In the moments after Kansas State’s excruciating 79-76 loss to Florida Atlantic in an Elite Eight game on Saturday at Madison Square Garden, coach Jerome Tang posted up in the hallway leading to the K-State locker room.
Then he waited and greeted every crestfallen member of the Wildcat entourage with a hand slap and a “Head up!” directive.
Once inside, he promptly elaborated on the idea as he addressed the captivating team that had fallen just short of the school’s first Final Four since 1964.
“He said if this is the worst thing that we have to go through, then our life will be pretty damned good,” said Markquis Nowell, the spellbinding Most Outstanding Player of the East Regional, as he mustered a smile in the largely hushed room.
He added: “There’s some people really going through some hard things in life, and I just lost a basketball game.”
Over the next few minutes, Tang would enter the Florida Atlantic locker room to congratulate coaches and players and urge them forward.
And after his typical postgame opening to thank “my Lord and savior, Jesus Christ,” he instantly offered the same conciliatory perspective to a broader audience.
“If we can’t be grateful in these times, then all the love and joy that we talk about is fraud,” he said. “And we’re not frauds.”
Not frauds in the sense of how he walks the talk. And certainly not frauds on the court.
Tang’s first K-State team, fused together with Nowell, Ish Massoud and 11 new scholarship players, won more games than the Wildcats had won the last two seasons combined (26 vs. 23) as he essentially revived a sagging program.
His grasp of how to do that bodes well for K-State’s future … even with Nowell’s eligibility expired and Keyontae Johnson almost certainly heading to the NBA.
And his grasp of how to meet this moment was even more compelling testimony about what should make the future bright.
Not just in the sense of why he should appeal to recruits, but also in terms of why K-State fans should feel proud to have him as the leader of the program.
When I asked him why it was so important to immediately embrace the bigger picture, here’s what he said:
“This is the third time I’ve lost in the Elite Eight,” he said, alluding to previous losses as a Baylor assistant coach. “And you can sit around and mope and cry about it, or you can really think about the love and the joy that you’ve had through the season.
