Here’s what Jerome Tang thinks about KU rivalry before his first Sunflower Showdown
The Sunflower Showdown has nearly every ingredient you need for an intense basketball rivalry.
Two passionate fan bases? Check. Close proximity between them? Check. A pair of teams that badly want to beat the other every time they step on the hardwood? Check.
The only thing missing is, well, let’s let new Kansas State coach Jerome Tang explain that one.
“I don’t know if it has been a rivalry,” Tang said. “A rivalry means both teams win, right? I don’t know that we have done anything to make it a rivalry.”
The Kansas Jayhawks have, indeed, owned this matchup in recent years. They have won seven in a row over the Wildcats and they have won 15 of the last 16. Stretch things back a little further and you get an even better sense of what Tang is talking about. The Big 12 was formed in 1996, and KU has gone 56-6 against K-State since then. The overall series record also favors Kansas 203-94.
Much like in football, with K-State dominating in recent years, the men’s basketball Sunflower Showdown has been a one-sided rivalry.
Changing that trend is one of many goals that Tang has for his tenure with the Wildcats, starting with a 6 p.m. tip against the Jayhawks on Tuesday at Bramlage Coliseum.
Though he has been careful not to emphasize KU over any other opponent on the schedule, he has made it clear that this game is more important than others.
For example, he likes to refer to Kansas as “that school down the road” and never tries to refer to the Jayhawks by name. He has also gone out of his way to endear himself with K-State fans in order to boost the team’s home-court advantage. The Octagon Doom will be loud as ever when KU rolls into town for this game.
Tang has legitimate hopes of winning his first game against Kansas as a head coach.
The Wildcats are off to a 15-2 start and most analytic sites have the Jayhawks pegged as a small road favorite of two points.
If the Wildcats are able to pull off an upset, it could signal renewed intensity in this rivalry. No matter what has happened in the past, Tang winning his first game against the Jayhawks would show how serious he is about closing the gap on KU.
The vast majority of K-State’s basketball players are new and will be experiencing this rivalry for the first time on Tuesday. Markquis Nowell and Ismael Massoud are the only Wildcats that have played against the Jayhawks.
But that doesn’t seem to matter. Everyone on K-State’s roster understands how much this game means. Tang will make sure of that.
“It’s a big rivalry game,” K-State forward Keyontae Johnson said. “That’s why I came to this conference to play in these type of games. They have a lot of history behind them. I am just ready to compete and get out there against them.”
This story was originally published January 16, 2023 at 10:53 AM with the headline "Here’s what Jerome Tang thinks about KU rivalry before his first Sunflower Showdown."