Michigan Basketball: 11 candidates to replace Juwan Howard as Head Coach

Jerome Tang

The Wolverines can make any number of big moves with this coaching hire. After what happened with Howard we’re not exactly looking at assistants they could hire, focusing only on coaches with head coaching experience. Still, there’s no reason not to name someone who was both a fantastic assistant and with brief, but great head coaching experience under his belt.

Tang fits that bill, getting his career started as a high school coach in Texas. He was hired by Scott Drew soon after taking the Baylor gig in 2003 and spent the next 19 years helping Drew rebuild basketball culture in Waco. Tang was on staff as Baylor won the national title in 2021. One year later Tang took his first collegiate head coaching job at Kansas State and shocked the nation by leading the Wildcats to the Elite Eight in his first season. Year two wasn’t as successful, with the Wildcats right on the bubble, but Tang has certainly made an impact.

While this may seem as a strange move on the surface, there are rumors of unrest between Tang and Kansas State’s athletic administration, making this kind of move more possible after just two seasons in Manhattan. It’s hard to judge someone after just two years as a head coach, though Tang was immediately successful at Kansas State and did play a significant role in Baylor’s rise. Michigan would be getting a phenomenal man to lead their program and engineer success, even if Tang has never worked east of the Mississippi.