It’s hard to believe, but basketball season is less than a week away for K-State. They will play an exhibition game coming up on Tuesday, November 1st against Washburn. The Wildcats are coming off their first three-year stretch with each year finishing under .500 since 1999-2002. In the last three seasons, they have compiled just 34 total wins and 13 conference wins. For context, K-State won 14 conference games in their 2018-19 Big 12 Championship season.

The program has missed the NCAA Tournament in each of those seasons which gives them their longest drought since their 11-year drought spanning from 1996-2007.

This led to former head coach Bruce Weber and Kansas State parting ways at the end of last season. His career in Manhattan ended with an up-and-down 184-147 overall record in ten seasons including two Big 12 championships (2013, 2019) and an Elite 8 appearance (2018).

His last press conference left fans with a bitter taste in their mouths after he said that the fanbase is negative and spoke about his difficulties on the recruiting trail. Weber will be a basketball analyst on the Big Ten Network starting this season.

In comes Jerome Tang to be the program’s 25th head basketball coach. Tang spent 19 seasons as an assistant coach (2003-17) and associate head coach (2017-22) at Baylor under head coach Scott Drew. He helped them to a conference championship in 2021, their first ever NIT title (2013), their first NCAA appearance in 20 years (2008), their first Final Four appearance since 1950 (2021) and the program’s first ever national title (2021).

The 55-year-old is the first black head men’s basketball coach in program history. He received a six-year deal receiving $2.1 million this year and a $100k raise every year of his contract until it expires in 2028. Tang has immediately become a fan and student favorite establishing an impressive social media presence.

He and his new coaching staff have had to completely restructure the roster as only two players return from last year’s entire roster (senior guard Markquis Nowell and junior forward Ismael Massoud).

Out of all the players on the roster from a year ago that transferred out, only two made Power 5 rosters this season (Davion Bradford – Wake Forest, Nijel Pack – Miami).

Looking at the current roster, it’s made up of nine DI transfers with five coming from other Power 5 programs, two junior college transfers, two true freshman and two walk-ons.

The field general for the K-State basketball team this season is senior guard Markquis Nowell. Last season, Nowell averaged 30.4 minutes and 12.4 points per game which were both third on the team and good enough for 12th in the Big 12. He also led the team in assists with five per game, which was second in the conference.

The team will likely rely on him to make some crucial shots late in games. Nowell will need to shoot more consistently this season. Last year, he was 30.4% from beyond the arc, but that won’t cut it this season if the team wants to help his team get back to the tournament.

Nowell is also an excellent defender. He averaged 2.2 steals per game which was the most in the Big 12. His efforts were recognized by the conference as he made the Big 12 All-Defensive Team. He was also on the All-Big 12 Honorable Mention list.

Sophomore Cam Carter transfers in from Mississippi State after getting a decent amount of playing time his freshman year with the Bulldogs. He started in four games and got 15 points against Alabama. He played in 27 games and averaged 8.5 minutes per game.

He will get a much bigger role in his first year in Manhattan, and they will hope for more offensive production. Carter averaged just 2.2 points per game and shot 30% from beyond the arc. However, he isn’t a player who will just sit in the corner and wait for wide open three-point shots. He can slash in the paint and knock mid-range shots at will.

The 6-foot-3 guard from Louisiana is incredibly athletic, which will help them on the defensive side of the ball. They are hoping he can become more of a vocal leader when he’s on the court, however, he has a quiet personality.

Fifth-year senior Stony Brook transfer Tykei Greene, like Nowell, is from Queens, New York. Greene was Coach Tang’s eighth addition to the team as he was added to the roster in late-March. He is a combo guard at 6-foot-4 and uses his length and athleticism to cut to the lane and crash the boards effectively.

Last season, he was on the All-America East team after averaging 14 points per game and 8.1 rebounds per game. He makes most of his money on his ability to penetrate opponents’ defenses with almost seven two-pointers attempted per game.

He is on his third team in his collegiate career. Greene committed to the University of Manhattan out of high school and played there his freshman and sophomore seasons. He then played for Stony Brook under head coach Geno Ford his junior and senior years.

