Part 1 of a series. I'll also cover offensive and defensive numbers later this week. Much of this I talked about with @scottwildcat on the Boscoe's Boys that was posted this morning.
While I'm sure he'll have plenty of traits that will be unique, it's reasonable to look back at Coach Tang's 19 seasons at Baylor to get a glimpse of what we might possibly see in Manhattan. The recruiting went through some evolutions during that time span, ending up with a blended roster of transfers and solid high school recruits that won a national title. We don't know exactly how that will translate to Kansas State, but we can get an idea of the blueprint Coach Tang has to learn from.
Landing high level high school talent early
With the mess of probation and a program coming off an inhouse murder, it's no surprise that early recruiting was difficult for the Bears, but by year 3 they were landing top 100, 4 star talent. The 2005 class of Curtis Jerrells, Henry Dugat, and Kevin Rogers showed that Coach Drew and Coach Tang could bring in high quality players, even though the next season Baylor wouldn't be allowed to play a single non-conference game. That started a run of peak high school recruiting for the Bears and by year 4 Drew had Baylor in the NCAA tournament. Including that 2005 class, the next 9 classes brought in 23 top 150 players (according to rivals.com), 14 players in the top 75, and 3 in the top 10 (Perry Jones, Quincy Miller, and Isaiah Austin) out of 27 total recruits. Over half of the guys brought in ranked in the top 75 over a 9 year run.
That also led to their worst period of retention at Baylor. The 2009 through 2013 classes brought in 17 high school recruits, 9 in the top 75 and 3 in the top 10. While they were able to keep all 3 top 10 recruits, they lost 8 of those 17 players to transfer, nearly 50% of their high school recruits. While it's hard to say if the level of recruit was tied to the attrition, it did cause them to change their focus over the next 7 classes.
The JUCO and transfer era
While their first decade at Baylor for Drew and Tang did bring in high level transfers, namely Ekpe Udoh (one year, NBA draft pick), Pierre Jackson (two years, NBA draft pick), and Brady Heslip (one of the Big 12's best shooters), the focus really shifted after the 2013 class, also the tail end of really high level high school recruiting. That's not to say that the next round of high school recruiting was poor as the succeeding 7 classes still produced 9 Top 150 recruits and 2 in the top 100 out of 14 players brought into the program. However, the numbers of transfers and JUCO players increased substantially. Those recruits equaled the number of high school recruits and there were many difference making players in that group, including a pair of guards and a forward that played key roles for their national championship team.
That was then followed up with last year's class, which brought back some high level high school recruits. All 3 from the 2021 class were 4 star players, and though Jeremy Sochan wasn't ranked in the top 50, Kendall Brown was the first 5 star, top 15 recruit in 9 years and Langston Love was ranked in the top 60.
Below is a summary of Baylor's last 19 classes and last 10 classes compared to K-State's last 16 going back to Huggins' first and only class at K-State. Note, all 4 of K-State's 5 star recruits were in Huggins' and Frank's first 4 classes. (And one of those was Jason Bennett). Even including K-State's peak recruiting with Huggins and Dalonte Hill, K-State isn't in the same ballpark with Baylor. While I'm not sure that K-State will match that level of success, it seems highly likely the bar for recruiting will be raised and as Coach Tang says "we will definitely upgrade the talent".
Retention of players
The next part of recruiting is recruiting your own players back to the program and maintaining the roster. Like I mentioned above, Baylor did have a 5 year period where they had a retention rate only slightly over 50% with high school recruits, yet they still kept key high school guys like Cory Jefferson, AJ Walton, Perry Jones (5 star), Quincy Miller (5 star), Isaiah Austin (5 star), Rico Gathers, Taurean Prince, Johnathan Motley, and Ish Wainright. So even in the midst of their worst attrition, they hit really well on the players that stayed in the program. No matter which type of recruit you look at, Baylor's attrition has been stellar.
We know the story of the Bruce tenure where the retention rate was under 50%, but even Frank's retention rate was also just over 50%. So we're looking at a stark comparison; Baylor built a culture where over 75% of recruits were retained while K-State is not even at 50% over nearly the same time period. It's no wonder that K-State has been the more inconsistent program, especially over the last decade. Building a culture where players want to stay and contribute will be one of the biggest things aspects I want to see in this new era of K-State basketball and that only became more difficult in the transfer era.
Also note the percentage of players brought into Baylor that were NBA draft picks, nearly 12% during 19 seasons. That doesn't include players that have gotten some shots in the NBA. 2 of K-State's draft picks were the two hit recruiting wonder of Beasley and Walker, plus Wes Iwundu under Bruce.
Finally, here is a list of all Baylor recruits from the last 19 years to give you an idea of the players Coach Tang helped bring into Baylor. It gives you another visual to see the shift in recruiting focus and the balance of classes. There are no guarantees in recruiting, but if Coach Tang and his staff can even approach this level of talent K-State basketball will be looking at a fun future.
