Just this past week, disgruntled Kansas State men’s basketball fans in the student section wore paper bags over their heads and loudly booed the Wildcats as they were blown off their home court at Bramlage Coliseum, lopsided losses that led a to a fiery rant from then-coach Jerome Tang, and ultimately, his firing on Sunday.
On Tuesday in the lead-up to the program’s first game since firing Tang, Wildcats fans ripped up those same paper bags, effectively symbolizing the beginning of a new era for Kansas State.
And the Wildcats played like it.
With interim coach Matthew Driscoll pacing the sidelines, the Wildcats, powered by a combined 67 points from its backcourt of Nate Johnson and P.J. Haggerty, thumped Baylor 90–74 for just its second win in the Big 12 this season, snapping a six-game losing streak in the process.
The Wildcats, looking like a different team, played physical and energized basketball and raced out of the gate to a 13–6 lead powered by nine early points from Johnson, electrifying the home crowd. Kansas State tied its largest first half lead (13 points) en route to a 41–34 halftime lead.
The second half brought more of the same, as a suddenly-opportunistic Kansas State defense continued to put the pressure on the Bears, leading to the Wildcats’ largest lead—21 points—in Big 12 play this season.
Baylor didn’t go away quietly. The Bears went on a 13–2 run to cut the deficit to just nine points with 8:20 remaining in the game. But Haggarty answered by draining a turnaround jumper, Johnson stole the ball and Haggerty again connected, this time on a layup.
The Wildcats shot 57% from the field and forced 19 turnovers, scoring 23 points off of the takeaways.
As the clock ticked down on the program’s first victory since Jan. 20, the crowd of 6,789 fans gave the Wildcats a standing ovation, a complete 180 from what was heard in the building just six days ago.
Why was Jerome Tang fired?
Amid a six-game losing streak and on the heels of a third straight home loss of 20 or more points, the Wildcats on Sunday fired Tang for cause. Following a 91–62 loss to Cincinnati on Feb. 11, the fourth-year coach had characterized his team’s performance as “embarrassing,” said some of the players did not deserve to wear the uniform and questioned whether some of them would be the following season.
“Recent public comments and conduct, in addition to the program’s overall direction, have not aligned with K-State’s standards for supporting student-athletes and representing the university,” said athletic director Gene Taylor.
“There’s language in his contract that addresses certain things that could potentially bring embarrassment,” Taylor added. “Basically, his comments about the student-athletes and the negative reaction to those comments from a lot of sources, both nationally and locally is where I kind of thought we needed to make the decision.”
Tang is owed an $18.675 million buyout, but his termination for cause would nullify the buyout. In a statement to ESPN, Tang said he “strongly disagreed with the characterization of his termination.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as How Kansas State Fared in First Game Since Jerome Tang Firing.
