Uncertainty Rules the Future of Kansas State Men’s Basketball Coaches and Players
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Kansas State interim men’s basketball coach Matthew Driscoll used the occasion of the final regular-season game to talk about an aspect of a coaching change that goes beyond the X’s and O’s.
Driscoll talked about the human feelings and wreckage left behind when a coaching staff is about to lose their jobs. Uncertainty rules their days and nights.
Same with the players. Will they stay at K-State? Will they be welcomed by the new staff? Their futures are less certain than they were weeks ago.
One day, former head coach Jerome Tang is dancing in the stands with the fans after a win. Soon afterward, Tang was gone. After he was fired, his assistant coaches were left with an unknown future, tasked with finding new jobs, new schools for the kids. Packing up and moving on.
“I think the people who are getting the most overlooked in this whole thing is the staff,” Driscoll said in a postgame news conference after the Wildcats lost at rival Kansas, 102-85, on Saturday in the Sunflower Showdown. K-State finishes its regular season 12-19,3-15 in the Big 12. The Wildcats open the Big 12 Tournament Tuesday against BYU in Kansas City. KU is 22-9, 12-6.
“Like on a daily basis, it’s extremely difficult for what they have to do and the way in which they have to do it.
“And the sand’s running out and pretty soon the keys aren’t going to work. And now you’ve got to figure out what you’re going to do with your family and multiple of them with little ones.
“And I’ve been there. I’ve had two little boys and I’ve been there. But the staff has been resilient as the players.
“They’ve done an incredible job making sure these guys are as much on-point as possible we could possibly be. And then in-game decisions, in-game strategies, scouting, all those things that are necessary. I don’' love this and I don’t want to do this.
“This is not what I want to do.
“And I’m grateful that they understand that and they keep giving me information and feedback and how we got to do this and how we got to do that.
“And I’m not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. I make mistakes, but those guys get overlooked. And I want to make sure that everyone knows that our staff, they deserve a lot, a lot, a lot of credit for what’s transpired in these last 2-3 weeks and I’m grateful to be beside them.”
Jerome Tang fired
Tang was fired on Feb. 15, after comments he made criticizing his team after the Wildcats lost at home to Cincinnati. Driscoll, who had previous head-coaching experience, tried to salvage something out of an otherwise dismal season. Under Driscoll, K-State went 2-5.
Driscoll has been around the block in the coaching game. He knows the rules and how the game is played. Successful coaches remain unemployed. Unsuccessful coaches, generally, do not.
“I think the marketability has been the most troubling because everything you see is under the microscope,” Driscoll said.
“So today you’re on national TV on CBS. So some of these guys are playing for contracts. They’re playing for contracts either next season in the NCAA.
“They’re playing for contracts maybe professionally and[the staff is trying to get a job so there’s so many different things where marketability is focused on and what you do is always going to be there because the video doesn’t lie.
“So that’s been for me personally — I’m 61 years old and I’m grateful because I’m frugal and because I’m a little bit awkward. I can go back to my residence that’s two blocks away from the Atlantic Ocean and I can figure out life.
“But for others, it’s not like that. And so sitting in my seat and being the person that I am, that part it’s been the hardest part on a daily basis.
“The understanding about where they are, where they’re going, where my mind was when I had two little ones. And we’re all gonna end up fine, and we’re all gonna end up in a good place because God’s got greater plans for all of us.
“However, it's tough. And so, I'm trying to navigate that. I’m trying to navigate the players where they are. You know, do guys not want to play? Do they want to play? Do they want to get in? Do they not want to get in? Do they this? Do they that?
“You know, I told P.J. [Haggerty] at the end of the game [the] reason I’m taking you out like the last thing I want is you to trip accidentally or get hurt accidentally and next thing you know your arm is back now you can’t play Tuesday.
“So I might have been born yesterday but I wasn't born last night.
“And so all that stuff has been really difficult to navigate because … in the old days it’d probably be way different but you have no leverages.”
Game details
Haggerty and Nate Johnson each scored 21 against KU. Khamari McGriff had 17 and Andrej Kostic had 11. Darryn Peterson, who could selected at the top of the NBA Draft, led the Jayhawks with 27 points on 10-of-15 shooting.
Kansas’ bench outscored K-State’s, 56-14. The Wildcats got to within 11 points in the second half but got no closer.
K-State will be the 15-seed in the Big 12 Tournament and BYU will be the 10-seed. Tuesday’s game will begin at 6 p.m. CDT.
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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