Why Bruce Weber is switching to a tougher coaching approach with K-State players
When Kansas State basketball players gathered in the team’s video room to review Saturday’s 73-63 loss to Iowa State with Bruce Weber, they encountered a different coach than they have grown accustomed to this season.
He highlighted negatives instead of positives. He challenged individuals instead of “mollycoddling” them. He shared criticism instead of praise.
Weber was showing off his harder side. The Wildcats might have to get used to it.
“I think I have decided I am going to coach them harder now, to be honest,” Weber said on Monday. “For a while there I was trying to be (nice and say), ‘You are OK, we’re fine, give you hugs and kisses and all that stuff.’ I literally have kissed some guys in practice, just trying to make them feel good. From now on, I am going to coach them hard. If they don’t like it they don’t like it. That’s fine, I am going to try to do it the way I know and the way I think you can be successful.”
This change in coaching approach comes at a potentially critical juncture in the season. The Wildcats (9-14, 2-8 Big 12) have likely already lost too many games to dream about reaching a postseason tournament, and a double-digit loss to another middling opponent like the Cyclones served as a reminder of just how disappointing things have gone for K-State this year.
But it does have a winnable game coming up against Oklahoma State at 8 p.m. Tuesday in Bramlage Coliseum. The Cowboys (11-12, 1-9) are in last place of the conference standings.
A victory could provide the Wildcats with some needed momentum as they enter the remainder of the schedule. A loss could shake whatever confidence they have left.
With a young roster, Weber has mostly used a positive approach this season in hopes of keeping the team’s spirit up. Now he’s ready to try something new.
“You try to help them with the psychological part,” Weber said. “You hug them, you kiss them, you tell them you’re OK. You’re just trying to keep their confidence boosted. That’s why yesterday we watched film and I said, ‘This is the truth: you have to get back on defense, you have got to do this’ instead of maybe mollycoddling them a little bit.
“I was just trying to help them through tough times. It didn’t work. Now, I am going to go back. This is what it’s about. We have got to play hard. In our league the best teams are tough … If we are going to make any progress we have got to be mentally tougher as it goes on.”
K-State fans will probably know early on against Oklahoma State if Weber’s change in approach had a positive impact on the Wildcats.
They have fallen impossibly behind in each of their past two games against Baylor and Iowa State. Allowing the Cyclones to race to a 21-point lead before the midway point of the first half felt like rock bottom.
K-State battled back to within four points in the second half, but it didn’t have the skill or proper mindset to steal the game, even with Iowa State star Tyrese Haliburton on the bench and now out for the season because of a fractured left wrist.
Something needs to change. Weber’s approach already has.
This story was originally published February 10, 2020 at 4:20 PM with the headline "Why Bruce Weber is switching to a tougher coaching approach with K-State players."