He brings a ton of experience with 114 games played and more than 3,000 minutes already at the Division I level. He will likely be used some off the bench this season.

Fifth-year transfer guard Desi Sills will be playing collegiate basketball for a team outside of his home state for the first time in his career. The Jonesboro, Arkansas-native played his first three seasons at the University of Arkansas and last year he played for Arkansas State.

Sills saw his playing time and his numbers decline from his sophomore to his junior year. He was able to tear it up in the Sun Belt in 2021-22 averaging 12.6 points per game. He also had career highs in assists per game (2.8) and rebounds per game (3.6).

He will get a lot of time on the court this upcoming season, but he will need to up his perimeter shooting accuracy. Sills attempted 102 three-pointers and his three-point percentage was a career-low 25.5%. His percentages have lowered every year since his freshman year.

The lone freshman guard is Dorian Finister. He was the number three recruit out of the state of Louisiana and was a top-40 combo guard, according to 247Sports. The three-star recruit led Carver High School to four straight Class 4A Final Fours and a state championship his senior year.

Finister shot lights out throughout his high school career with a total field goal percentage of 63.4% and a three-point field goal percentage of 43.8%.

His length allows him to be a true five-tool player. In high school he had 20 double-doubles and three triple-doubles.

He wasn’t the team’s leading scorer, however, as Solomon Washington, the Gatorade Louisiana Player of the Year and Texas A&M commit, led the team in almost every statistical category for the team.

Coach Tang said during his Big 12 Media Days press conference that he has been impressed with what Finister has been able to do in practice, but we will likely not see him get very many minutes this season.

However, Tang said he is a key piece to the team’s future. He might get some playing time in some of their games against smaller Division I opponents when they have a large lead.

Tang said the same thing about true freshman forward Taj Manning. Manning bounced around high schools playing at Grandview in Missouri (2018-20), Bishop Miege (2020-21), and national powerhouse La Lumiere in Indiana his senior year (2021-22).

His sophomore year was his best year offensively with 16.1 points per game. He also had 6.9 rebounds per game and shot 50.1% from the field. In his lone year playing high school ball in Kansas, he averaged 15.1 points per game at Miege on 63% shooting and 7.1 boards per game.

His senior year, he was playing with some of the top prospects in the nation, so his role took a step back. He still averaged 8.9 points per game and 5.3 rebounds per game while making it to the GEICO National Championships with the Lakers. Coach Tang looks forward to what he brings to the table in the future.

Perhaps the biggest addition to the team during this past offseason is Florida transfer Keyontae Johnson. The 6-foot-6 senior forward racked up accolades with the Gators getting First Team All-SEC in 2019-20 and was named the Preseason SEC Player of the Year prior to the 2020-21 season.

Unfortunately, on December 12th, 2020, Johnson collapsed in a game against Florida State, which sidelined him for the remainder of the season and all last season.

Before the incident, he was a part of three Gators teams that made the NCAA Tournament with the team likely to have made the tournament following the 2019-20 season if it weren’t canceled.

Johnson averaged 11 points and 6.6 rebounds per game with Florida. He is a pure scorer with 789 points in his career so far, shooting 52.1% from the floor and 37.6% from beyond the arc.

This offseason, the coaching staff’s focus has been about Johnson getting into game shape again. He hasn’t played Division I basketball in almost two years, so getting him up to speed is priority number one. He will likely be eased into the process when the regular season rolls around. Expect his minutes to slowly increase game-by-game leading up to conference season.

K-State’s only returning forward is sharpshooter Ismael “Ish” Massoud. The junior is also from New York and transferred from Wake Forest before last season.

In 2021-22, Ish averaged 6.8 points per game and shot 33.3% from beyond the arc. He also started in 18 games and played in 24.3 minutes per game. Massoud has become a vocal leader in the locker room with Nowell, and he will be a crucial piece once again for this team.

Junior college transfer and Harlem-native Nae’Qwan Tomlin could very well be the team’s leading scorer this season.

The 6-foot-10 junior was an NJCAA Honorable Mention All-American last season with Chipola College averaging 13.8 points and 5.9 rebounds per game.

