Kansas State's Jerome Tang Says Team Is Learning To 'Handle Success'
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Kansas State coach Jerome Tang previously talked about how the team responds to winning instead of losing.
This message was amplified Tuesday night in their victory against Arizona State. The Wildcats opened up the game to a 15-point deficit before Tang called a timeout to regroup.
Kansas State is playing its best stretch of basketball this season, which likely feels unfamiliar after being on the losing end most of the year. Tang says the players need to get accustomed to consistently playing well and not getting complacent with their victories.
“For every thousand men that can handle adversity, there’s only one that can handle success," Tang said. "I told them, ‘We gotta show that we can handle success because we don’t look like we can handle it.’ They were hungrier, more aggressive, and more assertive. The word I had on the board was ‘attack,’ we were gonna attack four different areas, but we weren’t in attack mode."
Tang said this level of play didn't reflect their new identity, indicating Kansas State’s new self-standard.
“We’ve got a great group of guys," Tang said. "They’re bonding together and believing in each other, so it really wasn’t what I said in the huddle. It was them flipping their mindset and being the great teammates that they are.”
Coleman Hawkins echoed Tang's sentiments, saying Kansas State can't get content with where they are.
“My message to the guys today was don’t be satisfied," Hawkins said. "Can’t be satisfied with what we’ve done so far; we still have a lot more games to play.”
Jayden Armant is a graduate of the Howard University School of Communications and a contributor to Kansas State Wildcats on SI. He can be reached at jaydenshome14@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @jaydenarmant.
Jayden is a journalism school graduate of Howard University. He was the 2024 recipient of the Terez Paylor scholarship award. He previously worked at the Orlando Sentinel.
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