Jerome Tang credits this coaching adjustment for Kansas State’s recent winning streak
The Kansas State men’s basketball team didn’t look right during a pair of road losses against Oklahoma and Texas Tech last week, so head coach Jerome Tang went looking for reasons why.
How, after so much success at the beginning of Big 12 play, were the Wildcats suddenly getting clobbered by two teams that reside in the bottom half of the league standings?
After examining those performances from many different angles, Tang eventually found his answer. He blamed himself.
“A lot of what didn’t go our way doesn’t fall on their shoulders,” Tang said. “It falls on me as a head coach for not giving them what they needed.”
Tang’s biggest self criticism: He was being too hard on his players. Turning into an angry coach helped the Wildcats bounce back from losses when they played host to TCU at home earlier this month. Making K-State players run and expend as much energy as possible in practices seemed to help them in that game. But you can’t sustain that style for long.
K-State responded to the next string of demanding practices by wilting in the second half against both Texas Tech (71-63) and Oklahoma (79-65).
The more Tang pushed, the more K-State’s roster grew tired — or lost its “legs” as Tang likes to say.
But he backed off that approach leading up to recent games against Iowa State and Baylor. Lo and behold, the Wildcats won both of those games with second-half comebacks. They are back to looking like one of the best teams in the Big 12.
“These last couple days we did what we needed to do and gave them rest,” Tang said. “We shortened our practices. We had legs. That’s what we didn’t have the last couple games, especially the Oklahoma game. (Against Iowa State), I thought we had legs because of how we prepared and more of what we didn’t do rather than what we did do.”
He felt the same way about the Baylor victory.
When asked what allowed K-State star Keyontae Johnson to erupt for 25 points in that game, he replied with just one word: “Legs.”
It’s a safe bet that Tang will stick with short, focused practices for the remainder of the season. His hope is that they will help the Wildcats finish strong. But it won’t be easy with upcoming games against Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and West Virginia.
K-State’s next game, a 1 p.m. tip at Gallagher-Iba Arena, might be the most difficult of the bunch. The Cowboys have won five of their past six games at home, while the Wildcats have lost five straight games on the road.
The Wildcats will need extra energy in their legs to end that skid.
