When Kansas State parted ways with coach Jerome Tang on Sunday night, many fans celebrated and many outsiders agreed.
Not ESPN analyst Seth Greenberg, though. The veteran college basketball coach/columnist shredded the university and athletic director Gene Taylor.
"The athletic director is embarrassing for what he is trying to do," Greenberg said on SportsCenter Monday afternoon. "What did [Tang] actually say right there? He said, 'We’re gonna hold our players to a standard. The way they played was unacceptable. They didn’t compete. They didn’t play hard. We're gonna practice at 6 a.m. tomorrow, because we’re gonna fix this problem.' Did Jerome Tang make mistakes in the players he brought into the program, because they’re not winning enough? But say if he has a buyout, you'd have to pay it."
Greenberg disagreed with the removal of Tang for cause and said the institution should have just blamed it on this season's track record. The former coach's rant after the Cincinnati matchup drew outside attention and led to Taylor and the Wildcats front office eventually moving toward his termination. Tang will now have to go into a legal battle with the university to retain his remaining contract funds.
"Just say he’s not winning enough games," Greenberg said. "But to try to dispute and create some type of narrative that he didn’t fulfill his contract is absolutely embarrassing. All he was saying is the fans, students, and the community deserves better, and we’re gonna hold our team to a standard. The only thing he did wrong in the last two years he didn’t win enough games. He's a really good coach, a good person, and a genuine guy. Honor the contract. You can fire a guy because he hasn't won enough games, but you don’t have a right to try to embarrass him."
The players said they didn't take offense to Tang's comments, but they still seemed harmful regardless. To blast your players publicly and declare they shouldn't play for the institution is a bit harsh.
"He said the same thing to his team in that locker room," Greenberg said. "He’s basically sending a statement to his fans, the university, and the community that the effort and the way they're playing is unacceptable. He’s part of that because he brought those guys in, but he did absolutely nothing wrong. All he did was basically say, 'There’s a standard at Kansas state, and we’re not fulfilling that standard. It’s gotta be some type of accountability.' End of conversation."