K-State Benefitted From Jerome Tang Keeping An Eye On Players Who Withdrew From NBA Draft
Every year there are college players who put their names into the draft, get invited to the NBA combine and then decide it is best to return to college for another year of seasoning.
By getting former Kentucky center Ugonna Onyenso and former Illinois forward Coleman Hawkins that way, it appears Kansas State men’s basketball coach Jerome Tang was brilliant to keep a few scholarships available just for this purpose.
But it didn’t happen that way at all.
“We just tried to get the guys that are right for us; that want to be with us,” Tang said. “It's not like a plan. Obviously, you know, guys who are going to pull their names out of the draft and if they've been invited to the combine, I mean, it means that they're really good players.
“And so, you know that type of talent that's available late if they are to pull their names out. But that is also the risk if you’re waiting for that. So, we try not to wait. But we just believe that God has got somebody better for us. Fortunately for us, this is just how it's turned out.”
Once a player enters the draft, you have to put in some groundwork in just in case he decides to come back to college for another season.
“If you wait until kids pull their names out of the draft, they already pretty much know where they're going,” Tang said. “It's going be hard to get involved, so you try and get a gauge for what they're thinking. You try and respect the way they want to be recruited. You have to trust that the information we have been given is the truth whether it's from them, their family members, their agents.
“Coleman (Hawkins) was great," Tang said. "He told us that we were one of the schools he was interested in. But his focus was on the combine, so we left him alone. When he told us when it was time to talk (with his family) they were very, very professional about it. The whole process was very enjoyable, but it was also nerve-wracking because of the other teams that were also recruiting him.”
David Boyce is a contributing writer to K-State On SI. He can be reached at davidboyce95@gmail.com.
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DAVID BOYCE