Iowa State lands Kansas State’s Taj Manning out of NCAA transfer portal
Iowa State will be bringing a familiar opponent into the program to become a Cyclone. Taj Manning has committed to play under TJ Otzelberger for the 2026-2027 season out of the NCAA transfer portal , he announced. Manning spent the first four years of his career in Manhattan at Kansas State .
But he now makes the move to Ames for what should be a final year of eligibility. Manning took a redshirt as a true freshman before getting onto the court sporadically the next two seasons. Head coach Jerome Tang finally saw Manning step into a bigger role this past year, getting action in 30 games and starting 17 of them.
Career-high production followed, as Manning averaged 4. 2 points and 5. 1 rebounds.
“I’m so proud of Taj Manning,” Tang said of Manning during the 2023-2024 season. “The most of what I hope we do is develop men and teach them how to be great people first and love their teammates and care about the team more than they care about themselves. This week coming back, minutes in practice were cut down, and Taj could’ve stood on the sideline and sulked.
“Instead, he sent a text message to Anthony Winchester, who had the scout, and asked him if he could be on the scout team. You have a scholarship guy volunteering to be on the scout team to help the team in any way he can. Because of that he was ready for this (moment).