With Kansas State’s basketball roster fully stocked, Jerome Tang is eager to get started

There is no doubt in Jerome Tang’s mind that the Kansas State basketball roster heading into his third year as Wildcats coach is an upgrade over last season.

Even better, he won’t have to spend the next month scouring the transfer portal for talent to fill in the blanks.

“This is the first time we’ve had our whole roster done in June,” Tang said. “Our first year, Keyontae (Johnson) didn’t show up until August, right when school was starting, and Desi (Sills) didn’t get here until October. And then last year we didn’t get a couple of guys until August or September, in that area, right after school started.

“So, we’re going to get to spend the whole four weeks in July of workouts with the whole group here. I believe that’s going to make a huge difference in how things get going.”

With only three returning players and 10 newcomers — eight Division I transfers, one from the junior college ranks and one high school player — Tang and his staff appreciate any extra time they have with the team. The only one who won’t be there at the start of summer workouts is returning super-senior forward David N’Guessan, who is currently with the Netherlands national team.

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N’Guessan was the lone returning player to log significant minutes last year for a Wildcat team that went 19-15 and was one-and-done in the National Invitation Tournament. Forwards Taj Manning and Macaleab Rich saw limited playing time as freshmen.

So, building team chemistry is a top priority in the next couple of months before the fall semester gets underway.

“Us as a staff, we always talk about heart connection. It’s our job to connect with our players’ hearts,” Tang said. “And once you connect with their hearts, then you can get them to understand, or at least you’ll understand where they’re coming from, to help them get to where they want to get to.”I’m excited. We haven’t been able to do this the last two years because we spent the whole summer still recruiting a team. And so, you couldn’t fully focus on what kind of team you could be — meshing and doing team building things — because you were waiting for all the guys to get there.”

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Tang firmly believes the Wildcats have the talent to get back to the NCAA Tournament in his third season. Two years ago, with third-team All-Americans Johnson and Markquis Nowell leading the way, they won 26 games and made it to the Elite Eight.

“My staff has done an unbelievable job putting this roster together,” Tang said. “And I don’t know that it could have gone any better than that has. I’m so pleased with what we have and what we have to work with and looking forward to watching how we put all this thing together and see these guys get out there play for our fans.”

In the backcourt, the coaches addressed last year’s most glaring weaknesses, namely erratic perimeter shooting and turnovers. The Wildcats now have multiple 3-point threats, all of whom would have led the team in that category last year, and Michigan transfer Dug McDaniel is a true point guard.

Related: Kansas State basketball lands Kentucky 7-footer Ugonna Onyenso via transfer portal

The Wildcats also have their most diverse front line under Tang after filling the last three roster spots with 6-foot-9 Samford transfer Achor Achor, Kentucky 7-footer Ugonna Onyenso, and 6-10 Illinois forward Coleman Hawkins.

“The last two guys we got really set us up to have a chance to be really good,” Tang said of Onyenso and Hawkins, both of whom tested the NBA waters before withdrawing from the draft. “And at the time I thought, man, we have the right guys. We have a little more margin for error.”

Of course, coaches are seldom 100% satisfied, and Tang confessed that he is no exception.

“And then now that they’re here, the coach in me kicks in and goes, man, we still don’t have any margin for error,” he said with a smile. “We’ve got to keep getting better. We’ve got to keep grinding.”

Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas State basketball coach Jerome Tang ready to get to work