Kansas State's Jerome Tang Not Ready To Push Panic Button
Kansas State coach Jerome Tang refuses to overreact to the slow start, especially in Big 12 play.
The Wildcats (7-7) are 1-2 in conference games after falling to Oklahoma State Tuesday. Tang said it's too early to panic.
"It's three games," Tang said. "I don't know how the hopes would be (dashed) and both of our losses were on the road. The goal is win the games at home and try and steal some on the road. That's how you do it."
The Wildcats return home for games against Houston Saturday and Texas Tech Jan. 18 before playing at Kansas Jan. 18.
"We missed out on one at TCU," Tang said. "They [Oklahoma State] didn't let us get a chance ... We go back home and get to play in front of our fans. It's another game. We wash it, we move on. If we were 2-1, it would be the same thing ... You can't relax. You can't feel happy at any point in time."
MORE TOUCHES FOR HAUSEN
Guard Brendan Hausen has taken fewer than 10 shots in the past five games.
It is something Tang wants corrected. He feels they need more touches for Hausen.
"They just hug him and take him away," Tang said. "We're going to look at it. It's one of the first things I looked at."
Hausen is averaging 12.8 points this season but has struggled during this stretch of five losses in six games. He has only shot higher than 50 percent once in the past month. He was 0 for 2 against the Cowboys.
"He only got up two shots," Tang said. "How can we get him going a little more so it's something we've got to look at."
HAWKINS CHALLENGES TEAM
The Wildcats are struggling after entering the season with so much promise.
Tuesday's loss against Oklahoma State was the fifth in the last six games. Senior Coleman Hawkins addressed the issue after the latest setback.
Senior Coleman Hawkins said the Wildcats aren't taking things serious as necessary.
"I feel like everyone needs to do more as far as taking care of responsibility," Hawkins said. "Whether it's on the court, off the court, I feel like it's little as the way we warmup, how serious we take a warmup, when we finish our pregame warmup when we go back to the locker room if you're walking or running. Just little details like that."
Three of the losses during the skid were by double-digits. The other two were blown leads. After a strong start against the Cowboys Tuesday, the Wildcats were on the receiving end of a 20-2 run.
Hawkins said these lapses in play need to stop if the Wildcats have any chance of competing the competitive Big 12.
"Taking the game of basketball serious," Hawkins said. "I feel like today we didn't warm up well enough. I feel like we came out flat with no energy and I feel like at times we just don't take the pregame warmups serious. I think everyone needs to take a bigger jump of discipline as far as just being better in those perspectives."
Shandel Richardson is the publisher of Kansas State On SI. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com
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