Jerome Tang explains why K-State accepted NIT after falling short of NCAA Tournament

Several college basketball teams that felt snubbed by the NCAA Tournament selection committee said “no thanks” to the NIT after they didn’t receive an invitation to March Madness on Sunday.

Kansas State wasn’t one of them.

Jerome Tang is happy to share several reasons why.

“It’s a blessing to have the opportunity to play in the postseason,” the K-State head coach said Monday. “When I was at Baylor we got to play in the NIT three times. Two of those times we went to the championship game and one time we won it. I think it’s just (great) being able to spend another day together as a team.

“We love each other and love being around each other. We have a great time. So it’s just exciting for us that we get to continue our season.”

K-State opted to continue its campaign in the consolation tournament known as the NIT. It is a 32-team event compiled mostly of teams that had winning records but weren’t quite good enough to make it into the NCAA Tournament.

A few teams (Oklahoma, Pittsburgh, Mississippi, Memphis and St. John’s) decided to opt out of the tournament in order to begin focusing on the transfer portal and next season. Some wondered if K-State might follow suit, but that was never a consideration.

Tang thinks the Wildcats are well equipped to multi-task for however long they remain in the NIT.

“Coaches don’t get contract extensions for NIT invitations,” Tang said. “That’s the nature of it. So I understand. I don’t begrudge anybody for opting out, and I hope nobody would begrudge us for staying in. It’s just where you’re at with your program at that point in time and what you feel is most important. Everyone has to make their own decision.

“I can only imagine this is very similar to what football coaches experience in December when there are high school signings, you’re preparing for a bowl game, you’re trying to keep your guys and the portal is opening. There is just a lot going on right now.”

First up for the Wildcats is an 8 p.m. game against Iowa at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Tuesday. The game will be televised on ESPN.

Tang said he will have a full roster of K-State players available for the game. He also thinks the Wildcats are excited to keep playing.

There were some sad faces in the locker room when K-State missed out on the NCAA Tournament, but the Wildcats knew their fate after a string of upsets in conference tournaments sent them tumbling off the bubble on Saturday.

When K-State exited the Big 12 Tournament on Thursday, Tang made it clear during his postgame news conference that he thought the Wildcats deserved a spot in March Madness. Looking back, he now thinks they needed at least two more wins.

He says he may consider tweaking his philosophy on nonconference schedules moving forward to boost his team’s chances of reaching the NCAA Tournament. But he concedes that K-State simply needed to win more than 19 games this season.

Now it’s time for him to start looking forward.

A NIT championship would be nice, but he would also like to give extra minutes to young players and develop some players for the future. That’s another reason why he wanted to coach in the NIT.

“What I’m going to do is play the guys who look like they are the most excited to be out there,” Tang said. “I may go a little bit deeper. Our goal is to win. We are going to do whatever it takes to win.

“We will see, but it would be nice to make sure that everybody got playing time in there as well.”