His skillset is impressive with an ability to knock down the three ball, drive to the hole from the perimeter, handle the ball like a guard, post up like a center and defend anyone he goes up against. Tomlin shot 37.5% from beyond the arc last year and 46.4% in conference play. Overall, he shot 54.1% from the floor.

Coach Tang, his staff and his teammates have raved about him throughout the offseason saying that he has NBA potential. They will hope he can tap into that potential and translate his success from the JUCO level and bring it to the best conference in college basketball.

Another 6-foot-10 forward sophomore Jerrell Colbert transfers in from LSU after not playing much at all for the Bayou Bengals. Colbert played in just four games and only scored in one of them.

Out of high school, he was a four-star recruit, according to Rivals, and rated the 134th best recruit in the country. He averaged 9.4 points per game his senior season at Houston High School in Tennessee. He was fourth on the team in scoring as he helped Houston to their first ever state championship.

Colbert will provide some depth in the post and will likely get a decent amount of playing time, but he is raw as a prospect. He has potential and is a solid rebounder.

The most transient player on the roster is senior center Abayomi “Baybe” Iyiola. Iyiola was born in Nigeria, went to high school in Georgia and is now on his sixth year playing college basketball and his fourth school. He started his collegiate career at Stetson for two seasons (2017-19), transferred to Arkansas and was there for two seasons (2019-21), and spent one year at Hofstra (2021-22) before finally coming to K-State.

He is well-experienced with 92 total games and 64 starts with the three previous schools averaging 9.3 points per game and 6.9 rebounds per game. He averaged double-digit points per game in both years at Stetson.

Iyiola has shown potential to have monster games as his career high was a 26-point effort with the Hatters against USF. He has 40 double-digit point games in his career so far.

Like Colbert, he will likely come off the bench as a five, who can post up and utilize his 6-foot-10 frame to impose his will against opponents in the paint.

Another international forward is Virginia Tech transfer David N’Guessan, who is from The Netherlands. The 6-foot-9 junior played in 57 of 58 possible games with the Hokies over the past two seasons.

N’Guessan was purely a role player, though, as he averaged 12 minutes per game and just 3.3 points per game. However, he showed his potential in a 15-point effort against Maine and grabbed a career-high nine rebounds against Cornell.

Last season, he helped the Hokies win the ACC Tournament and reach back-to-back NCAA Tournaments. He was effective when he took shots as he made 48.6% of his attempts.

Lastly, is 6-foot-7 sophomore guard Anthony Thomas who was the last player Coach Tang added to his roster. Thomas comes from Washington D.C. and transfers to K-State from the University of Tennessee-Martin.

Before that, he played one year at Tallahassee Community College as well. He ranked second in scoring at TCC on a roster with seven DI signees at 11 points per game.

Thomas played in 22 of 24 games in his first year of Division I basketball and made four starts with the Skyhawks. He was second on the team in three-point field goals with 23 and fourth in scoring at nine points per game. He became the first Skyhawk to start a season opener since 2013-14. Thomas played 25 minutes against Evansville on December 2nd, 2020.

The 2022-23 brings a lot of potential with its roster. They have generated a lot of support and hope from its fanbase with every game nearing a sellout already.

They have a fairly easy non-conference schedule to start the season. Of all their non-con opponents, only four had an overall record over .500 (Kansas City, Wichita State, Abilene Christian, Florida). They only have three Power 5 non-conference opponents scheduled and Florida was the only one that had a winning season. The Gators are also the only team that made an NCAA Tournament appearance out of all their non-conference opponents.

If K-State can beat teams they are supposed to beat, and flirt with a .500 conference record, they will have a chance of making the tournament this season. The Wildcats will need to turn around their bad luck against non-conference Power 5 opponents, though, as they are just 1-8 against said teams over the past three years.

Their season unofficially opens on Tuesday, November 1st with an exhibition game against the Washburn Ichabods. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. from Bramlage Colliseum. Their first regular season game will be at home against the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on Monday, November 7th with tipoff at 8 p.m.