‘It came down to a call’: Jerome Tang upset with officials after K-State loss
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Jerome Tang faulted officials for denying a timeout that changed the finish.
- Loose-ball scramble led to a jump ball; Oklahoma State retained possession.
- K-State fell to 9-9 with a fifth straight Big 12 loss, worsening the season outlook.
It will be a while before Jerome Tang stops agonizing over Kansas State’s 84-83 loss against Oklahoma State on Saturday at Gallagher-Iba Arena.
Not because K-State guard Abdi Bashir was whistled for a foul against Vyctorius Miller with 2.8 seconds remaining while Miller was shooting a corner 3. Not because Miller then drained the ensuing free throws to put the Cowboys ahead. And not because PJ Haggerty missed a deep 3-pointer at the buzzer.
No, the moment that will stick with him came before any of that.
“Just disappointed that it came down to a call,” Tang said.
Here’s the one play that truly bothered Tang, who is in his fourth year as the head coach at K-State.
It occurred with four seconds left after the Wildcats had forced the Cowboys into their second missed shot during their final possession of the night. K-State had already given up one costly offensive rebound in the final minute, but it looked like the Wildcats grabbed the loose ball this time.
As players from both sides scrambled to secure possession, the Wildcats grabbed hold of the ball first. Tang saw Taj Manning and two other K-State players all motion for a timeout, but it wasn’t granted by the officials. Instead, play continued until Miller forced a jump ball, which meant the ball stayed with Oklahoma State with enough time for one more look at a potential game-winning shot.
“I had a problem with not getting the timeout on the loose ball,” Tang said, “because it was exactly what we wanted. We got a missed shot and on the rebound for the loose ball we were the first ones to the floor. We were going to call a timeout. I thought my player had the ball, and two of our players were calling timeouts, as well as Taj. He was on the floor calling timeout. So I thought that should have been a timeout and our ball.”
Tang was unable to force a video review on that decision, because he lost a challenge on an out-of-bounds play earlier in the second half.
Some may argue that the officials should have gone with a no call when Bashir closely defended Miller at the 3-point line. But no one wearing purple objected to that call.
Oklahoma State players said that was definitely a foul.
“His hands went down,” Miller said of Bashir. “I watch a lot of NBA, and usually whenever his hand is down and you go in the shooting motion that is a foul. That’s what happened there.”
Added OSU coach Steve Lutz: “He did a good job with the shot fake, and (Bashir) bit on it and fouled him. It was a little bit of luck, let’s just be honest. There were several opportunities in the last two minutes where we could have seized the game and didn’t do it. They came down and made a big shot, and then we didn’t score off our initial action, but we were able to figure out a way to win.”
Oklahoma State (14-4, 2-3 Big 12) celebrated a late-night win. K-State (9-9, 0-5 Big 12) lamented yet another loss.
The Wildcats have suffered five straight defeats, and they are off to their worst start in conference play since 1997, when they began 0-9 in the Big 12 under former coach Tom Asbury.
It looked like K-State would be able to avoid that outcome when PJ Haggerty hit a floater with 49 seconds remaining to give the Wildcats an 83-81 lead. One more stop, or one more call in their favor, was all Tang thought they needed.
This story was originally published January 18, 2026 at 6:00 AM with the headline "‘It came down to a call’: Jerome Tang upset with officials after K-State loss."