Jerome Tang calls Michigan State's Tom Izzo a 'class act'

When Kansas State and Michigan State meet on Thursday night in the Sweet 16, it’ll be a matchup between two coaches who have immense amount of respect for each other: Tom Izzo and Jerome Tang.

And while Izzo might be the household name, Tang has coached his team to a three-seed and an appearance in the Sweet 16, just one win away from the Elite Eight.

Tang was effusive in his praise for Izzo, in part for a chance encounter in which Izzo had the opportunity to show off his breadth of knowledge on college basketball and college basketball coaches.

“Tom Izzo, man, is just a class act, and I’ve followed him for a long time,” Tang said. “Add the fact as an assistant he knew my name, it blew me away.”

Tang was previously an assistant coach at Baylor when he crossed paths with Tom Izzo at Michigan State. Those two programs met in 2016 and 2021. Tang’s Baylor squads won both times.

The first-year Kansas State coach will obviously be hoping for more of the same on Thursday night when the ball is tipped and a spot in the Elite Eight is clawed for, but first Tang made sure to sing Izzo’s praises ahead of the matchup.

“Just to watch what he’s done, how he’s handled his program, loved his players, had tremendous success on and off the court, how he handled the tragedy at Michigan State this year, everybody can learn from that,” he said.

As far as the basketball on the court, Tang has singled out two areas his team will have to be good at if it hopes to have a shot against the Spartans.

Those areas are getting back in transition defensively and rebounding to limit second-chance opportunities.

But whatever respect the coaches have for each other, it’s not the coaches who will be suiting up trying to play their way into the Elite Eight. It’s the players.

“I told Coach Izzo, I wish it was me and him playing to see who goes to the Elite 8, but it’s going to be our teams,” Tang said. “This is about those guys out there on the floor. I wouldn’t want to shoot free throws against him, though, because I know he’s really good at that.”

Kansas State and Jerome Tang and Tom Izzo and Michigan State are set to square off on Thursday in a game that tips off at 6:30 p.m. ET on TBS.