issues with Tang but do not know of a coach who could please more K-Staters than Tang, and if there is someone out there, we probably couldn't get him.

Lets give Tang his 5 years and see what happens. Time holds the key to many answers.

Good post. I would add that in Weber's second conf championship (tie for championship actually), he caught lightning in a bottle with Dean Wade - Kudos to Weber for finding him and recruiting him to KSU. Wade was simply a fantastic player from day one. He was one of the best fundamentally coached high school players I have seen in a long time. In fact, I think his fundamentals regressed a bit under Weber.

[DeereCatFan]

Good summation Kat. I thought your point on Altman was correct in him being too young. He grew into a much better coach at Creighton. Kind if like McDermott. Now would I say I didn't want Altman gone at that time. Heck no, I wanted him out. Ask an ISU fan if they didn't want McDermott gone. Kstate made the right call at that time. K-State was very good up to his taking over, then started to drop off. Would I want him now. No not really. He's done alright at Oregon with tons of resources. Not spectacular though. Not bashing the guy, but I remember them not being good with Altman there. Then Assbury and Wooly finished the job. In those situations I think K-State said well maybe we didn't give Altman enough time we probably should with these guys and we know how that turned out. Hindsight is 20/20.
Also glad Tang gave mention to all coaches. A respectful move.

[katlander]

It seems Altman did really well for a time after he left here and we were struggling during that period, so we experienced remorse. However, since hiring Huggins we have moved on. I think we felt we must hire Dana much like we felt we must hire Frank Martin. Frank to keep our recruits. Dana to keep recruiting as that had been his forte. Tom Asbury had done very well at Pepperdine, so he appeared to be an upgrade. Woolridge had a connection and recommendation from a K-State insider, and I don't remember there being better option at the time. Maybe we were unwilling to pay for a top coach. These decisions resulted in our basketball program languishing in mediocrity for 20 years! Weird how the same university leaders were able to find Bill Snyder at the time. I feel good about our current leaders with the exception of Litton. Hopefully he stays out of the way moving forward.

[stlcatfan]

It seems Altman did really well for a time after he left here and we were struggling during that period, so we experienced remorse. However, since hiring Huggins we have moved on. I think we felt we must hire Dana much like we felt we must hire Frank Martin. Frank to keep our recruits. Dana to keep recruiting as that had been his forte. Tom Asbury had done very well at Pepperdine, so he appeared to be an upgrade. Woolridge had a connection and recommendation from a K-State insider, and I don't remember there being better option at the time. Maybe we were unwilling to pay for a top coach. These decisions resulted in our basketball program languishing in mediocrity for 20 years! Weird how the same university leaders were able to find Bill Snyder at the time. I feel good about our current leaders with the exception of Litton. Hopefully he stays out of the way moving forward.

I'm no insider, but I don't think it is a coincidence that as the football program was on the rise in the 90s under Bill Snyder, the basketball program sank into mediocrity. This was before the era of massive TV contract $$$ and there was only so much money to go around for athletics. K-State (wisely, IMO) chose to invest more in football at the time. KU chose to invest in basketball and their football program took a major backseat. Now there are enough TV $$$ for both K-State and KU (and the rest of the Big 12) to invest in both football and basketball.

I, too, am happy with our leadership, although like you, I wish Linton would have not personally involved himself in matters that Gene Taylor and Coach Tang had under control. We've been fortunate over the past 15 years or so to have good leadership in the athletic department - especially with getting our financial house in order while at the same time working on major athletic facilities improvements and hiring great coaches.

[learnin]

a lot of this discussion, for me at least, revolves around fairness and class. i believe weber was treated poorly from the get-go but was terminated for good reason. both things can be true. and revisiting history is not wrong until the facts are revised to fit the narrative.

Well stated

[Gorhoops]

It seems like our coaches of the 60s through the 80s were mostly loved. Seemed to be few if any fans who were not happy with our coaches.

This all started with Kruger' messing up. Maybe we should have worked through it with him, but things were different then.

Altman was too young, and we knew it but hired him anyway. Our big mistake was not giving him more time. If we had he would have been successful, maybe one of our best ever.

Asbury is the worst hire made IMO. Just not a fit and a jerk in some respects.

Woolridge was a nice guy but we should have gotten a more proven commodity. I thought he did okay.

Huggy was a big time hire and we took a chance on him. He turned the program around but did not stick around.

We hired assistant frank Martin largely in order to keep our top level recruiting class.

Martin was a loose cannon but was a winner. Players had enough anger outbursts and there were compliance issues and he was gone.

Weber came in and ran a clean program and was a great defensive coach. He struggled with recruiting and player retention. When he got the right players to stick around we won championships. It was a roller coaster ride and he was unable to make the climb while in the hot seat and he was gone.

In comes Tang and probably the best fit since Kruger or Altman. Granted he is out there with the religious thing but most of our fan base is okay with it. He is great with the students and recruits and has brought energy to the program.

You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.” I understand why some may have issues with Tang but do not know of a coach who could please more K-Staters than Tang, and if there is someone out there, we probably couldn't get him.

Lets give Tang his 5 years and see what happens. Time holds the key to many answers.

Good post. I would add that in Weber's second conf championship (tie for championship actually), he caught lightning in a bottle with Dean Wade - Kudos to Weber for finding him and recruiting him to KSU. Wade was simply a fantastic player from day one. He was one of the best fundamentally coached high school players I have seen in a long time. In fact, I think his fundamentals regressed a bit under Weber.

Have to give the assist to Susie Fritz for getting Dean to KSU. If you remember the story, Susie knew Dean's mom from their volleyball playing days and Susie went to the coaches and told them they should go check out her friends' son out in a small school in Kansas. I remember Lowery saying the coaches argued about who was going to make the trip but when he went and saw Dean he was like, "holy crap this kid can play."

You also have to give Weber credit for finding Barry as well, we don't win those titles without Barry either. I remember Weber saying Barry was the 8th man on his loaded AAU team, but they saw something in him and his grit, toughness and leadership were huge reasons for that 2019 title.