Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
You usually have to spend a fair amount of time working your way up the ranks before you land a job as the head coach of a college basketball team. However, there have been some exceptions to that rule, and Metta World Peace is angling to become the latest one after throwing his hat in the ring for the job Jerome Tang was recently forced out of at Kansas State.
Fans of the men’s basketball team at Kansas State were forced to endure close to two decades of mediocrity stretching back to the start of the 1990s before Frank Martin was able to right the ship after being hired in 2007.
He was able to lead the Wildcats to the Elite Eight just three years after taking over (the second of four times they punched their ticket to March Madness before he was poached by South Carolina in 2012). His replacement, Bruce Weber, was able to replicate that feat in 2018 before things took a severe turn for the worse a couple of years later, which led to the university tapping Jerome Tang to take over.
He became the third consecutive Kansas State coach to lead them to the Elite Eight when he did so during his very first season in 2023, but it was all downhill from there. That also marked the only time the Wildcats made the NCAA Tournament while Tang was in charge, as he was fired in the middle of his fourth season as part of what is shaping up to be a messy divorce.
Associate coach Matthew Driscoll earned a promotion to the interim role, but there’s no telling who will be named to the position on a permanent basis. It’s hard to believe it will be a man with no head coaching experience and literally no connection to the university, but that hasn’t stopped Metta World Peace from trying to enter the conversation.
Metta World Peace probably won’t be the next coach at Kansas State, but that hasn’t stopped him from shooting his shot
Metta World Peace was still known as Ron Artest when he headed to St. John’s to play college basketball before being selected by the Bulls with the 16th overall pick in the 1999 NBA Draft.
The fiery forward ended up spending 17 years in the league before playing his final game for the Lakers in 2017. He worked as a player development coach for their G League team the following season, but as far as I can tell, that seems to be both the first and last entry on his coaching résumé.
However, that hasn’t stopped him from expressing his interest in the job at Kansas State, as he said he was eyeing Tang’s former role shortly after the skipper was kicked to the curb.
Kansas State Head Coach Job is one I think is very interesting for me.
I’m so excited about the progress I’ve made in developing into a no brainer head coach .
— Coach Metta (@MettaWorld37) February 19, 2026
It’s very, very hard to believe there’s mutual interest given his less-than-impressive background and total lack of connection to Kansas State, but it wouldn’t be the first time a school has taken a chance on a former NBA player who’s never coached at the college level.
However, guys like Jerry Stackhouse, Juwan Howard, and Patrick Ewing had a fair amount of experience working as assistants in the pros before getting a shot at the college level. Penny Hardaway also won a state championship at Memphis East High School right before he was hired by his alma mater (although it has since been forced to forfeit the title over recruiting violations under his watch), but I can’t think of any others that match Artest’s sheer lack of work history.
As a result, we probably aren’t going to see him in Manhattan next season, but I can’t blame him for trying.