Kansas State University fired the head coach of its men's basketball team just days after he said the athletes didn’t deserve to be on the team.
K-State officials on Sunday announced Jerome Tang was removed from the position, effective immediately. Associate head coach Matthew Driscoll will serve as the interim head coach for the remainder of the season.
In his first season leading the team in 2023, Tang took the Wildcats to the quarterfinals of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, known as the Elite Eight. However, the team has struggled to win games since.
The Wildcats currently sit tied for last place of the Big 12 standings with a 10-15 overall record. The team has only won one of its 12 conference games.
Tang publicly criticized the team immediately after a 29-point loss to the Cincinnati Bearcats last week. He said he was embarrassed for the university and the team’s fans.
“These dudes don’t deserve to wear the uniform,” Tang said of his athletes. “There will be very few of them in it next year.”
K-State Athletic Director Gene Taylor said during a news conference on Sunday that Tang’s comments led to the dismissal.
He said the university fired him for cause, meaning the university believes he violated terms of his contract and will not need to pay an $18 million buyout to cancel the contract.
“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,” Taylor said.
While the team’s players are student athletes, they are now also paid for participating on the team, effectively making them employees of the university. The team is reportedly paying at least two players $2 million each.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that Tang said he disagrees with the reasons for his dismissal and that he would fight the for-cause firing. That would likely require Tang to sue the university to pay the $18 million buyout.
A legal case could follow the same path as when the University of Kansas fired former football coach David Beaty without paying a $3 million buyout.
KU officials dismissed Beaty for cause in 2018 after reporting minor recruiting violations. Beaty sued the university, which ultimately settled the lawsuit by paying $2.55 million.
Dylan Lysen reports on social services and criminal justice for the Kansas News Service. You can email him at dlysen (at) kcur (dot) org.
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