From The Couch – Octagon Of Gloom
The Houston Cougars, led by head coach Kelvin Sampson, visited Bramlage Coliseum Saturday night and put the smack down on the K-State Wildcats, winning by the score of 87 to 57. The 30-point loss was the worst in the Jerome Tang era, the fifth largest at home in school history (third largest at Bramlage Coliseum), and the largest since a 100-69 loss to Baylor on Dec. 19, 2020.
This basketball program is in shambles and it appears there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Embarrassing doesn’t cover what occurred last night. It was K-State’s third straight loss, and it dropped the Wildcats to 7-8 overall on the season, 1-3 in the Big 12. Jerome Tang didn’t sound upset or angry after the game, explaining his perspective on what happened matter-of-factly. Let’s get into it.
“First of all, you know, blessed to do what I do, thankful for this, this opportunity I have. You know, number two is today’s my son’s birthday. So happy birthday to Seven, and you know, wishing I could give him a better birthday present than this.”…K-State head coach Jerome Tang, post-game
JM: Wait, Jerome Tang’s son is named Seven? Did he get this idea from George Costanza on Seinfeld? That’s the first thing I thought of…
Is Tang a Mickey Mantle fan? What’s the story here? Inquiring minds want to know. Maybe someday we will find out, but there were more pressing issues at hand last night…
“But man, that team is really good. And I said it on media day,I said it, you know, in pregame media
that whatever they’re ranked it’s way too low, like they’re one of the most underrated in the country.”…Jerome Tang, post-game
JM: Houston is a good team and will contend to win the Big 12 this season, but that doesn’t justify a 30-point loss to them.
“I was proud of our guys, because, thought we put an offensive plan together that would give us an opportunity to get shots, and thought for the most part, they tried to execute that. And then, you know, obviously they made adjustments and stuff, but we did too.”…Jerome Tang, post-game
JM: I didn’t see an offensive game plan. At all. How many years of basketball coaching experience are sitting on K-State’s bench? To this point, they haven’t been able to implement a working offense. It is a dereliction of duty that must be fixed immediately if they want to turn things around in a positive direction.
“Yeah, our effort was way better. I mean, I hope you all saw that, that our effort was way better today.”…Jerome Tang, post-game
JM: I did not think the effort was “way” better. In fact, I thought the effort of forward Coleman Hawkins was pathetic. Senior guard Max Jones had a different take than Tang about the effort….
“I feel like we need to be more aggressive. I feel like we just need to lock in more mentally and physically on and off the court.”…Guard Max Jones, post-game
JM: This isn’t the first time one of the players has mentioned “off the court” issues. I don’t think they are referring to legal issues, so what could it be? I believe there are things going on behind the scenes that we don’t know about that are affecting the product we are seeing on the court.
“They’re better than we are, you know, at maybe every position. And they’re not just more talented, you know, they have an experience to them. You know, they got two guys that are six year guys and one of them is six years in the program. You know, three guys that have three plus years in addition to that in the program. And so hats off to Coach [Kelvin] Sampson to be able to do that and build that kind of program.”…Jerome Tang, post-game
JM: Tang realizes how he needs to build a program, but has been unable to do it that way through his three years as head coach. To have two guys who are six-year guys and three guys with three-plus years in the program, we are looking at 2028 until that could happen. Tang isn’t going to get that long to turn this program around.
“Our goal is to get there, right, that’s our goal. Our goal is to get there where we have guys, multiple David N’Guessan’s in the program, that are on the floor at the same time.”…Jerome Tang, post-game
JM: I think you need multiple Barry Browns or Markquis Nowells on the team. It is very evident there is no leader on this team.
“We have to figure out how to get there in a day and age where kids are allowed to leave whenever they want to, right. And so me and my staff, we have a challenge, but it’s a challenge that we’re embracing, we’re accepting and we’re going full speed ahead, and it’s going to get there, and we’re going to get it”…Jerome Tang, post-game
JM: It is the job of the coaching staff to recruit your current players every season, all the time, in order to get them to stay in your program. Why has Kelvin Sampson been able to do it, but Jerome Tang has not?
“I feel like we can just do better, just all around us and as a person.”…Max Jones, post-game
JM: Another vague comment about being better “as a person.” Hmm.
“You know, I don’t think that there’s a quit in us. These coaches are coming in every day and giving us a plan. You know, guys are showing up and giving energy but like I said, we all committed to this”…Guard Brendan Hausen, post-game
JM: What “plan” are they giving you, exactly? I don’t see a plan. It appears to me that they roll the ball out there and wing it.
“We have to find a way because it’s not getting easier in the Big 12.”…Brendan Hausen, post-game
JM: The Big 12 is a gauntlet. Coming up for K-State is Texas Tech at home on Tuesday night, a trip to Lawrence to play KU, and a trip to Waco to play Baylor. Do you see a win in there? I do not.
“I have to credit them, they owned the paint tonight. I think they had 52 paint points, which is unbelievable. You’re not going to beat a team that has 52 paint points, so credit to them and their ability to get offensive rebounds.”…Brendan Hausen
JM: If you are getting dominated in the paint, why is one of your tallest players, Coleman Hawkins, hanging around the three-point line instead of hanging out in the paint? Get your size under the basket to rebound. I know he’s a wing player, but if hanging around the three-point line like a point guard isn’t working, maybe try something else?
Speaking of Hawkins, his play last night was frustrating. He jogs up the court at a rate that would make Kareem Abdul-Jabaar blush. He got into it with Tang at one point, got called for a travel where he took four steps and threw a fit to the referee, and eventually got a technical foul for jawing with someone off the court and was benched the final four minutes. He had seven points, five rebounds, five turnovers, and four fouls last night. In the “good ole days” you could bench a kid for having motivational and attitude problems, but I guess you can’t do that in this day and age of NIL. Pretty sad.
“Our guys make good decisions with the ball.”…Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson, post-game
JM: A simple quote from Sampson that sums up the game perfectly. Houston’s players make good decisions with the ball. K-State’s players do not.
“All the kids came in as freshmen, and they’ve developed, they’ve learned a lot from the guys before them. I would say that the most impressive thing about our program is that in the last 10 years, we’ve had three kids transfer out that have played in our top 10 players. Our kids have developed a great culture here, and that’s allowed them to be consistent in just about everything we do.”…Kelvin Sampson, post-game
JM: That right there is the biggest difference between the two programs. There was one point in the game last night when Houston was ahead by 20 points and Sampson was visibly upset that his team was not playing well. Jerome Tang walked into his post-game press conference in a pretty good mood. Would you rather have a coach mad about being ahead by 20 because they are not playing well or a coach that walks into his post-game press conference after a 30-point loss in an almost jovial mood? I know what my answer is.
