Kansas State University Athletics
‘A Staple of Our Program’
Sep 26, 2023 | Men's Basketball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
"I thought I might go home and try to do some stuff with my yard, but I think it's too wet from the rain," Phil Baier says, as he pulls open the heavy glass door from the second-floor nutrition center at Ice Basketball Center. Baier, the strength and conditioning coach for the Kansas State men's basketball program, wears a purple Nike T-shirt. A large white shark trashes across the chest. Below in sanserif bold white letters reads: "ALL. IN."
Today was the final day of Shark Week. Five days. Eight hours. Dozens of defensive slides and conditioning ladders, games of tug-of-war, distance running, fast-twitch running, timed running, and more ladders, and well, this is just the beginning. There's more, so much more, and so many more reps that steer and grind toward the great plateau, referred only to as the "Championship Run" — an undertaking whose exact ingredients are locked away like the secret recipe to uncle Steve's smoked ribs.
It's all encompassing. It's taxing. It's Baier, already an early riser, in his element with every K-State basketball player at 6 a.m. And like we said, they undergo eight hours of training total during the week, or between 45 minutes to 90 minutes per morning session, so every moment is precious, and every line must be touched, and every hand must be clapped, or they'll do it until it's right, because there can be no player heading home, head down, saying, "I didn't win the day," because that means nobody won the day, and that's, well, that's not even an option in Shark Week.
Shark Week, the brainchild of K-State head coach Jerome Tang. Shark Week, the brainchild of Jerome Tang, National Coach of the Year. Shark Week, the key to outlasting the other guys, the anchor to K-State going 5-0 in overtime games last season, including that 98-93 thriller over Michigan State to advance to the 2023 Elite Eight.
"There's always Shark Week on the Discovery Channel," Tang says. "We call it Shark Week because our guys are going to discover some things about themselves and each other."
Tang continues.
"You know, there's a video of a guy challenging Kobe to one-on-one," Tang says. "Kobe says, 'We'll go to 11. You have 10 points and the ball.' Fast-forward and it's 10-10 and Kobe asks the guy, 'How do you want me to win it?' And Kobe tells him, 'It's a whole lot different watching it on the Discovery Channel than actually getting into the water with a Great White.'
"A lot of people think they want to play K-State until they actually get onto the court with us. That's the kind of mentality I want our guys to have."
Shark Week. Tang had the vision before he had a team. Baier came on board as strength and conditioning coach in April 2022. He had spent the previous three seasons as strength and conditioning coach at Miami (2019-22) and had nine years of experience working specifically with men's basketball teams. When Baier arrived in Manhattan, it was Markquis Nowell and Ishmael Massoud. That was it. They worked and worked. Massoud put on five pounds in nine days. Even then, Tang and Baier talked big dreams and aspirations and compared notes. More players came to Manhattan. Eventually, it was time to dive into the proverbial water and tangle with the Sharks.
They called it Shark Week G.R.I.T. — Greatness Really Is Tough.
"Shark Week was a part of Coach Tang's vision from the jump," Baier says. "He said this would be a staple of our program."
The offseason, the June workouts, everything led to this week, which begins with some form of conditioning and is frightfully progressive. It's competitive. It cumulative. The first day is most manageable. The last day is hell.
"We're not going to stop until the job is done, so if we go longer on one day, then that means we have a shorter amount of time to achieve our goals the following day, and our guys know it," Baier says. "I'm very fortunate to work with a coaching staff that recruits very competitive guys, so there's pride there."
As for the exact routine?
"I don't want to dive into it too much because it's family secrets," Baier says. "But there's time lengths on the floor and there's ladders, which is a progressive deal where you go down-and-back and down-and-back and so on, and everyone in basketball runs that. We'll have some variations of that. We'll do some things that are a little different. We ran the hill this Shark Week. We had a certain distance they had to run and a certain amount of time to go up and down."
Then there's the holy grail to the entire week, the key to unlock the next level, the final obstacle before the start of official practice.
"Coach has the Championship Run, which is the hardest thing, and I'm not going to say what it is, but I can say there are 30 reps to it, and they have to get it done," Baier says. "It's a big deal. I have a hard time thinking the Championship Run will change. It's a challenge. The guys have to come together. By any means necessary, they have to complete all their reps."
Baier adds: "We grow a lot."
Tang boasts that the preparation and execution of Shark Week is a direct reflection of Baier's talents and expertise.
