NEW YORK — One day last spring, in the weeks after he first moved into the basketball offices at Kansas State, Jerome Tang received a highlight clip from assistant coach Jareem Dowling. It was only two minutes long, the level was junior college, and the skinny kid in the middle of the action had been playing organized basketball for fewer than four years. But Tang wasn’t exactly in a position to be picky — his roster included just two scholarship players from a team that finished 14-17 last season — so he fired off a quick reply.
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Yes.
Of course, there was still the recruiting part of the equation, so Tang and assistant coach Ulric Maligi headed to Chipola College in Marianna, Fla., where Nae’Qwan Tomlin, a 6-foot-10 forward from New York City, was hiding in plain sight. Tang knew the basics of Tomlin’s background, but he wanted to know more, so he sat down and asked Tomlin to share his story. Tomlin told Tang how he had grown up in Harlem, not far from the famed Rucker Park; how he spent his childhood playing basketball in the parks and on the playground but never for an organized team; how he had sprouted to 6-7 in the middle of high school and attempted to play his senior year but poor grades had left him academically ineligible.
The conversation kept going. Tang learned that Tomlin’s mother, Aisha Ismael, had roots in Trinidad, the Caribbean island where Tang was born. Tomlin learned that Tang had moved to St. Croix as a boy before moving to Texas and starting his own unlikely journey in basketball. When the visit was finally over, Tang called Dowling with an update: The conversation had ended with everyone in tears, he said, and Kansas State likely had another foundational piece for a program turnaround.
“He just wanted to know what I went through,” Tomlin said of Tang. “And when I told him, it was like an emotional connection.”
Thursday night, No. 3-seed Kansas State will play No. 7-seed Michigan State in the Sweet 16 at Madison Square Garden. The Wildcats are here because Tang, a former assistant at Baylor, has injected a program with energy and belief, because 5-8 point guard Markquis Nowell has grown into one of the top playmakers in the country, and because swingman Keyontae Johnson has crafted one of the best comebacks in college basketball. And yet, the team’s most improbable story might belong to Tomlin, who will take the court in his hometown just five years after having never taken the court, well, anywhere.
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“It’s a dream come true,” Tomlin said, “because growing up where I come from in Harlem … like, not every kid gets an opportunity like this.”
Nae’Qwan Tomlin’s entire basketball career before Kansas State was four seasons (three playing) at two junior colleges. (Jacob Kupferman / Getty Images)In his first season of Division I basketball, Tomlin is third on the team in scoring (10.3 points per game) and second in rebounds (5.8), and he remains the Wildcats’ most versatile defender, a rangy athlete with the body of a modern NBA forward and the feet of someone much, much shorter. Tang uses the descriptor “positionless,” which might speak to Tomlin’s long-term pro potential, while Dowling uses an adjective that works in any era: “Scary.”
“Like, holy crap, how much better can this dude be?” he said.
For now, the Wildcats are just hoping for a spark. Nowell and Johnson were third-team All-Americans, and Nowell delighted fans with his passing in the NCAA Tournament’s opening weekend, finishing with 27 points and nine assists in a 75-69 victory over Kentucky to set up a homecoming for the four New Yorkers on the roster. But the Wildcats have been at their best when a third man steps up, whether it be Tomlin or guard Desi Sills, and if K-State hopes to reach its first Elite Eight since 2018, it will likely need the best version of Tomlin against Michigan State.
The ceiling, of course, remains high. Tang regularly says Tomlin could be the most talented player he’s ever coached, and Dowling is quick to point out the long list of NBA players who passed through the Baylor program during the two decades Tang spent as a top lieutenant to Scott Drew. Tomlin says he has long tried to compartmentalize such praise. It started five years ago when he started his fragile college career as a redshirt at Monroe Community College in Rochester, N.Y., and coaches told him how good he could be. It continued at Chipola, where Tomlin spent two seasons playing for former Southern Miss and Tennessee coach Donnie Tyndall. Tomlin says he possessed a strong foundation of skills from his days on the playground. But he lacked the court awareness and general basketball IQ that are built up over years and years of playing the game. He had to learn how to execute plays, how to play in a structure and defend as a team.
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“You have a lot of people tell you all the time that you’re good and stuff like that,” Tomlin said. “But I tried not to feed into that. I just wanted to get better every day. Me being what they call a ‘late bloomer.’ I just tried to use that as motivation.”
When Tomlin arrived on campus in the other Manhattan last year, his story quickly spread through the program. In preseason workouts, he showed the ability to defend all five spots on the floor. He became a perfect aerial target for Nowell’s lob passes. Sills, a fifth-year transfer, recalled being floored when he learned Tomlin had played organized basketball for as long as he’d played at Arkansas and Arkansas State.
“Man, that was shocking to me,” Sills said. “He’s 6-10, not playing basketball or nothing like that. Just chilling in New York City. Now what he’s doing after just starting basketball three or four years ago, playing high major … he can be one of the best players in college basketball if he do decide to come back.”
That part will come later (Tomlin has one season of eligibility remaining). For now, Tomlin is focused on what he calls a “business trip” back to his hometown. When he arrived Tuesday, he made a beeline uptown to say hi to family but quickly returned to the Wildcats’ home base in midtown. When Tomlin was a little kid, he recalled going to Madison Square Garden to see the circus. On Wednesday, he sat inside a locker room inside the historic arena before sweating through practice on the Garden floor. Five years ago, he said, he probably would not have believed something like this. But Tang and the Wildcats have made a habit of overachieving. Now they sit two victories from their first Final Four in 59 years.
For Tomlin, it’s evidence that anything is possible. It’s proof he made the right decision in believing in Tang.
“I just believed in what he saw,” Tomlin said, “and I wanted to be a part of it.”
(Top photo: Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)
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