K-State basketball enters top 25 rankings for first time under new coach Jerome Tang

The Kansas State men’s basketball team can stop worrying about trying to gain national respect.

K-State is clearly on everyone’s radar now that the Wildcats are off to a 14-1 start under new coach Jerome Tang. Experts think so much of them right now that the Cats cracked the Associated Press Top 25 on Monday, going from unranked all the way up to No. 11.

That is a huge jump for a team that was picked to finish last in the preseason Big 12 coaches poll.

This is the first time that K-State has been ranked since the final week of the 2019 season. This is the highest K-State has been ranked since it entered the top 10 in 2013.

K-State flew up the top 25 after an impressive start to conference play. The Wildcats opened Big 12 play with a home victory over West Virginia and then followed that up with a 116-103 win at Texas and 97-95 overtime triumph at Baylor. All three of those opponents were ranked when K-State beat them.

“We proved that we are the toughest team out here,” senior K-State forward Keyontae Johnson said after the Baylor game.

Many K-State fans were eager to see where the Wildcats would end up in the top 25 this week. The Wildcats were one of the first teams left out of last week’s poll, checking in unofficially at No. 30. They jumped 19 spots after going on the road and beating Texas and Baylor.

The Wildcats are one of five teams from the Big 12 that are ranked in the latest poll, with No. 2 Kansas leading the pack behind No. 1 Houston.

Tang and his team have proved many wrong this season. Their current ranking is proof of how far the Wildcats have come.

They are next in action against Oklahoma State on Tuesday at Bramlage Coliseum.

“We’re not trying to prove doubters wrong,” Tang said. “We’re trying to continue to believe in ourselves and we know where we want to get to. We’re not there yet. Had we lost (the Baylor) game, it wouldn’t change that we’ve made great strides as a team, and because we won it doesn’t mean that we don’t have room for improvement as a team. We’re just trying to keep it going.”