K-State Q&A: How Gene Taylor supported Jerome Tang through early basketball struggles
Here’s one of the most popular questions I used to get about Kansas State basketball when the Wildcats were losing: What does athletic director Gene Taylor think about the team and its struggles?
Taylor is a busy man, and it wouldn’t have been wise for him to give a state-of-the-union address midway through the season, but I caught up with him on a wide variety of topics earlier this week. One of them was men’s basketball.
I asked him how he supported K-State coach Jerome Tang when his team got off to a dismal 7-11 start, but then turned things around with an incredible six-game winning streak.
“I just kept telling him, ‘Hang in there, you will get this figured out,’” Taylor said. “I began to see things change a little bit after the Houston loss, and I just kept saying, ‘Dude, I have got your back.’ It really wasn’t much more than that. I made sure that I was around if he needed me.”
Taylor said he tried to send Tang a text message after every game. When they losses were mounting, he said something along the lines of ...
It seems like you guys are still battling. It seems like the kids are still playing hard. Keep working and you will figure it out.
“It was just little things like that,” Taylor said. “Nothing was too heavy, no long sit downs. I just sent him words of encouragement and let him know that I believed in him.”
His faith in Tang has paid off. The Wildcats are the hottest team in college basketball and they are back in the running for an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament.
It has also been quite a while since I got any questions about Tang’s buyout.
With that, let’s move onto your K-State Q&A questions. Thanks, as always, for providing them.
We need a new nickname for the K-State men’s basketball team while it is on this winning streak. Any suggestions? - Joe D. via e-mail.
I have been lovingly referring to them as the Inferno Cats.
Inferno is defined as “a large fire that is dangerously out of control.” It seems appropriate to combine that word with the Wildcats right now. You are welcome to join me on that bandwagon.
Do you have any examples to compare Kansas State’s basketball turnaround? -@bfullingt1 via X.
The first one that comes to mind is Baylor in 2013-14. This is the season that Scott Drew referenced when he gave the Wildcats a pep talk last month in Waco.
Would you believe K-State hasn’t lost since Drew gave that uplifting speech?
Baylor started the season 10-1 but then cratered to 12-9 with a 2-8 record in conference games. The season appeared over.
But the Bears finished the regular season 7-1 and then won three games at the Big 12 Tournament and then advanced to the Sweet 16.
Another example: Oklahoma State in 2016-17. That team started conference play 0-6 under Brad Underwood, and K-State scored 96 points on the Cowboys in Stillwater. But OSU won nine of its next 10 of its next 11 to finish with 20 victories and reach the NCAA Tournament.
Big 12 turnarounds have happened before. The thing that sets this K-State team apart is that it had an overall losing record before it got going. Things never got quite that bad for Baylor or Oklahoma State.
It might change as I have seen winner of 11 seed matchup in first four play in round of 64 in Wichita and it switched to Denver in ESPN bracket projection. What are odds if K-State makes tournament and gets first four to end up relatively close to fan base like that? -@AdamMeyer35 via X.
Please forgive me for this.
I have no idea where the First Four winners will be placed when it comes to sub-regional locations. At one point, I want to say the sites were determined ahead of time. But I can’t find anything online that suggests that is still true. It might be completely random. I don’t know.
Of course, if the Inferno Cats win out they won’t have to play in Dayton and they will just earn a spot on the regular bracket. Let’s hope for that.
Selfishly, I will do back flips if K-State (and/or KU) ends up in Wichita for the NCAA Tournament. Nothing beats a short drive for games in a local market.
But I kind of doubt it happens. Right now, it seems like Houston and Texas A&M are the favorites to end up in Wichita as top 2 seeds, and the numbers may not line up for either Sunflower State team.
That being said, K-State and KU both have recent NCAA Tournament losses in Kansas City. But the Wildcats advanced to the Elite Eight the last two times they started out in North Carolina. Maybe they need to cross their fingers and hope for Raleigh.
What on earth happened to the K-State women’s basketball team in Stillwater on Saturday? -@mrtroyh via X.
Call it a perfect storm.
Oklahoma State is hard to beat at Gallagher-Iba Arena. K-State was coming off an emotional victory over TCU. The Cowboys played up. The Wildcats played down.
Final score: Oklahoma State 85, K-State 55.
Shocking as that result may be, blowouts happen more than you might think, especially in the world of women’s hoops. Some people think it is embarrassing to lose by that many points. That’s fair. But if you’re going to lose, you might as well lose big. Sometimes it’s better to wave the white flag at halftime instead of fighting until the bitter end.
K-State bounced back with a 90-53 road victory over Cincinnati. I think Jeff Mittie’s team will be fine.
But it will be an entertaining race for first place in the Big 12 standings. Baylor, K-State and TCU are tied atop the standings. Oklahoma State and Utah are both one game back.
In a perfect world, you’ve been made a multi billionaire but under the condition you buy all the naming rights for K-State sports. What names do you have picked out for the Football Field, the New Beer Lines (and what would you require to have available) and Bramlage Coliseum? -@ChadFullington via X.
My PayPal and Venmo info would look good on the football field. Please send money here! The naming rights deal would pay for itself after one season.
For the basketball arena, I would take a different approach. I would buy the naming rights, but ask that it be called Tex Winter Coliseum or Ernie Barrett Arena. K-State basketball needs to do a better job of honoring its past. That would be a good start.
I would do a contest for the beer lines in this very mailbag. Whoever wins can name the lines whatever they want. But my beers of choice would be: Stella, Shiner Bock, Tank 7, Tasty IPA and Michelob Ultra (because that’s the one everyone will buy).
What can we expect with Matt Wells calling the plays compared to Riley? -@BudMedic via X.
I am expecting a middle ground between the Collin Klein and Conor Riley eras of the K-State offense.
Matt Wells had plenty of input on the game plans last season. He also spent every minute of every game helping Avery Johnson read defenses. So there won’t be any massive changes. The Wildcats aren’t going to switch to a run-and-shoot attack or try the triple option. But I do think the offense will look a tad more modern under Wells.
Riley leaned on the run as an offensive line coach. Klein like to throw it a little bit more, but he also used a lot QB runs because of his history at the position.
Wells could be a nice combination of those styles. He will go fast when the situation allows him to and he will try to get the ball into the hands of his playmakers.
K-State will miss Riley as an offensive line coach. But I think Wells will be an upgrade as a play-caller.
This story was originally published February 14, 2025 at 9:40 AM with the headline "K-State Q&A: How Gene Taylor supported Jerome Tang through early basketball struggles."