How Jerome Tang is working to fix Kansas State’s road woes in Big 12 basketball games
As Markquis Nowell analyzed the box score from Kansas State’s loss at Texas Tech over the weekend his eyes stopped scanning the page when they reached the section marked “turnovers.”
The senior point guard didn’t need to see anything else.
The Wildcats had 23 turnovers against the Red Raiders, and that was simply way too many.
“You can’t win on the road playing like that,” Nowell said.
Winning on the road has been difficult of late for the No. 12 Wildcats. After getting off to a sensational start in Big 12 road games earlier this season with high-scoring wins over Texas (116-103) and Baylor (97-95) they have since suffered four straight losses away from home.
That is not good news for a team that must travel for its next game against Oklahoma at 8 p.m. Tuesday at Lloyd Noble Arena.
It’s been a struggle for K-State to stay competitive in recent road games. The Wildcats lost their first conference road trip 82-68 at TCU and followed that up with an 80-76 loss at Iowa State. Then came a 90-78 defeat at Kansas and then a 71-63 loss at Texas Tech.
The first three of those losses were understandable, as they all came against ranked opponents in packed arenas where the home team almost always wins. But the Texas Tech result was a bit of a head-scratcher. The Red Raiders (13-12, 2-10 Big 12) are at the bottom of the conference standings and their arena featured many open seats.
That was a big contrast from those early wins at Baylor and Texas. What gives?
“Well, we outscored those teams,” Tang said, “and that was an anomaly. That’s not going to happen every night in this league. Your defense has to travel. That’s how you win road games, by being a really good defensive team. We are not going to shoot like that all the time.”
Defense was most certainly a culprit in K-State’s first three conference losses away from home. The turnover category was a bigger problem at Texas Tech.
“I did feel like we played better defense than we had in the past,” Tang said, “but there’s no defense for live-ball turnovers. They scored 28 points on 23 turnovers. That was the difference in the ballgame, and that had nothing to do with our defense. That had a whole lot to do with our offense.”
Good defense plus low turnovers sounds like a good formula for winning on the road.
Still, K-State guard Desi Sills thinks the Wildcats can do more.
“We have got to bring our own energy,” Sills said. “The tougher team wins on the road.”
The Wildcats are confident they can make a few changes and snap their road losing streak against Oklahoma. But it won’t be easy. Road games in the Big 12 are always difficult.