Why Jerome Tang is giving K-State basketball players a lengthy holiday break
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Jerome Tang grants K-State players a five-day Christmas break to rest and regroup.
- Players will return Christmas night; K-State practices next morning and evening.
- Tang highlights break as recruiting pitch and to prepare for upcoming Big 12.
PJ Haggerty has big plans while he is away from the Kansas State men’s basketball team over the next few days.
“I’m going to go home and see my dog and my family,” Haggerty said. “I’m just going to chill and eat.”
Nate Johnson is looking forward to an equally exciting schedule until he returns to campus Thursday night.
“I’m going to see family,” Johnson said, “and relax.”
OK, so neither member of K-State’s starting backcourt will be taking the vacation of their lives while head coach Jerome Tang gives them five days off for a holiday break, but they are looking forward to Christmas week all the same.
Haggerty was so eager for his trip home to Crosby, Texas, that he volunteered his dog is an American Bully named Kash “with a K.”
The Wildcats have been hard at work on the basketball court since Tang assembled this roster of four returning players, six transfers, three European newcomers and one traditional freshman back in the summer.
A few days of family fun at home could figuratively recharge their batteries before they return to action Sunday against Louisiana-Monroe at Bramlage Coliseum.
Tang believes in giving his players a holiday break so much that he even uses it as a recruiting tool. He demands that players remain on campus around Thanksgiving. But everyone gets five days off for Christmas.
“Everybody is going to be out of town,” Tang said. “They get to spend time with their families. And then they’ll be back Christmas night. We will practice the next morning and run all the turkey and dressing or whatever it is they ate for Christmas out of them that morning. Then we will practice again that evening and start getting ready for everything else.”
It is worth noting that three K-State players won’t be able to make it home for the holidays.
Elias Rapieque (of Germany), Dorin Buca (of Italy) and Andrej Kostic (of Serbia) won’t have enough time to fly overseas and back this week. But they found a fun alternative destination.
Tang said all three of the Euro Cats, as they are sometimes affectionately called by fans, will travel together to New York. They all have friends and extended family in the Big Apple, so that is where they will spend their free time.
Tang encourages his players to enjoy this break on the schedule, because they won’t get another one anytime soon.
K-State (8-4) has won three consecutive games, but the most challenging part of the schedule remains ahead with Big 12 play beginning on Jan. 3.
The Wildcats will ultimately be judged by how they perform in conference games. That’s one of the reasons why Tang wants his team to enjoy time off now.