Tang first Trinidad and Tobago coach to win NCAA Division 1 crown

JEROME Tang became the first TT coach to win a NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) Division 1 Men’s Basketball Title. Tang was born in San Fernando, but migrated with his parents to St Croix, United States Virgin Islands, until age 10, when his family moved to Texas, US.

Tang, who is the associate head coach, played a key role in Baylor University Bears first men’s basketball championship. The second-ranked Bears, with a dominant 86-70 win, denied the previously unbeaten Bulldogs a perfect season in the NCAA final on April 5. With the loss, the first ranked Gonzaga missed the opportunity to become the second college team since Indiana Hoosier to win the title, without losing a game.

Tang is an original member of Scott Drew’s Baylor staff. In 2003, Drew was appointed as coach with a roster with only seven scholarship players and with years of NCAA probation in the wake of the murder of player Patrick Dennehy by a team-mate.

Immediately, he hired Tang as an assistant. In 2017, Tang was promoted to associate head coach. Together for 18 seasons, they have rebuilt Baylor from a programme decimated by tragedy, player departures, a depleted roster and NCAA restriction to one of a national powerhouse.

Drew and Tang have led Baylor to four NCAA tournament appearances, four Sweet 16 berths, two trips to the Elite Eight, the programme’s first number one national ranking in 2017, a Big 12 Conference-record 23-game winning streak in 2019-20, and a five-week streak at number one in 2020 which was the longest by any team since Kentucky in 2015.

Baylor has averaged 24 wins per season since the first year Drew and Tang led them to the NCAA Tournament in 2008, becoming one of the nation’s most consistent programmes with active streaks of 12 straight seasons with at least 18 wins and eight straight postseason appearances. The Bears went to the NCAA Tournament in four consecutive seasons from 2014-17, marking the first consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances in the programme history. Baylor was on track to earn the first NCAA Tournament number one seed in programme history with a 26-4 mark in 2019-20 before the postseason was cancelled due to the covid19 pandemic.

Prior to Baylor, Tang served 10 seasons as the athletic director and coach at nationally recognised Heritage Christian Academy, a birth-through-high school private school in Cleveland, Texas. Tang had several Division One coaching opportunities but felt that Baylor was the ideal environment for himself and family – wife Rey, son Seven, and daughter Aylyn. Several of Drew’s assistants have secured coaching positions at other NCAA Division One programmes.

“I make all my decisions by putting God first, my family second and my career last,” Tang said. “At Baylor, I can freely speak about myself and who I am in any situation, in any student-athlete interaction or any speaking engagement. It’s been an unbelievable opportunity to stay here.”

According to Drew, “Baylor basketball wouldn’t be where it’s today without coach Tang. Because of that stability and consistency, we’ve been able to continue to raise Baylor basketball’s national reputation.”

Among Tang’s responsibilities is being in charge of coaching the Baylor’s man-to-man defence along with assistant coach Alvin Brooks III after using the zone defence as their primary defence for many seasons. Immediately, the Bears emerged as one of the premier defensive teams. The adjustment resulted in a national title, as Gonzaga was unable to sustain the consistent Bears’ stifling pressure defence throughout the championship game.

(latinbasket.com)