"Phil's the best in the country," Tang says. "His dedication to his craft in helping guys improve in every aspect is second to none. He's so dedicated and so oriented to attention of detail that these guys have no choice but to improve."
Asked if he believed that K-State was the best-conditioned team in college basketball last year, Baier says, "I think we proved it."
"We still have a lot of work to do," he continues. "Shark Week is great but obviously we get more time when we get to practice, and I'm very fortunate where this is a major gas-pedal moment in Shark Week where we're go-go-go. Then when we get to practice, which is more strategic in terms of some of the data we receive on our devices. We know when we can really push a little longer and some days when we might need to back off. I'm very fortunate Coach utilizes both Shark Week and stuff like that to play our way into condition.
"I don't think anybody practices like us. How we practice is very different and it's fast paced and it's together, and that allows us to be the best conditioned team out there."
It runs further than Shark Week. It's about Kinexon technology, which in simple terms, is a GPC device players wear on their shorts. It tracks total mileage so Baier knows distance and speed variance, understanding fully that if a player runs six or seven miles-per-hour for four miles, it'll create different stress than if he runs 2 ½ miles but is 0.9 miles of over 16 to 17 miles-per-hour, which is a fast pace in basketball. Baier utilizes the device in part to measure the amount of stress exerted in practice — "actually comparing Shark Week and practice is kind of fun," Baier says — and he posts players' individual practice speeds and jump heights, which are measured through Force Plate technology.
"The jump test, they have their foot on each plate and jump on the plates, and that spits out a ton of different metrics — jump height, how fast a player jumps off the ground, whether the player pushes more with his left or right leg, and whether he landed with more pressure on his left or right leg," Baier says.
"Coach believes in lifting every single day, so we'll go into the weight room, whether it's a day before we're about to play Baylor at home, we'll always lift. We're always doing something, so we'll jump them throughout the week, and we can get some really good data and see if they're ready to practice.
"There will be times where we can see a freshman get stronger without maxing him out because of the force he's producing in his jumps. Or hypothetically, there'll be times where after we won two games on the road in Texas, we came back and it's showing a little bit more fatigue and guys are off the ground a little slower or a little off balanced in terms of how they push or land. That'll go into how we're going to strategize practice."
It all goes back to the foundation. It all goes back to Shark Week.
"Me being a guy who's done it for two years now, I realize it's definitely a mental thing," senior forward Nae'Qwan Tomlin says. "Last year, Markquis was more the leader, and I was just really going through the motions and trying to get through it. We got through it. This year, being one of the leaders, I got to really show some of the guys that it's really just a mental thing.
"I remember the day we had to do some sprints. Guys were like, 'We can't do it. Let's call a timeout.' We had five sprints. I said, 'No, let's go for 10!' We got to 10 sprints."
Tomlin was one of the Shark Week standouts this year.
"Everybody called out and improved in some facet this Shark Week," Baier says. "Nae'Qwan and Dai Dai Ames jump off the page in terms of their ability to consistently – regardless of what's presented to them – make reps. Those two were really, really up there. Jerrell Colbert had a good week. Dorian Finister and David N'Guessan had good weeks. Ques Glover and Will McNair Jr. weren't with us all summer and they weren't on the foreign tour, so for this being one of Will's first days and one of Ques' first weeks, for them to come in and be able to push and be a good part of the team and the culture, that was really impressive."
Year two of Shark Week, combined with the rest of the offseason, put K-State in a great position for practice.
"With the combination of our tour to Israel and this and we're going to take a team retreat, everything helps," Tang says. "When you sweat together and overcome something together and have to help your teammates get through something and then they help you get through something you don't think you can get through, it builds a bond. Shark Week we can draw from all year long. We were 5-0 in overtime games last year because we were one of the best conditioned teams in the country, and we could draw from Shark Week. We did all the things we did so we could win the last five minutes of the game. It's so valuable."
Same goes for Baier, whose importance shines through daily, but whose dedication is without comparison. Especially during Shark Week.
He hasn't had time to do stuff in his yard.
On the basketball court, he's done plenty.
He's planted the seeds for the most well-conditioned team in college basketball.
Practice officially started on Monday.
"I thought I might go home and try to do some stuff with my yard, but I think it's too wet from the rain," Phil Baier says, as he pulls open the heavy glass door from the second-floor nutrition center at Ice Basketball Center. Baier, the strength and conditioning coach for the Kansas State men's basketball program, wears a purple Nike T-shirt. A large white shark trashes across the chest. Below in sanserif bold white letters reads: "ALL. IN."
