Jerome Tang Promoted to Baylor MBB Associate Head Coach
WACO, Texas – Baylor men’s basketball head coach Scott Drew announced Tuesday that Jerome Tang has been promoted to associate head coach. Tang is entering his 15th season as an assistant on Drew’s staff.
Tang has been integral in the Bears’ rise to national prominence. He has helped lead the Bears to six consecutive 20-win seasons, posting a 152-64 record, five NCAA Tournament appearances and an NIT title since 2011-12. Baylor has also appeared in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 in three of the past six seasons, twice advancing to the Elite Eight. Additionally, eight players from those six seasons have gone on to sign NBA contracts, including Quincy Acy, Pierre Jackson, Cory Jefferson, Perry Jones III, Quincy Miller, Johnathan Motley, Royce O’Neale and Taurean Prince.
All told, Tang has helped guide the Bears to postseason appearances in nine of the past 11 seasons, including seven NCAA Tournament berths, an NIT title and an NIT runner-up finish. Baylor has gone a combined 19-8 in those postseason tournaments, including two Elite Eight appearances and four trips to the Sweet 16.
As an original member of Drew’s Baylor staff, Tang has helped put together seven consensus top-25 recruiting classes, including 2010 (Jones III), 2011 (Miller and Deuce Bello), 2012 (Isaiah Austin, Prince and Rico Gathers) and 2013 (Ishmail Wainright, Al Freeman and Motley).
The program reached new heights in 2016-17, earning Baylor’s first-ever No. 1 national ranking and a school-record fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. BU rolled to a 15-0 start, climbing from unranked to No. 1 nationally in an eight-week span. Baylor recorded wins over top-10 opponents three times in its first eight games, with victories over No. 4 Oregon, No. 7 Xavier and No. 10 Louisville, the last of which secured the 2016 Battle 4 Atlantis title. BU also defeated No. 10 West Virginia for a school-record fourth top-10 win.
The Bears tied a school record with 12 wins in Big 12 play, leading to a program-best No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament. BU knocked off New Mexico State and USC to advance to the Sweet 16 for the third time in a six-year span. It was the Bears’ ninth 20-win season in the last 10 years, accounting for nine of the 12, 20-win seasons in program history. The Bears finished the 2016-17 season ranked No. 12 nationally and had four players earn All-Big 12 honors with Motley, Manu Lecomte, Jo Lual-Acuil Jr. and Ishmail Wainright recognized. Motley won the 2017 Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award and was named Baylor’s first consensus All-American.
Baylor returns seven letterwinners and two redshirts to the 2017-18 squad, including All-Big 12 selections Lecomte and Lual-Acuil Jr. The Bears open the season on Nov. 10 against Central Arkansas at the Ferrell Center, and the complete schedule will be announced at a later date.