Arguably the most turbulent basketball season in Kansas State history has come to an end.
The Wildcats finished 12-20, winning just three Big 12 games and falling Tuesday to BYU in the conference tournament’s first round in Kansas City.
But the lowest point of the campaign came in mid February, when head coach Jerome Tang was fired.
“Really proud of the fact that we didn’t quit,” said Kansas State interim head coach Matthew Driscoll, who stepped in following Tang’s firing. “We never quit during this whole tumultuous situation. We were probably the most resilient team in the Big 12, bar none. We’ve been through everything you could possibly think of, injury, illness and attrition.
“... So there’s a lot to be said about this team and about what they did. And I’m super proud to be their person that’s temporarily in charge of them. Notice I said ‘temporarily,’ there’s no breaking news going on right here.”
Tuesday against BYU, Kansas State surrendered 40 points to AJ Dybantsa in the 105-91 loss.
While the Wildcats led by six late in the first half, BYU put together a 25-8 run to take a commanding lead. When Kansas State later cut the deficit to three points, the Cougars again responded with a dominant stretch to put the game out of reach.
“I really thought from the get-go, we did some really nice things. That run (from BYU) was all stops that led to scores.
“... And to their credit, they raised themselves, they made some plays. Offensive rebounding really hurt us. They had 14 of them. They had 19 second-chance points.”
As for the experience of taking over for his good friend Tang, Driscoll described it as “absolutely miserable.”
“It’s been miserable ... but (the team) wouldn’t know that because all I tried to do was just pour in and pour in and pour in — to the staff, to the players, to the GAs, to the managers," Driscoll said.
“And our staff, to their credit, they tried to pour in. It took a lot to hold it together, a lot. But if you’re a grown man and you make a decision to come to Kansas State, no matter what the outcome is or whatever the responsibilities are, when somebody asks you to do something and you say yes, you do it. That’s just the way I was raised.”
But despite the emotional toll of the experience, Driscoll expressed gratitude for his time at Kansas State and opportunity to learn from adversity.
“If you pitch a tent in adversity, you’re going to die,” Driscoll said. “Darkness comes, but the light is where you need to be. So you need to make footprints in adversity and get to where you’re going. So don’t pitch a tent. When there’s adversity, don’t pitch a tent.”