Kansas State's Jerome Tang Wins 2023 Naismith Men's College Coach of the Year Award

Kansas State's Jerome Tang was the best coach in men's college basketball during the 2022-23 season.

Tang took home the Naismith Men's College Coach of the Year award Sunday and defeated fellow finalists Matt Painter of Purdue, Kelvin Sampson of Houston and Shaka Smart of Marquette.

"I'm honored and blessed to be named the Werner Ladder Naismith Men's Coach of the Year," Tang said in a press release. "There have been a lot of great coaching jobs this season, and to be recognized among them is truly a humbling experience for me. I want to first thank my Lord and savior Jesus Christ for all the blessings in my life. I also want to thank our players and staff.

"I can't begin to express my appreciation to them for all their hard work and sacrifice this season. I'm blessed and honored that I get to live life with these incredible men and women every day. Additionally, I want to thank our administration for giving me the opportunity to be at K-State, and of course, I'm not here today without the love, support and sacrifice of my family. I share this tremendous honor with all these individuals."

While the NCAA men's tournament has been defined by chaos, these four coaches led excellent teams during the regular season.

Painter's Boilermakers went 29-6 and took home the Big Ten regular-season and tournament titles during a run of dominance. That they started the season unranked in the Associated Press poll just to reach No. 1 in the country made the showing all the more impressive.

Big man Zach Edey was unstoppable down low, and Purdue earned the No. 1 seed in the East Region.

Its national championship hopes came to a shocking end with a loss to No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson in the first round.

Marquette was the No. 2 seed in that region after Smart led the Golden Eagles to a 29-7 mark and regular-season and conference tournament titles in the Big East. He was named the conference's Coach of the Year, continuing a successful career that has included stops with VCU and Texas.

Unfortunately for the Golden Eagles, their time in the Big Dance also came to a quick end when they lost to seventh-seeded Michigan State in the second round.

Houston also went home earlier than expected with a Sweet 16 loss to Miami as the top seed in the Midwest bracket.

Yet it was another successful campaign for the Cougars under Sampson, as they took home the American Athletic Conference regular-season championship before losing to Memphis in the conference tournament title game.

Sampson has been with Houston for nine seasons and now has four AAC regular-season championships, a Final Four and a 232-74 record for a program he has built into a modern-day powerhouse ahead of its move to the Big 12.

Tang's Wildcats will be waiting for the Cougars in the Big 12.

Kansas State hired its head coach just last year, and he wasted no time finding immediate success. The team went 26-10, reached the top five in the AP poll at one point and tallied a number of notable wins over Kansas, Texas, Baylor, TCU and Iowa State.

It also found success in the Big Dance and advanced to the Elite Eight as the No. 3 seed of the East Region. Even though a loss to Florida Atlantic prevented the program from reaching its fifth Final Four, it was still quite a way for Tang to start his head-coaching career.

And now he has the award to prove it.

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