Kansas State basketball coach Jerome Tang calls out Wildcats' effort in blowout loss to KU
LAWRENCE — Kansas State basketball coach Jerome Tang was not a happy man, and losing to rival Kansas was the least of his concerns.
Beating the Jayhawks at Allen Fieldhouse, and on senior night no less, can be challenging under the best of circumstances.
What galled Tang was the manner in which KU ran all over his Wildcats in a 90-68 blowout with so much at stake.
"Man, they kicked our butts," Tang said. "We didn't deserve to win. We didn't give an effort good enough to deserve to win. I'm disappointed in that, because the staff did an unbelievable job of putting together what I thought was a game plan that gave 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 kinds of results you have."
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With that result, K-State fell to 17-13 overall and 7-10 in the Big 12. And worse, it made any hopes to gaining an NCAA Tournament at-large bid an even steeper climb. The Wildcats close the regular season Saturday at home against No. 6-ranked Iowa State before heading to Kansas City for the Big 12 Tournament.
The Wildcats' performance was a far cry from a month earlier when they beat then-No. 4 KU, 75-70, in overtime in Manhattan. The Jayhawks closed the first half strong to lead 41-33 at the break and then poured it on in the second period, shooting 50% while knocking down 5 of 9 3-pointers to remove any chance of a K-State comeback.
"We didn't really guard the way we're capable of," Tang said. "(But) it was the effort. The effort is the thing that held us back tonight."
The statistics back up Tang's claim. Scoring in transition typically is a K-State staple on good nights, and KU had a glaring 21-5 advantage in fast-break points. The Jayhawks also were 9-0 in second-chance points, as the Wildcats totaled just two offensive rebounds.
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"The results may not always come through, but to put on a K-State uniform, to wear the purple, you take on this ownership that I'm going to be the hardest working, most competitive, gritty group of people that that anyone will ever come in contact with," Tang said. "We may not always come out on top, but it will never be because of a lack of effort. Tonight, though, the effort wasn't there. And that's the thing what I'm disappointed in.
"This is not me being negative. This me being truthful. They have to hear it. Nobody pays for average, and they definitely don't pay for below average. So, this is not who we are what we're about."
While KU got inspired performances across the board and especially from its seniors — 19 points from Kevin McCullar, 18 from backup guard Nicolas Timberlake and 15 with 20 rebounds from Hunter Dickinson — the Jayhawks silenced K-State's big guns.
Tylor Perry and Cam Carter, who combined for 45 points in the victory in Manhattan, had just five points between them.
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"They just did a very good job of loading up every time I touched the ball and putting two on my ball screens and making it hard on my catch," said Perry, who had been on a roll of late, but missed all six of his shots and was limited to two free throws. "But walk around here like I'm the man, I've got to be the man, so there's not really excuse on my shoulders."
There are not easy answers, Perry continued.
"It's about being competitive. Nobody's going to sprinkle fairy dust on us. Nobody's walking through those doors to save us," he said. "And at the end of the day, like coach Tang always says, we've got to look ourselves in the mirror.
"And our back is pressed against the wall right now, and it starts with getting a win Saturday and having some momentum going into next week. I've said the last couple of weeks, it's like emptying what we have left. We've got to change. We've got to look ourselves in the mirror and change. Find a way to get it done."
So, what's next?
"We've got to win at home. That's what you do," Tang said. "Get back to work, go win at home. Senior night. Have a greater care factor.
"You saw how much these guys (KU) cared about winning in the red uniforms on senior night. We’ve got to have a greater care factor because we're in our building and we go win at home. This one is disappointing, because I know how important it is to our fans, and our effort didn't match what our fans deserve."
Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas State basketball coach Jerome Tang blast Wildcats' effort