Today was the final day of Shark Week. Five days. Eight hours. Dozens of defensive slides and conditioning ladders, games of tug-of-war, distance running, fast-twitch running, timed running, and more ladders, and well, this is just the beginning. There's more, so much more, and so many more reps that steer and grind toward the great plateau, referred only to as the "Championship Run" — an undertaking whose exact ingredients are locked away like the secret recipe to uncle Steve's smoked ribs.
It's all encompassing. It's taxing. It's Baier, already an early riser, in his element with every K-State basketball player at 6 a.m. And like we said, they undergo eight hours of training total during the week, or between 45 minutes to 90 minutes per morning session, so every moment is precious, and every line must be touched, and every hand must be clapped, or they'll do it until it's right, because there can be no player heading home, head down, saying, "I didn't win the day," because that means nobody won the day, and that's, well, that's not even an option in Shark Week.
Shark Week, the brainchild of K-State head coach Jerome Tang. Shark Week, the brainchild of Jerome Tang, National Coach of the Year. Shark Week, the key to outlasting the other guys, the anchor to K-State going 5-0 in overtime games last season, including that 98-93 thriller over Michigan State to advance to the 2023 Elite Eight.
"There's always Shark Week on the Discovery Channel," Tang says. "We call it Shark Week because our guys are going to discover some things about themselves and each other."
Tang continues.
"You know, there's a video of a guy challenging Kobe to one-on-one," Tang says. "Kobe says, 'We'll go to 11. You have 10 points and the ball.' Fast-forward and it's 10-10 and Kobe asks the guy, 'How do you want me to win it?' And Kobe tells him, 'It's a whole lot different watching it on the Discovery Channel than actually getting into the water with a Great White.'
"A lot of people think they want to play K-State until they actually get onto the court with us. That's the kind of mentality I want our guys to have."
Shark Week. Tang had the vision before he had a team. Baier came on board as strength and conditioning coach in April 2022. He had spent the previous three seasons as strength and conditioning coach at Miami (2019-22) and had nine years of experience working specifically with men's basketball teams. When Baier arrived in Manhattan, it was Markquis Nowell and Ishmael Massoud. That was it. They worked and worked. Massoud put on five pounds in nine days. Even then, Tang and Baier talked big dreams and aspirations and compared notes. More players came to Manhattan. Eventually, it was time to dive into the proverbial water and tangle with the Sharks.
They called it Shark Week G.R.I.T. — Greatness Really Is Tough.
"Shark Week was a part of Coach Tang's vision from the jump," Baier says. "He said this would be a staple of our program."
The offseason, the June workouts, everything led to this week, which begins with some form of conditioning and is frightfully progressive. It's competitive. It cumulative. The first day is most manageable. The last day is hell.
"We're not going to stop until the job is done, so if we go longer on one day, then that means we have a shorter amount of time to achieve our goals the following day, and our guys know it," Baier says. "I'm very fortunate to work with a coaching staff that recruits very competitive guys, so there's pride there."
As for the exact routine?
"I don't want to dive into it too much because it's family secrets," Baier says. "But there's time lengths on the floor and there's ladders, which is a progressive deal where you go down-and-back and down-and-back and so on, and everyone in basketball runs that. We'll have some variations of that. We'll do some things that are a little different. We ran the hill this Shark Week. We had a certain distance they had to run and a certain amount of time to go up and down."
Then there's the holy grail to the entire week, the key to unlock the next level, the final obstacle before the start of official practice.
"Coach has the Championship Run, which is the hardest thing, and I'm not going to say what it is, but I can say there are 30 reps to it, and they have to get it done," Baier says. "It's a big deal. I have a hard time thinking the Championship Run will change. It's a challenge. The guys have to come together. By any means necessary, they have to complete all their reps."
Baier adds: "We grow a lot."
Tang boasts that the preparation and execution of Shark Week is a direct reflection of Baier's talents and expertise.
"Phil's the best in the country," Tang says. "His dedication to his craft in helping guys improve in every aspect is second to none. He's so dedicated and so oriented to attention of detail that these guys have no choice but to improve."
Asked if he believed that K-State was the best-conditioned team in college basketball last year, Baier says, "I think we proved it."
