According to the 2021 Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport [TIDES] Racial and Gender report card, which was released in March 2022, 24.3% of all head coaches were Black or African American.
The remaining Black coaches who will lead their teams into Sweet 16 games are Kelvin Sampson, University of Houston; Jerome Tang, Kansas State University; and Rodney Terry of Texas.
Terry is interim head coach of the Longhorns after taking over for the fired Chris Beard early in the season. Beard was dismissed after his girlfriend called police and claimed that her struck and bit her during an argument. He was arrested. She later recanted and no charges were filed.
Terry’s team and several former Longhorns are making it clear they want Terry to land the head coaching position.
“God’s great, and I’m so blessed to work with these guys,” Terry said following his team’s 71-66 victory over Penn State.
“I’m so proud of them and they’re a lot of fun to be around. We get our work in, we have fun and we’ve had an incredible journey.”
Tang’s K-State Wildcats were picked to finish last in the Big 12 Conference. Not only was he named Big 12 Coach of the Year his team’s magical season has stretched into the second week of the tournament.
Kansas State followed Texas to the Sweet 16 with a 75-69 win over college basketball blueblood Kentucky.
“We have a program that’s rich in tradition also,” Tang said after the Wildcats’ win. “You know, all those old dudes that played for Kentucky, they ain’t coming back. Tradition does not help you if you don’t go out there and play with some dudes. And we had more dudes than they did today.”
Sampson’s Cougars overcame foul trouble, and a 10-point halftime deficit to scrappy Auburn in a game in Birmingham, Alabama to reach the Sweet 16.
Following the 81-64 win, Sampson said, “The way we play was obviously not very evident in the first half.”
“I thought we were playing hard, but I didn’t think we were competing. There’s a big difference of playing hard versus competing. I think the biggest adjustment was in our attitude. Sometimes that’s the most important thing.”
The odds of a Black coach reaching the Final Four in Houston are increased because Sampson and Terry are both in the Midwest Regional in Kansas City.
The Cougars would be playing in their home city with a pair of wins, beginning with a 5:15 p.m. Friday match against Miami. Texas then plays Xavier at 7:45 p.m.
K-State takes on Michigan State at 4:30 p.m. Thursday in New York at Madison Square Garden.
The Reid Roundup
Jerome Tang, Kelvin Sampson, Purdue’s Matt Painter, and Marquette’s Shaka Smart are finalists for Naismith coach of the Year…Smart’s team lost a heartbreaker to Michigan State in its Round of 32 game. The final score of 69-60 was not indicative of how close the game was…Missouri was favored to defeat Princeton, but coach Dennis Gates’ Tigers were easily topped by the Ivy League’s Tigers 78-63…Mike Woodson’s Indiana Hoosiers also went quietly in an 86-69 beat down by Miami…Ed Cooley, who guided Providence to the NCAA Tournament before losing a first-round game to Kentucky 61-53, has been hired by Georgetown as head coach. Cooley replaces Patrick Ewing, who was dismissed last week after a disastrous 2022-23 season…A shout out to Mississippi’s women’s basketball head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin for her team’s stunning 54-49 upset of West Region Top Seed Stanford – on Stanford’s home court.
