Three takeaways from another blowout loss at home for the Kansas State Wildcats
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Small home crowd loudly booed Wildcats; ~2 dozen students wore paper bags.
- K-State is 10-14 overall and 1-10 in Big 12, matching worst start.
- Wildcats have multiple double-digit home losses and an upcoming road test.
A small crowd showed up to watch Cincinnati demolish Kansas State 91-62 in a men’s basketball game on Wednesday at Bramlage Coliseum, but the fans in attendance were loud ... and they voiced their displeasure with the home team.
In a sign of the times, a group of perhaps two dozen students wore paper bags over their heads as the Wildcats dropped to 10-14 (1-10 Big 12) with yet another blowout loss at home under head coach Jerome Tang.
In its past three games at Bramlage, K-State has lost 86-62 to Kansas, 95-61 to Iowa State and now 91-62 to Cincinnati.
These are dark days for the Wildcats.
The first two ugly defeats could be explained in part by the opponents. The Jayhawks and the Cyclones are two of the best teams in the country. But this was different. The Bearcats (13-12, 5-7 Big 12) hadn’t won a single road game all season, until now.
Cincinnati picked up a rare road win with ease behind 24 points from Jizzle James and a host of other capable scorers.
K-State countered with 24 points from PJ Haggerty.
But it didn’t matter. K-State fans gave up on their team before this one even started. That was apparent by some of the messages that fans wrote on the paper bags that hid their identities.
One read: “Anybody got $18,675,000” in reference to Tang’s buyout.
Another read: “We ain’t got dudes.” Tang used to say the opposite after big wins.
One more read: “Donors save us!”
For good measure, the home crowd also loudly booed the Wildcats midway through the first half as they fell hopelessly behind.
Next up for K-State is a road game against Houston on Saturday.
Until then, here are some takeaways from Wednesday’s action:
K-State plays its worst basketball at home
Here’s the surprising thing about K-State’s recent struggles: Its worst losses have all come inside its home arena.
The Wildcats have been able to push Arizona State, Oklahoma State, TCU and West Virginia to the buzzer in road conference games. They lost those four games by a combined total of 11 points. But they are getting run off the court at Bramlage.
They are 1-5 at home in conference play, with double-digit losses against BYU, Kansas, Iowa State and Cincinnati. They also lost to UCF at home by nine. Their last three losses home losses have come by a combined 87 points. In other words, they are losing by nearly 30 points per game on average at the Octagon of Doom.
Their lone conference win came by three at home against Utah.
Add on non-conference losses at home against Bowling Green and Seton Hall, and this has been a truly dreadful year for K-State season ticket-holders.
The Wildcats are on pace to make the wrong kind of history in Big 12 play
K-State’s worst conference record as a member of the Big 12 is 2-14.
That happened back in 2000 when Tom Asbury was in his final season as head coach. The Wildcats beat Nebraska and Texas A&M that season but lost to everybody else on the league schedule.
It has been hard to imagine the Wildcats ever dipping below two conference wins, even in a down season like this. But anything seems possible the way K-State has been playing lately.
The Wildcats have matched their worst Big 12 start in history at 1-10.
There are seven games remaining in the regular season. Will things improve? Maybe not.
K-State got off to a nightmare start
Wednesday night’s game was decided in the early moments, when Tang needed to call a pair timeouts before 7 minutes had run off the clock.
The Bearcats raced to a 32-11 lead midway through the first half. They brought intensity to this matchup and the Wildcats did not.
Their lack of effort at home is truly hard to explain.
This story was originally published February 11, 2026 at 10:14 PM.