K-State coach Jerome Tang blasts team for playing with poor effort in loss at KU
Jerome Tang wasn’t happy about the way Kansas State handled itself during a 90-68 loss against rival Kansas on Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse.
In fact, he was downright angry.
The K-State basketball coach held nothing back during his postgame news conference when discussing the effort, or lack thereof, that the Wildcats played with in one of their most lopsided losses of the season.
“Man, they kicked our butts,” Tang said. “We didn’t deserve to win. We didn’t give an effort good enough to deserve a win. I am disappointed in that. The staff did an unbelievable job of putting together a game plan to give us a chance. But when the other team runs faster than you on every possession and cuts harder than you on every possession and has a little bit more fight and want-to than you do, these are the kind of results you have.”
It is extremely rare for Tang to make a statement like that following a loss.
Every other time the Wildcats have suffered defeat over the past two seasons he has gone out of his way to shield his players from criticism. He always points the finger at himself and asks fans to blame him, no matter what just transpired on the court.
But he decided to go in a different direction after this discouraging result, which all but ended any hope of K-State (17-13, 7-10 Big 12) earning an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament.
“This one is disappointing because I know how important it is to our fans,” Tang said. “And our effort didn’t match what our fans deserve. The results may not always come through. To put on a K-State uniform and to wear the purple you take on this ownership that I’m going to be the hardest working and most competitive, greedy group of people that anyone will ever come in contact with.
“You may not always come out on top, but it will never be because of a lack of effort. Tonight the effort wasn’t there, and that’s the thing that I’m disappointed in. This is not me being negative. This is me being truthful. These guys have to hear it.”
He wasn’t done.
“Nobody pays for average,” Tang said, “and they definitely don’t pay for below average. This is not who we are or what we’re about.”
K-State will try to bounce back from this loss in its next game against Iowa State on Saturday at Bramlage Coliseum. But it will need to play much better, and harder, than it did on Tuesday if it hopes to taste sweet victory against the Cyclones.
Just about everything that could go wrong for the Wildcats did go wrong in this game. Tylor Perry scored just two points, Cam Carter managed only three and Arthur Kaluma finished with 10. Add it all up, and they combined for 15 points on 24 shots.
When all three players are making shots and playing well at the same time the Wildcats are capable of beating some of the best teams in the country, especially in Manhattan. But when any of them are off, things get difficult. And when they all play bad at the same time the results can turn ugly.
It was a surprise to see Perry struggle the way he did. He has been hot and cold at times all season, but almost never for a full game. Even when he has a bad first half he usually drains some 3-pointers in the second half. That did not happen Tuesday in Lawrence. Despite entering this game in good form, having scored 29 and 26 points in his past two outings, he couldn’t get anything going against the Jayhawks.
“They just did a very good job of loading up numbers every time I touched the ball and putting two on my ball screens and making it hard on me,” Perry said. “But if I want to walk around here like I’m the man, I’m going to have to be the man. So it’s not really an excuse. It’s on my shoulders.”
K-State was also poor on defense on Tuesday, as four different KU players topped 15 points. The Jayhawks (22-8, 10-7 Big 12) averaged 1.27 points per possession. The Wildcats were at 0.98.
That is the kind of difference you get when one team plays hard and the other does not.
Tang wanted his players to understand that.
“We have got to improve on (our effort),” Kaluma said. “We have got to go out here and we have got to win on Saturday. That is what we have got to focus on.”
This story was originally published March 5, 2024 at 11:57 PM with the headline "K-State coach Jerome Tang blasts team for playing with poor effort in loss at KU."