23 February 2024
MANHATTAN (KSNT) – K-State head men’s basketball coach Jerome Tang is neither panicking nor waving the white flag on the 2023-24 season.
The Wildcats have lost seven of their last eight games and sit at just 5-8 in conference play, after starting Big 12 play 4-1.
“We’re not going to stop,” Tang said. “We’re going to keep trying to figure this thing out because we’re real close. When you stack losses together it doesn’t seem like you’re close, but that’s why we don’t look at it like six games. We look at it like one game, what can we improve? How are we getting better moving forward? We’re close.”
Tang, who is in year 21 of coaching college basketball and year two with Kansas State, has seen teams change the trajectory of their seasons in late February.
“Somebody is going to do it, right?” Tang said. “Somebody in the country is not on the bubble right now, or not in the field or is in a struggle and they’re going to get hot… Somebody in the country is going to do it, why not be the ‘Cats?”
Tang has repeatedly voiced his belief that nine conference wins would make Kansas State worthy of an NCAA tournament bid. To reach that mark, K-State would need to finish Big 12 play the same way it started: 4-1.
“We try, all the time, to play with love joy and freedom,” Tang said. “We play a game. I know like winning is real important and I want to see these guys win on the scoreboard but we try not to have them feel the other pressures… You can’t play the game like that. It’s not like we have nothing to lose because we got a lot to play for. But, I don’t want to put extra pressure on them or make it harder than it needs to be.”
Kansas State does stay home for three of its final five games. The ‘Cats host BYU on Saturday, Feb. 24 before a quick turnaround to play West Virginia, also in Manhattan, on Monday, Feb. 26.