Advertisement

Jerome Tang gives shoutout to Patrick Mahomes for Kansas State’s clever inbound play

Travis Heying/The Wichita Eagle

During the final moments of Kansas State’s thrilling 75-69 victory over Kentucky in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, Jerome Tang instructed his team to inbound the ball with a football-style play.

It began with five K-State players standing under the basket together. Senior forward Keyontae Johnson clutched the ball in his right hand like a quarterback and then watched as his four teammates zoomed onto the court in coordinated directions as if they were wide receivers running routes on the gridiron.

Three K-State players moved up the court as decoys for the Kentucky defense, while senior guard Markquis Nowell only moved a few feet and then waited for a pass from Johnson.

The successful play allowed Nowell to wait for Kentucky to foul him and then calmly make free throws to help clinch a monumental win that propelled K-State to its first Sweet 16 in five years.

When asked about the play afterward, Tang tried not to get into specifics, because “then the other team will know next time we have to use it.” But he did share one notable piece of information about the play. K-State named it after Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

“We actually call it Mahomes, for Patrick Mahomes,” Tang said. “You know, the quarterback for the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.”

Mahomes keeps finding ways to win big games, even when he’s not playing in them and the sport isn’t football.

K-State has actually used that play on several occasions this season when it needed to get the ball in to a particular player in a close game. It was first popularized by Baylor coach Scott Drew while Tang was an assistant with the Bears.

So it was easy for Tang to install it into the playbook once he arrived at K-State.

If the Wildcats continue their winning ways, that may not be the last time we hear about Patrick Mahomes this March.