Kansas State Men’s Basketball Coach Jerome Tang: ‘This Season is Not Over’
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Kansas State men’s basketball coach Jerome Tang didn’t want to hear that the Wildcats’ season is figuratively over at 0-5 in the Big 12.
Tang’s comments were at a postgame news conference Saturday night after K-State’s difficult, 84-83 loss at Oklahoma State. K-State has two home games this week:Tuesday vs. Utah, and Saturday vs. rival Kansas.
“This is not a reflection time and this season is not over,” Tang said. “We have high-character dudes and when you have high-character dudes then there is always hope moving forward.
“We’re going to be a better team next week than we are today. We’ll be a better team tomorrow than we are today.
“Nobody’s reflecting on the situation. We’re thinking about how do we get better, how do we improve.
“If you’re not a part of the ‘how do we improve’ we don’t want you on the bandwagon. Don’t want you there because it’s going to get better and we’re going to improve.
“The goal for us is just to win. If you do all the things that allow you a chance to win, then there’s a reward at the end. We’re not thinking about that [NCAA Tournament]. What I know is we have time.”
Foul loss for K-State
Kansas State plays host to Utah (9-9, 0-5) on Tuesday night at 7 CT (CBS Sports Network) in what K-State is calling a “Doom After Dark” game. The Utes won their first Big 12 game Saturday over visiting TCU, 82-79.
While the Utes look to build off that first conference win, the Wildcats are looking to break into the conference win column. If Tang’s words are true about the Wildcats’ season not being over, struggling Utah is a timely opponent.
The Wildcats (9-9, 0-5 Big 12) were close to winning their first conference game in Stillwater on Saturday. They rallied from a 10-point, second-half deficit. They led, 67-64, down the stretch. They went ahead, 83-81, on a basket from leading scorer P.J. Haggerty with 49 seconds to play.
Oklahoma State then missed two shots but got an offensive rebound and a held ball that set up the three winning foul shots by Vyctorius Miller with 2.8 seconds to play.
Haggerty, who averages 22.8 points per game, has scored 20 or more points 13 times with double figures in all 18 games. He is the first Wildcat to open a season with 18 consecutive games in double figures since Jacob Pullen in 2010-11.
Against Oklahoma State (14-4, 2-3 Big 12), the Wildcats won the rebounding battle for the first time in five Big 12 games. The margin was only 39-37, but it was a plus.
K-State was plagued by fouls. Oklahoma State made 20 foul shots (20-of-24) to K-State’s two (2-of-5). This in a one-point game. K-State committed 20 fouls to Oklahoma State’s 10.
Lessons learned moving forward
“I just have to be more mature when I’m out there,” K-State senior forward Khamari McGriff said in a postgame news conference. “Lot of immature fouls, late contact. Just stuff that I can control.”
Kansas State commits more personal fouls than any team in the Big 12, averaging 20.5 per game. Cutting down on fouls has to be a Wildcats’ priority.
“We have to control what we can control,” Tang said. “We can control how we move our feet and play with our chests and not slap and not pick up dumb fouls.
“I think Khamari will be the first one to tell you that there’s a lot of things that he can do better defensively that will not put us in that position when he’s on the floor.
“We were plus-8 when he was in the game tonight especially there in the second half where he was rolling. They couldn’t guard him.
“We tell the guys all the time, we can make up two points, but we can’t make up a foul, so we’ve got to control the things that we can control.”
Improvement shooting the ball
K-State has had issues shooting in conference games. But against the Cowboys, K-State was 33-of-66 from floor (50 percent), and 15-of-34 from distance (44.1 percent). Distance shooting plagued K-State in losses to No. 10 BYU (14.3 percent), and No. 1 Arizona (22.2 percent).
“Losers blame other things, other people,” Tang said. “We’re not losers. We’re winners. So, we’re going to look at ourselves in the mirror and figure out how we got to get better and what we need to do.
“We’re going to correct it, and we’re close. I’m excited about the next thing that we have to do.”
Kansas State is getting closer and closer to breaking through with a Big 12 victory. Each game seems to bring out a different issue the Wildcats have to address.
“Well, we’re playing with energy, effort and enthusiasm, first of all, and then we’re really sharing the ball,” Tang said.
“There’s been some great ball movement out there and as we keep doing that, we’re going to get the right shots.
“We just have to cut down on our turnovers [16 for K-State; 7 for Oklahoma State]. We’re rebounding better. We’re more physical.
“Rebounding in the first few games in the Big 12, there was such a rebounding disparity that it didn’t even give us a chance. And now we’re giving ourselves a chance. And so now we got to take the next step.”
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Chuck Bausman is a writer for Kansas State on SI. Chuck formerly was the Executive Sports Editor of the Philadelphia Daily News, Executive Sports Editor of the Courier-Post in South Jersey and Sports Copy Editor for the Detroit Free Press. He has been a Big Ten enthusiast for nearly forever. He learned how to cuss by watching Philly sports. You can reach Chuck at: bausmac@icloud.com