Jerome Tang promises ‘different’ mindset from himself and K-State ahead of TCU game
For Jerome Tang, the aftermath of Kansas State’s 69-66 loss to Texas over the weekend may been been his most disappointing moment as a head coach.
Tang raced through the postgame handshake line with a scowl on his face and then described the result as completely unacceptable. Watching the Wildcats blow a 14-point lead in front of a sellout crowd at Bramlage Coliseum stung him more than any of his previous losses at K-State.
“I want us to live with this feeling for the next 48 hours,” Tang said, “because our fans deserve better than what I did as a head coach and what we did as a staff and what we did as players on the floor in that second half. We will be different on Tuesday night.”
The term different can mean many different things.
Does he want the Wildcats to play with more urgency in their next game against TCU at 8 p.m. on Tuesday? Does he want K-State to try and score in alternate ways or play a different style of defense? Maybe he has something else planned entirely, or perhaps he wants all of the above.
One thing is for sure: No. 12 K-State (18-5, 6-4 Big 12) needs a win against short-handed No. 17 TCU (17-6, 6-4 Big 12) to remain in the mix for a conference championship and to snap a three-game losing streak in league play.
How can the Wildcats get back to playing the way they were before their recent skid?
Three primary things come to mind.
Keyontae Johnson stays out of foul trouble
Ever since he arrived at K-State, senior forward Keyontae Johnson has been Mr. Consistent on the basketball court.
The Florida transfer has scored at least 12 points in all 23 games he has played with the Wildcats and he is currently averaging 18.1 points and 7.7 rebounds. Few players in the Big 12, if not the country, have been better than him this season.
Still, he has let the Wildcats down in recent games by routinely committing early fouls. He picked up two quick ones against Texas and was trapped in foul trouble for the remainder of the day, which relegated him to just 25 minutes of action. He also flirted with foul trouble against Kansas and spent more time than he would have liked on the bench against Iowa State.
K-State lost all three of those games.
Avoiding fouls is a priority for Johnson moving forward.
“I need to let myself be more in the plays,” Johnson said. “When they cut I need to not reach in and get the foul at the last minute. I just need to let them go get the layup, because me fouling out is helping other teams go on runs. They all seem to make big runs when I’m in foul trouble. I just need to try and limit my aggressiveness early and try not to foul.”
Forty minutes of energy
When Nae’Qwan Tomlin drained a pair of free throws to give K-State a 36-22 lead with 30 seconds remaining in the first half on Saturday it seemed like the Wildcats might coast to victory.
Their odds of winning soared to 91.6% at that moment, according to college basketball statistician Bart Torvik, and the Longhorns appeared doomed. But things changed quickly in the second half when Texas played with visibly more passion and surged ahead 46-45 with 12:05 remaining.
Texas grabbed every important loose ball in the second half and found a way to win.
Perhaps that was a good learning experience for K-State to never let its foot off the gas against a Big 12 opponent.
“They came out and were just way more physical than we were and more aggressive than we were,” Tang said. “I don’t know what the mindset was, but we talked about coming out and owning the paint and it got flipped the other way. ... We let them set the tone for the second half.”
Win the turnover margin
This final change will be of the utmost importance against TCU.
The last time the Wildcats played the Horned Frogs they gave the ball away 20 times and let Jamie Dixon’s team go 25-of-33 on shots at the rim, a result of being blessed with an abundance of fast-break opportunities.
K-State lost 19 turnovers against Texas, with point guard Markquis Nowell uncharacteristically contributing six of them. But he also had six turnovers against TCU in their first meeting, while Johnson had seven.
When Tang talks about playing “different” that seems like a great place to start.
This story was originally published February 6, 2023 at 1:32 PM with the headline "Jerome Tang promises ‘different’ mindset from himself and K-State ahead of TCU game."