Why Jerome Tang was surprisingly upbeat following Kansas State’s loss at Iowa State

The Kansas State men’s basketball team fell just short of pulling off a statement victory against Iowa State on Tuesday inside Hilton Coliseum.

K-State led the Cyclones at halftime and had several opportunities to steal a road win in the final moments of a tightly contested Big 12 game. Winning would have given the Wildcats bragging rights over the rest of the conference. Had they remained in sole possession of first place with road wins over Baylor, Iowa State and Texas it might have been hard for any other team in the league to catch them.

But it wasn’t to be. The No. 5 Wildcats (17-3, 6-2 Big 12) played well enough to push the No. 12 Cyclones (15-4, 6-2 Big 12) to the brink in front of a raucous crowd. They simply couldn’t take the lead. As a result, K-State now finds itself in a three-way tie atop the conference standings with Iowa State and Texas while Baylor, Kansas and TCU are lurking one game back.

The race is on.

Still, none of that seemed to bother Jerome Tang. Unlike previous losses this season, the K-State basketball coach didn’t look disappointed about the way his team played on Tuesday. He was surprisingly upbeat.

Why?

Compared to a 76-64 loss at Butler in November and an 82-68 loss at TCU two weeks ago, this was progress.

“This was just an unbelievable Big 12 game,” Tang said. “The environment was incredible. We obviously wanted to win, but what we really wanted to see is how much we improved from a week ago against TCU. We came up with two good wins and they were coming off a loss that they probably should have won. Against TCU, they were just tougher than we were and their staff did a better job than we did to prepare their team.”

“So that was a challenge to our guys. We knew this environment was way different than TCU. These fans have always been some of the best fans in the country, one of my favorite places to come and compete just because of how knowledgeable they are and how much they they love the team here. So I’m very proud of our guys and how we responded, how we played with poise at the right time ... We will get better, but, again, I am very proud of my guys.”

There is no such thing as a moral victory in college basketball, but it was understandable for Tang to feel encouraged by this game, even though it ended in defeat.

A few reasons why:

Hilton Coliseum might be the hardest place for anyone to play in the Big 12 this season. The Cyclones are undefeated at home and they won their first three conference games in Ames by an average of 20 points.

K-State is also currently playing with a huge target on its back. Nobody circled the Wildcats on their schedule when they were picked to finish last in the Big 12 preseason poll. But you better believe teams are giving them their best shot now that they are ranked in the top 5.

This game meant so much to Iowa State fans that they chanted “(expletive) K-State” throughout the contest, including when Markquis Nowell shot free throws in the final minute. Farmageddon had never felt like more of a basketball rivalry.

Iowa State is also very good. The Cyclones are ranked in the top 15 for a reason. They made it to the Sweet 16 last year.

Add all that up, and Tang thought it was a promising sign that the Wildcats didn’t flinch when the Cyclones surged ahead 59-49 with 8 minutes, 12 second remaining. It looked like K-State was doomed, the latest victim of Hilton Magic. But it fought back and gave itself a chance to win.

Had Markquis Nowell hit a driving layup in the final minute, maybe things would have been different. Had Iowa State not scored almost at will around the basket, K-State could have won. If Keyontae Johnson and Ismael Massoud weren’t in foul trouble, the game could have gone another way.

Fighting back was much better than fading away.

“It’s a game of runs,” K-State guard Cam Carter said. “They had their run. We knew we could make a run, too. We just kept fighting until the end.”

“Let’s get stops,” Tang remembers saying in one of those late huddles. “We switched up some defensive stuff and kind of paused them a little bit with a triangle and two and some other things. We were throwing everything we could at them. It worked for a while until they put four guards in and we had to get out of it.”

Some losses sting. K-State’s first two of the season certainly did. This defeat felt more like the Wildcats simply ran out of time.

Perhaps they can learn from this experience in their next conference road game at Kansas.

“Losing is never fun,” Nowell said. “But everything we did today was correctable. We will fix it and move on.”