Jerome Tang explains why K-State players ran stairs a day after ‘baffling’ loss
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Tang had players run Bramlage stairs ~70 times after the 91-62 loss.
- K-State scheduled multiple tough practices and extra cardio before Houston.
- Tang cited poor effort, called it 'baffling,' and warned about uniform privileges.
The Kansas State men’s basketball team didn’t waste any time preparing for its next game.
One day after K-State suffered a 91-62 home loss to Cincinnati — and head coach Jerome Tang angrily said his players “do not deserve to wear this uniform” — the Wildcats were back at Bramlage Coliseum for a 6 a.m. practice.
Well, practice may not be the best word for what they did on Thursday morning. This sounded more like a punishment.
“They learned every step of Bramlage Coliseum very well,” Tang said during his weekly radio show.
Tang said the K-State basketball players ran stairs for so long that they went from the floor to the “top of Bramlage” around 70 times. Then they met for another practice at 2:30 p.m. and “got after it.”
“Neither one of them was very easy,” Tang said of the two sessions. “It was very, very challenging ... but they went along with it and then came back this evening and got after it. After some of the things we did, we were like, ‘If you gave that effort yesterday, we wouldn’t be in this situation.’”
Tang said he will continue pushing the Wildcats on Friday. Another 6 a.m. practice is scheduled in Manhattan, and an evening practice is scheduled after they arrive in Houston.
The Wildcats will face the No. 3 Cougars at 3 p.m. Saturday at Fertitta Center.
It will be interesting to see how fresh or tired K-State’s players look in that game following back-to-back days of extra cardio work. But Tang thinks a string of difficult practices will help his team.
The strategy that K-State has used in other games hasn’t been working, as evidenced by the team’s 10-14 record. The Wildcats have played their worst basketball lately and are tied for last place in the Big 12 standings at 1-10.
Tang said he didn’t see a blowout loss to Cincinnati coming. So much so, that he described the result as “baffling.”
“I was definitely frustrated and embarrassed,” Tang said. “I was caught by surprise. I mean, if you would have been in our last two practices and in the building for the game we gave away at TCU, it was so unexpected. I was baffled.”
The effort (or lack therof) that K-State displayed is what annoyed Tang the most. That’s why he was highly critical of his players afterward.
“You have got to give Cincinnati credit,” he said. “They’re a good basketball team, but they’re not 30 points better than we are. Not on our home court. When you let good teams get easy shots and just move the ball around and there’s no resistance (that’s what happens). We worked so hard on being more active on the ball and knowing that we needed to cause turnovers.
“Again, it was just baffling to see our effort and what we did. Even in timeouts, there was no emotion. Nobody got mad at each other. No one had an answer. It was just blank stares.”
After witnessing that, Tang decided to make practices as hard as possible on his players before they head to Houston.
“It may not result in wins,” Tang said, “but it will result in a better effort on the floor. Or they don’t get the chance to wear the uniform.”
This story was originally published February 12, 2026 at 8:13 PM with the headline "Jerome Tang explains why K-State players ran stairs a day after ‘baffling’ loss."