Kansas State's Jerome Tang On Defends His Players: 'They Still Have To Grow'
Jerome Tang and Kansas State are no strangers to outside critiques.
Tang has been outspoken in defending his players against these criticisms, and he once again hopped to their defense after their Drake loss Tuesday night.
"It is hard, it changed how I was coaching early in the year," Tang said. "I had to find that balance because I'm called to love these dudes and help them mature. They're still young men who have to learn how to grow. The lack of leadership at the NCAA and some of the decisions that are made by people way above my pay grade have put us in a vacuum where we have no direction. And we thrust all this upon these young kids and tell them to go be adults."
Tang referred to a specific scenario where an analyst criticized one player for missing shots despite making sizeable financial compensation. Tang has long defended NIL deals with many of K-State's players who have heavy salaries.
“I watch NBA games and they never say that about NBA players who make way more money than that," Tang said. "And [Frank] spoke what everybody’s thinking, but it’s the wrong way of thinking. As a staff, we’re gonna keep loving these dudes. We’re gonna teach them how to deal with the anxiety that comes upon it and build their faith, in something that’s greater than just bouncing the basketball.”
The Wildcats play Wichita State University (8-3) Dec. 21 at 7:00 p.m.
Jayden Armant is a graduate of the Howard University School of Communications and a contributor to Kansas State Wildcats on SI. He can be reached at jaydenshome14@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @jaydenarmant.
Jayden is a journalism school graduate of Howard University. He was the 2024 recipient of the Terez Paylor scholarship award. He previously worked at the Orlando Sentinel.