"We still have a lot of work to do," he continues. "Shark Week is great but obviously we get more time when we get to practice, and I'm very fortunate where this is a major gas-pedal moment in Shark Week where we're go-go-go. Then when we get to practice, which is more strategic in terms of some of the data we receive on our devices. We know when we can really push a little longer and some days when we might need to back off. I'm very fortunate Coach utilizes both Shark Week and stuff like that to play our way into condition.
"I don't think anybody practices like us. How we practice is very different and it's fast paced and it's together, and that allows us to be the best conditioned team out there."
It runs further than Shark Week. It's about Kinexon technology, which in simple terms, is a GPC device players wear on their shorts. It tracks total mileage so Baier knows distance and speed variance, understanding fully that if a player runs six or seven miles-per-hour for four miles, it'll create different stress than if he runs 2 ½ miles but is 0.9 miles of over 16 to 17 miles-per-hour, which is a fast pace in basketball. Baier utilizes the device in part to measure the amount of stress exerted in practice — "actually comparing Shark Week and practice is kind of fun," Baier says — and he posts players' individual practice speeds and jump heights, which are measured through Force Plate technology.
"The jump test, they have their foot on each plate and jump on the plates, and that spits out a ton of different metrics — jump height, how fast a player jumps off the ground, whether the player pushes more with his left or right leg, and whether he landed with more pressure on his left or right leg," Baier says.
"Coach believes in lifting every single day, so we'll go into the weight room, whether it's a day before we're about to play Baylor at home, we'll always lift. We're always doing something, so we'll jump them throughout the week, and we can get some really good data and see if they're ready to practice.
"There will be times where we can see a freshman get stronger without maxing him out because of the force he's producing in his jumps. Or hypothetically, there'll be times where after we won two games on the road in Texas, we came back and it's showing a little bit more fatigue and guys are off the ground a little slower or a little off balanced in terms of how they push or land. That'll go into how we're going to strategize practice."
It all goes back to the foundation. It all goes back to Shark Week.
"Me being a guy who's done it for two years now, I realize it's definitely a mental thing," senior forward Nae'Qwan Tomlin says. "Last year, Markquis was more the leader, and I was just really going through the motions and trying to get through it. We got through it. This year, being one of the leaders, I got to really show some of the guys that it's really just a mental thing.
"I remember the day we had to do some sprints. Guys were like, 'We can't do it. Let's call a timeout.' We had five sprints. I said, 'No, let's go for 10!' We got to 10 sprints."
Tomlin was one of the Shark Week standouts this year.
"Everybody called out and improved in some facet this Shark Week," Baier says. "Nae'Qwan and Dai Dai Ames jump off the page in terms of their ability to consistently – regardless of what's presented to them – make reps. Those two were really, really up there. Jerrell Colbert had a good week. Dorian Finister and David N'Guessan had good weeks. Ques Glover and Will McNair Jr. weren't with us all summer and they weren't on the foreign tour, so for this being one of Will's first days and one of Ques' first weeks, for them to come in and be able to push and be a good part of the team and the culture, that was really impressive."
Year two of Shark Week, combined with the rest of the offseason, put K-State in a great position for practice.
"With the combination of our tour to Israel and this and we're going to take a team retreat, everything helps," Tang says. "When you sweat together and overcome something together and have to help your teammates get through something and then they help you get through something you don't think you can get through, it builds a bond. Shark Week we can draw from all year long. We were 5-0 in overtime games last year because we were one of the best conditioned teams in the country, and we could draw from Shark Week. We did all the things we did so we could win the last five minutes of the game. It's so valuable."
Same goes for Baier, whose importance shines through daily, but whose dedication is without comparison. Especially during Shark Week.
He hasn't had time to do stuff in his yard.
On the basketball court, he's done plenty.
He's planted the seeds for the most well-conditioned team in college basketball.
Practice officially started on Monday.
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's Basketball
W
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
C
/ Men's Basketball
W
/ Men's Basketball
PG
/ Men's BasketballK-State Women's Basketball | Head Coach Jeff Mittie Press Conference - Oct. 14
Tuesday, October 14
K-State Men's Basketball | Tang Talkin' Transfers - Dorin Buca
Monday, October 13
K-State Football | Postgame Highlights vs TCU
Sunday, October 12
K-State Football | Head Coach Chris Klieman Postgame Press Conference - October 11, 2025
Sunday, October 12