{"id":5168,"date":"2026-03-07T10:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T10:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/5168\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T10:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T10:38:10","slug":"k-states-nastja-claessens-plays-with-belgian-parents-watching-from-stands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/5168\/","title":{"rendered":"K-State\u2019s Nastja Claessens plays with Belgian parents watching from stands"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kctv5.com\/sports\/ncaa\/kansas-state\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.kctv5.com\/sports\/ncaa\/kansas-state\/\">Kansas State<\/a> junior Nastja Claessens took the floor Friday with her parents in the stands, as her mother and father traveled from Belgium to watch her play.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI\u2019ve been counting down the day until they got here,\u201d Claessens said. \u201cI think my teammates are tired of hearing me talk about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Frederic and Irina Claessens said they were glad to make the trip to see their daughter compete.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe\u2019re here to support her \u2014 I think she\u2019s a long time from home. She\u2019s far away,\u201d Frederic Claessens said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"K-State's Jordan Spieser (23) and Nastja Claessens (4) celebrate after a play in the fourth...\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/CHUPIG2TZJBKDGCJSXYR3MU6ZE.jpg\" width=\"980\" height=\"770\" \/>K-State&#8217;s Jordan Spieser (23) and Nastja Claessens (4) celebrate after a play in the fourth quarter of the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals at T-Mobile Center on March 6, 2026.(Ryan Weaver | Big 12 Conference)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI\u2019m just happy to see my daughter. It\u2019s far away from home,\u201d Irina Claessens said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Both parents played basketball in Belgium. Nastja Claessens said she was surprised by how composed they were during the game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cMy mom calm? Really, well, normally that\u2019s not the case. My dad is always calm, but my mom, she\u2019s cheering,\u201d Nastja Claessens said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"The Oklahoma State Cowgirls compete against the Kansas State Wildcats during the Phillips 66...\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SAVKOR7YHZEDJBXZ4EACGONTEI.jpg\" width=\"980\" height=\"1470\" \/>The Oklahoma State Cowgirls compete against the Kansas State Wildcats during the Phillips 66 Big 12 Women\u2019s Basketball Championship at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri on March 6, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>(Denny Medley\\Big 12 Conference)(Denny Medley\\Big 12 Conference | Denny Medley\\Big 12 Conference)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Irina Claessens said attending the game in person was a welcome change from following along on television back home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cMy husband watches every game, and it\u2019s seven hours difference, so he gets up at night to see the game \u2014 I don\u2019t do that, it\u2019s too hard,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"The Texas Tech Lady Raiders compete against the Kansas State Wildcats during the Phillips 66...\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AI6X7QDAYJE2JPQD7DIMMAXX5M.jpg\" width=\"980\" height=\"653\" \/>The Texas Tech Lady Raiders compete against the Kansas State Wildcats during the Phillips 66 Big 12 Women\u2019s Basketball Chapionship at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri on March 5, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>(Denny Medley\\Big 12 Conference)(Denny Medley\\Big 12 Conference | Denny Medley\\Big 12 Conference)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Nastja Claessens said having her parents in attendance meant a great deal to her.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIt\u2019s just amazing having them here in the stands,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 KCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) &#8211; Kansas State junior Nastja Claessens took the floor Friday with her parents in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,3872,2894,3874,3870,3869,3871,3873],"class_list":{"0":"post-5168","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-belgium","8":"tag-belgium","9":"tag-big-12-tournament","10":"tag-breaking-news","11":"tag-k-state","12":"tag-kansas-state","13":"tag-kansas-state-junior-nastja-claessens","14":"tag-nastja-claessens","15":"tag-newsbreak-app"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116187463868075077","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}