Jerome Tang urges Kansas State fans to remove hatred from basketball rivalry with KU

Jerome Tang wants Kansas State fans to re-evaluate the way they treat the Sunflower Showdown.

Even though Tang has never experienced the decibel levels or the passion that fills Bramlage Coliseum every time Kansas visits town for a heated in-state basketball game, he has heard enough about the rivalry to think the Wildcats place too much emphasis on it.

Starting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, when No. 13 K-State plays host to No. 2 KU in one of the most anticipated Sunflower Showdown games in recent memory, he would love it if EMAW nation focused more on “loving” the Wildcats than “hating” the Jayhawks.

“I don’t want our fans to show up to the game because they hate the other team,” Tang said. “I want them to show up because they love Kansas State. Every guy on our roster, they didn’t pick this school because they hated somebody else. They picked this school because they love us as a staff and they love this community and they love this university.

“I would be real interested to see how we can change this thing around if we are motivated by love rather than by hate.”

Tang has worked hard since he arrived on campus to build fan excitement and pack the Octagon of Doom for all the right reasons. His goal has been to put a winning team in the floor that fans wanted to support. He has also urged fans to stop vulgar chants that have been directed at KU in the past. He even hopped into the student section at K-State football games last season in an effort to promote new KSU cheers.

And his strategy worked.

Now, he wants that same approach to carry over to the hardwood, where vulgar KU chants have been the norm for decades.

Tang spent 18 minutes speaking with reporters on Monday, and during that time he was asked mostly about his thoughts on the enormity of the Sunflower Showdown. He was in no mood to play along.

“I just feel, and I know I’m going to upset some people, I feel like we — the Kansas State community and family — allow them to live rent free in our heads way too much,” Tang said. “This game is one game in the conference. If we win, we get one win. If we lose, we get one loss. That’s it. I came here to try and win a Big 12 championship and a national championship. The year we won the national championship (at Baylor) we split with these guys.”

Tang further downplayed the meaning of this rivalry by saying he didn’t necessarily view it as a rivalry. In his mind, you need more than two fan bases that don’t like each other for a true rivalry to form. You need competitive games that basketball folks all across the country want to watch.

That hasn’t happened in recent years, as Kansas has dominated this series with a 56-6 record since the Big 12 was formed in 1996.

Tang says he is in Manhattan to change that.

He thinks fans showing up to Bramlage with the right mindset will help.

“Let’s show up to the game, because we love Kansas State,” Tang said. “Let’s show up to every game because we love Kansas State. Let’s pack Bramlage and make it the Octagon of Doom because we love Kansas State, not because we hate somebody else.”