Kansas State Put On Blast By ESPN Analyst After Jerome Tang Firing
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A rough season for the Kansas State Wildcats got even rougher over the weekend when the school announced that they were firing head men's basketball coach Jerome Tang, who was in the midst of his fifth season with the team.
The firing came after a postgame rant by the coach following the Wildcats' loss to the Cincinnati Bearcats that Kansas State claimed constituted "public disrepute, embarrassment, and ridicule" to the school.
The school would claim they were firing the coach for cause, a statement disputed by the coach himself and one ESPN analyst in particular.
Chris "Mad Dog" Russo Slams Kansas State Over Tang Firing
During his Wednesday afternoon segment of What Are You Mad About, Russo tore into the Big 12 school for firing the coach and not giving him the $18 million he would be owed if he were bought out, and Russo pointed to the absurdity of NIL deals in today's college sports realm.
"How about Kansas State firing their head basketball coach and then saying it's for cause, and that they're not gonna pay him the $18 million which he would get with his buyout?" Russo exclaimed. "These college players, now, they're not 17-year-old freshman that are there to go to chemistry class and play basketball. They're getting paid a fortune! They're getting paid two million dollars a year in NIL!"
Russo's rant continued, defending Tang and that he was absolutely correct in what he said after the massive loss to Cincinnati.
"He (Tang) was annoyed about effort, responsibility, the fact that they've only won one game and said, 'You know what? We're gonna have practice tomorrow at 6:00, I'm embarrassed for the university, I'm embarrassed for the team, my fan base, the student body, everything else' and he's a thousand percent right. He didn't do anything wrong with what he said."
The analyst then called for some maturity from the players, stating that they are pros now since they were being paid like pros.
"And these players? You're pros now. The idea that you're an amateur, that goes out the window, you're making a fortune," Russo continued. "And for Kansas State to sit there and say, 'We're gonna fire him because he embarrassed the university, he picked on our players, we're not gonna pay him the $18 million,' and I say pay the guy the money! You can afford it. Pay the guy the $18 million. You wanna fire him? Kick him out the door, but you pay him."
Luckily for the Wildcats, things were able to turn around for the team quickly after the firing, as they notched their second conference win in a 90-74 affair over the Baylor Bears Tuesday night, snapping a six-game losing streak.
The going doesn't get any easy for the Wildcats, as they have the No. 13 Texas Tech Red Raiders next on their schedule this Saturday, but considering their star player JT Toppin just suffered a torn ACL and is out for the season, this could be an open opportunity for Kansas State to fully turn their season around.
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Aaron Raley is a writer covering Kansas State On SI. Born and raised in Northeast Texas, Aaron earned a degree from Texas A&M University in journalism, with minors in history and sports management. Aaron’s writing abilities are driven by his love and passion for various sports, both at the collegiate and professional levels, as well as his experience in playing sports, especially baseball and football.
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