Kansas State basketball relying on "crazy faith" to keep NCAA Tournament hopes alive

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A year ago, Kansas State basketball's improbable run to the NCAA Tournament was fueled by what coach Jerome Tang and the Wildcats described as "crazy faith."

Well, it may take more than crazy faith for the Wildcats just to get back to the tournament this year, especially after Iowa State ran them off the court, 76-57, on Thursday in their Big 12 Tournament quarterfinal loss to the Cyclones at T-Mobile Center.

The Wildcats, already a fringe NCAA bubble team after an impressive come-from-behind second-round victory over Texas the night before, are 19-14, finished 8-10 in the conference during the regular season and have not strung more than two wins together since notching four straight since late December and early January.

But Tang, ever the optimist, wasn't hearing that. Not only did he express confidence in the Wildcats' position leading to selection Sunday, but he spent three full minutes of his postgame news conference making the case for anyone who would listen.

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"I thought last night when we won that game against (Texas), and I have several reasons why," he said when asked if he thought the Wildcats were still in the running. "We have five Quad 1 wins, all five of our Quad 1 wins against the top 30 in the NET. We have six wins against the top 40 in the NET."

For the uninitiated, NET stands for NCAA Evaluation Tool, a sorting system to help the tournament selection committee leading up to the tournament's bracket reveal Sunday.

And Tang was just warming up.

"The opponents that we played against in the nonconference and the conference combined have the ninth-best defense in the country and the 35th-best offense in the country. So, we didn't play a powder puff schedule.

"We have the number one strength of schedule of all of the bubble teams right now. We have the number one strength of schedule against all of them. We're 1-0 against the SEC, and that was a true road game at LSU. We're 2-0 against the Big East, and we played Providence on a neutral court with Bryce Hopkins, their best team, and beat them. We played six power conference teams in the nonconference and an American team, so we didn't duck anybody."

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There was nobody to fact-check Tang in real time, not to suggest that he was fabricating the numbers. But he clearly presented the most favorable scenario, and his definition of bubble teams was open to interpretation.

For super-senior guard Tylor Perry, a graduate transfer from North Texas who has never played in the NCAA Tournament, he agreed with Tang's assessment.

"It would mean the world, more than anything," he said. "I've said that from the jump There is nothing individually that I wanted this year to share that experience with this group.

"So, I think we've done enough to get in, and now we will wait on Selection Sunday."

Tang made several other points in defending the Wildcats' resume.

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• He lamented that the Wildcats were punished for their seven overtime victories, especially against Quad 3 and 4 teams. "I was told all along time ago, just win the game, right?" he said. "Because we didn't win by 30 or 40 against Quad 4 teams, that's being held against us in the numbers and what the NET shows."

• Losing starting forward Nae'Qwan Tomlin, who was dismissed from the team before the season, and potential starting guard Ques Glover to injury, also was a factor. "We were trying to figure out who we were in November when those things happened," Tang said.

• Only three of the Wildcats' losses came against non-NCAA Tournament teams by Tang's calculations. "I've said all along, nine wins in this league should get you in, so last night when we won, I felt really good about that," he said.

• The Wildcats' lone Quad 3 loss came against Miami in the Bahamas in November when the Hurricanes were ranked nationally ranked, and they dropped their season opener to Southern California in Las Vegas before the Trojans were hit hard by injuries.

• "Now, obviously I'm not the one making the decision, but we have the most Quad 1 wins and the best Quad 1 winning percentage of any bubble team except for Texas A&M, and they have four Quad 4 losses," Tang continued. "We have non-Quad 4 losses."

Tang was so positive that the Wildcats will hear their name called by the NCAA on Sunday that he's not even thinking NIT.

"We're going to talk about what's going on, but right now I've got this crazy faith inside of me, and I'm looking forward to Selection Sunday," he said.

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 touts Wildcats' NCAA resume