MANHATTAN — For the first time in almost a month, the Kansas State basketball players walked around the Bramlage Coliseum floor with smiles on their faces as they high-fived and thanked fans for attending the game.
Finally, the Wildcats had a reason to be joyous. A dominant 90-74 win over Baylor on Tuesday, Feb. 17, helped give players relief during a six-game losing streak that was a spectacle for all the wrong reasons.
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Those smiles had been tough to come by in the two days leading up to their victory after the firing of Jerome Tang, their head coach.
“We became more together as a team,” Nate Johnson said after scoring 33 points. “It just bonded us over that period of time and it showed. His message still showed that we are still together and we’re just going to keep getting better every day.”
Tang was fired on Feb. 15 for cause, while Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor cited the coach’s viral press conference following the team’s 91-62 loss to Cincinnati on Feb. 11 as the main reason. In that press conference, Tang said his players didn’t deserve to wear a Kansas State uniform and that most of them wouldn’t be retained for the 2026-27 season.
The characterization of Tang’s firing has since been discussed at the national level, with many disagreeing with Kansas State’s “for cause” argument. Tang retained high-profile lawyers to challenge the university’s decision, as he pursues his $18.675 million buyout, which he would be owed if dismissed without cause.
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The distractions didn’t impact the Wildcats in their victory, as they put on arguably their best performance of the season in their first game under interim coach Matthew Driscoll.
“It’s been some very difficult days,” PJ Haggerty said after scoring 34 points. “Every day, we all love Coach T, you know, as a coach and as a person. He just wanted us to be better men rather than just basketball players, too. But at the end of the day, we’re just gonna keep playing and honoring him.”
Kansas State’s remaining coaches tried to keep things as normal as possible for the players. Driscoll wasn’t one to stand up and roam the sideline like most head coaches, electing to sit where he has all season. Driscoll was also on the floor in the hours before the game, giving his players instructions during warmups, when head coaches tend to stay away until it’s almost ready to play.
Johnson wanted to continue developing into the leader that Tang challenged him to become. His growth is something Baylor coach Scott Drew noticed from afar, and something Haggerty said is starting to build within the entire team as they try to be player-led.
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“Coaches can motivate us and tell us what to do, but at the end of the day, we’re the ones on the court,” Haggerty said. “We’re just staying together, and we’ll keep going. Just never quit. You just can’t quit because you never know what could happen. We’re just keeping our minds right and staying positive.”
Kansas State will play its final five regular-season games and its appearance in the Big 12 Tournament, hoping it continues the improvement it showed in beating Baylor, when it scored 90-plus points for the first time since Dec. 28 against Louisiana Monroe, the final game of non-conference play.
Tang won’t be with them in the locker room, huddles or at their practices moving forward, but the coach will continue to be a motivator for a team that’s struggled amid its 2-11 start to Big 12 play.
The Wildcats will also take the lessons that Tang tried to instill in them and use them on the court and in their everyday lives.
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“”Crazy faith’ is something he said every day, whether it was good days or bad days; he always stuck with faith,” Haggerty said. “Either he had it on his shirt, or he said ‘crazy faith,’ and that was the biggest thing that he always told us.”
Wyatt D. Wheeler covers Kansas State athletics for the USA TODAY Network and Topeka Capital-Journal. You can follow him on X at @WyattWheeler_, contact him at 417-371-6987 or email him at wwheeler@usatodayco.com
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas State basketball players speak out after Jerome Tang’s firing
