Why K-State’s loss at Arizona State was ‘really frustrating’ for Jerome Tang

Spending a week on the road with the Kansas State men’s basketball team and not winning a single game on the trip left head coach Jerome Tang searching for answers as he exited Desert Financial Arena following an 87-84 loss to Arizona State on Saturday.

The Wildcats lost badly at Arizona. Then they lost close at Arizona State. The score changed, but the same problems were apparent in both games.

For that reason, K-State (9-7, 0-3 Big 12) remains winless in Big 12 Conference play.

“I don’t like to be in these situations,” Tang said. “I don’t like to go through what we’re going through. But there’s a lot to learn from this.”

Tang hopes the Wildcats can figure out two key things moving forward.

For starters, he wants K-State to play harder against Big 12 opponents. The Wildcats fouled too often (27 times) and badly lost the rebounding battle (48-34) against the Sun Devils. That led to a costly loss, even though the Wildcats made 13 shots from 3-point range and got 25 points from PJ Haggerty and 22 points from Abdi Bashir.

Getting out-muscled on the inside negated those positives.

“We’re going to have to figure that out,” Tang said. “I thought we were in better position, and they (the Sun Devils) just wanted the ball more.”

Tang went on to describe that effort disparity as “really frustrating.”

“You want your guys to be competing at the highest level on every possession,” Tang said. “We don’t have a large enough margin for error to do that. Our margin for error is very small, and we need all of our guys playing well. We can’t have two guys play well one night and get goose eggs from other guys. ... Collectively, we have to do a better job.”

The other area that concerns Tang: team cohesion.

Spending a week in the Grand Canyon State was fun for everyone involved off the court. Team camaraderie is strong this season, and K-State players like being around each other. But for reasons that Tang can’t fully explain, that isn’t translating to the court.

That is one reason why he thinks the Wildcats suffer from extending scoreless stretches at times.

“The chemistry off the court is not an issue,” Tang said. “It’s the chemistry on the court. They don’t always play like they really like each other. You see them off the court, and you’re like, ‘Man, those dudes love each other.’ So we need to bring that on the floor.

“They feel like they can make the play rather than us making the play. We have got to get that switched, because when we play for us and we’re getting assisted shots, we’re really good.”

K-State players said they will take that message to heart.

Taj Manning, who scored six points and grabbed four rebounds for the Wildcats, said he will try to do a better job explaining to his teammates just how much effort it takes to play quality defense in the Big 12.

“We play with our hands too much,” Manning said. “Going into the Big 12, we always mention how physical it is. But I didn’t tell my teammates enough about playing physical without your hands. It’s more with your body and your chest. We have a lot of times where we’re just reaching or slapping down, and it’s sending teams to the free-throw line. Those free throws add up.”

Arizona State went 24-of-32 from the free-throw line on Saturday. That helped the Sun Devils make up for shooting just 3-of-22 from beyond the arc.

“We have got to focus on not getting blown by,” Bashir said. “Guards are part of the reason why we’re getting so many fouls, because we give up straight line drives. Now it’s in the bigs’ hands, and it’s hard to contest every shot without fouling.”

Add that to the list of things for the Wildcats to fix as they work to climb out of an 0-3 hole at the start of conference play.

This story was originally published January 10, 2026 at 6:08 PM.

Kellis Robinett

The Wichita Eagle

Kellis Robinett covers Kansas State athletics for The Wichita Eagle and The Kansas City Star. A winner of more than a dozen national writing awards, he lives in Manhattan with his wife and four children.