While I'm sure he'll have plenty of traits that will be unique, it's reasonable to look back at Coach Tang's 19 seasons at Baylor to get a glimpse of what we might possibly see in Manhattan. The recruiting went through some evolutions during that time span, ending up with a blended roster of transfers and solid high school recruits that won a national title. We don't know exactly how that will translate to Kansas State, but we can get an idea of the blueprint Coach Tang has to learn from.
Landing high level high school talent early
With the mess of probation and a program coming off an inhouse murder, it's no surprise that early recruiting was difficult for the Bears, but by year 3 they were landing top 100, 4 star talent. The 2005 class of Curtis Jerrells, Henry Dugat, and Kevin Rogers showed that Coach Drew and Coach Tang could bring in high quality players, even though the next season Baylor wouldn't be allowed to play a single non-conference game. That started a run of peak high school recruiting for the Bears and by year 4 Drew had Baylor in the NCAA tournament. Including that 2005 class, the next 9 classes brought in 23 top 150 players (according to rivals.com), 14 players in the top 75, and 3 in the top 10 (Perry Jones, Quincy Miller, and Isaiah Austin) out of 27 total recruits. Over half of the guys brought in ranked in the top 75 over a 9 year run.
That also led to their worst period of retention at Baylor. The 2009 through 2013 classes brought in 17 high school recruits, 9 in the top 75 and 3 in the top 10. While they were able to keep all 3 top 10 recruits, they lost 8 of those 17 players to transfer, nearly 50% of their high school recruits. While it's hard to say if the level of recruit was tied to the attrition, it did cause them to change their focus over the next 7 classes.
The JUCO and transfer era
While their first decade at Baylor for Drew and Tang did bring in high level transfers, namely Ekpe Udoh (one year, NBA draft pick), Pierre Jackson (two years, NBA draft pick), and Brady Heslip (one of the Big 12's best shooters), the focus really shifted after the 2013 class, also the tail end of really high level high school recruiting. That's not to say that the next round of high school recruiting was poor as the succeeding 7 classes still produced 9 Top 150 recruits and 2 in the top 100 out of 14 players brought into the program. However, the numbers of transfers and JUCO players increased substantially. Those recruits equaled the number of high school recruits and there were many difference making players in that group, including a pair of guards and a forward that played key roles for their national championship team.
That was then followed up with last year's class, which brought back some high level high school recruits. All 3 from the 2021 class were 4 star players, and though Jeremy Sochan wasn't ranked in the top 50, Kendall Brown was the first 5 star, top 15 recruit in 9 years and Langston Love was ranked in the top 60.
Below is a summary of Baylor's last 19 classes and last 10 classes compared to K-State's last 16 going back to Huggins' first and only class at K-State. Note, all 4 of K-State's 5 star recruits were in Huggins' and Frank's first 4 classes. (And one of those was Jason Bennett). Even including K-State's peak recruiting with Huggins and Dalonte Hill, K-State isn't in the same ballpark with Baylor. While I'm not sure that K-State will match that level of success, it seems highly likely the bar for recruiting will be raised and as Coach Tang says "we will definitely upgrade the talent".
Retention of players
The next part of recruiting is recruiting your own players back to the program and maintaining the roster. Like I mentioned above, Baylor did have a 5 year period where they had a retention rate only slightly over 50% with high school recruits, yet they still kept key high school guys like Cory Jefferson, AJ Walton, Perry Jones (5 star), Quincy Miller (5 star), Isaiah Austin (5 star), Rico Gathers, Taurean Prince, Johnathan Motley, and Ish Wainright. So even in the midst of their worst attrition, they hit really well on the players that stayed in the program. No matter which type of recruit you look at, Baylor's attrition has been stellar.
We know the story of the Bruce tenure where the retention rate was under 50%, but even Frank's retention rate was also just over 50%. So we're looking at a stark comparison; Baylor built a culture where over 75% of recruits were retained while K-State is not even at 50% over nearly the same time period. It's no wonder that K-State has been the more inconsistent program, especially over the last decade. Building a culture where players want to stay and contribute will be one of the biggest things aspects I want to see in this new era of K-State basketball and that only became more difficult in the transfer era.
Also note the percentage of players brought into Baylor that were NBA draft picks, nearly 12% during 19 seasons. That doesn't include players that have gotten some shots in the NBA. 2 of K-State's draft picks were the two hit recruiting wonder of Beasley and Walker, plus Wes Iwundu under Bruce.
Finally, here is a list of all Baylor recruits from the last 19 years to give you an idea of the players Coach Tang helped bring into Baylor. It gives you another visual to see the shift in recruiting focus and the balance of classes. There are no guarantees in recruiting, but if Coach Tang and his staff can even approach this level of talent K-State basketball will be looking at a fun future.
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