ESPN college basketball analyst Seth Greenberg blasts Kansas State on firing Jerome Tang for cause. Credit: ESPN Credit: ESPN
By Matt Clapp on

Kansas State fired head basketball coach Jerome Tang for cause on Sunday night, just a few days after he ripped Wildcats players in a postgame press conference tirade.

In the official statement, Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor said, “Recent public comments and conduct, in addition to the program’s overall direction, have not aligned with K-State’s standards for supporting student-athletes and representing the university.” Taylor also told the media, “There’s language in his contract that addresses certain things that can potentially bring embarrassment. Basically, his comments about the student-athletes and the negative reaction to those comments from a lot of sources, both nationally and locally, is where I thought we needed to make the decision.”

ESPN’s Pete Thamel added, “The basis for the for-cause firing, sources told ESPN, is language in Tang’s contract that references any activity that brings ‘public disrepute, embarrassment, ridicule’ to Kansas State.”

So, Kansas State essentially cited the national media reaction to Tang’s tirade, like from Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon on ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption, as reasoning for firing Tang for cause before the end of the season, in an effort to avoid paying Tang a $18.675 million buyout.

On Monday, ESPN analyst and former longtime college basketball coach Seth Greenberg made the rounds on the network’s programming and sounded off on Kansas State firing Tang for cause.

“That athletic director is embarrassing for what he is trying to do,” Greenberg said on a Monday afternoon edition of SportsCenter. “What did (Tang) actually say right there? He said, we’re going to hold our players to our standard. The way they played was unacceptable. They didn’t compete; they didn’t play hard. We’re going to practice at six o’clock tomorrow morning, because we’re going to fix this problem.”

“Yeah, Jerome Tang made some mistakes in terms of maybe the players that he brought into the program, because they’re not winning enough, sure,” Greenberg continued. “But let me tell you something. If Jerome Tang, say, wanted to take the UCLA job, he has a buyout. He’d have to pay. You know what? K-State, you made a bad decision in your mind. All right, they’re not winning enough games. Just say he’s not winning enough games, we need to make a change. But to try to dispute and try to create some type of narrative that he didn’t fulfill his contract, that is absolutely embarrassing to K-State, the athletic department, the administration.”

“What did (Tang) do wrong?” Greenberg added. “The only thing he did wrong, in the last two years, he didn’t win enough games. Jerome Tang is a really good coach, a really good person, a genuine guy. He’s real and genuine, and that is an embarrassment to the university. You give a guy a contract, honor the contract. You could fire a guy because he hasn’t won enough games. But you don’t have a right to try to embarrass him.”

“The university said his behavior was embarrassing,” Greenberg explained on an evening edition of SportsCenter. “To me, the university’s behavior is embarrassing. The athletic director’s behavior is embarrassing.”

“He’s getting fired because he did not win enough games,” Greenberg said. “It has nothing to do with that press conference. It has nothing to do with what he said.”

“Jerome Tang, he made mistakes,” Greenberg continued. “He made mistakes with his roster construction, he made mistakes in terms of how maybe he handled this team, but one thing he didn’t do- he didn’t deserve to be fired with cause. He’s getting fired because he did not win enough games.”

Greenberg offered similar commentary later during studio coverage of ESPN’s college basketball action on Monday night.

After a 91-62 home loss to Cincinnati last Wednesday, Tang told the media, “This was embarrassing. These dudes do not deserve to wear this uniform. There will be very few of them in it next year. I’m embarrassed for the university. I’m embarrassed for our fans, our student section. It is just ridiculous.” He added, “They don’t love this place, so they don’t deserve to be here.” And in response to frustrated Kansas State fans wearing paper bags over their heads, Tang said, “I’d wear a paper bag, too, if I was them.”

Tang released a statement on Sunday expressing his “strong” disagreement with Kansas State’s reasoning for firing him.

On Monday, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that Tang has hired attorneys Tom Mars and Bennett Speyer in the case of his firing for cause.

Mars told ESPN, per Thamel, “If K-State’s President and AD really think the school was embarrassed by recent events, that’s nothing compared to the embarrassment that both of them are about to experience.”

About Matt Clapp

Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.

He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.

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