MANHATTAN — Kansas State and athletic director Gene Taylor are receiving national criticism for their pursuit of firing Jerome Tang for cause.
Multiple national voices have weighed in, saying Kansas State is doing Tang wrong by trying to get out of his $18.675 million buyout by citing the school’s embarrassment over his postgame press conference following the Wildcats’ recent loss to Cincinnati.
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ESPN’s Seth Greenberg, a former coach at Virginia Tech, was among the loudest on SportsCenter on Monday, Feb. 16, the morning after Tang’s firing was announced.
“That athletic director is embarrassing,” Greenberg said. “Did Jerome Tang make some mistakes in terms of the players he brought into the program, and they’re not winning enough? Sure. Kansas State, you made a bad decision in your mind. Just say he’s not winning enough games and that we need to make a change. Trying to dispute and create some type of narrative that he didn’t fulfill his contract, that is absolutely embarrassing to K-State, the athletic department and administration.”
Dan Dakich, a former head coach at Bowling Green and Indiana who now contributes to OutKick, also weighed in with multiple posts on X. He mocked K-State, saying that it fired Tang for saying that players disrespected the program and would have an early practice, among other posts.
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“The University that hired Bob Huggins is now moralizing to the rest of the country!!!” Dakich posted along with Taylor’s statement when firing Tang. “Amazing world.”
Former coaches on television weren’t the only ones to criticize Kansas State; college basketball insiders also weighed in. Field of 68 co-founder Jeff Goodman also joined in.
“This is insane,” Goodman said. “Pay the guy what he’s owed. He didn’t do anything egregious.”
ESPN radio host Myron Medcalf, a senior basketball reporter for the network, questioned why someone would want to coach at Kansas State after its decision.
“Why would you want the Kansas State job after this?” Medcalf posted. “Can’t get upset and go off on your team? Team was losing. Jerome Tang knew how bad it was. And it was bad. But taking his buyout over a heated press conference should make every viable candidate tell their agents to think twice.”
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Wyatt D. Wheeler covers Kansas State athletics for the USA TODAY Network and Topeka Capital-Journal. You can follow him on X at @WyattWheeler_, contact him at 417-371-6987 or email him at wwheeler@usatodayco.com
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas State AD taking heat after Jerome Tang fired for cause
