Jan 24, 2024; Ames, Iowa, USA; Kansas State Wildcats head coach Jerome Tang and Iowa State Cyclones head coach T.J. Otzelberger meet after their game at James H. Hilton Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Reese Strickland-Imagn Images
Iowa State will face off with Kansas State on Saturday at Hilton Coliseum (1 p.m. ESPN2).
It’s just days removed from the one-year anniversary of K-State coach Jerome Tang accusing Iowa State of utilizing phone cameras and people in the stands to gain an advantage during media timeouts when the two met on January 24, 2024. So of course he was asked about it, and as expected, he wanted no part of it.
“I hadn’t even really thought about it,” Tang told Kansas.com this week.
The Wildcats coach was visibly distraught about certain members of the crowd during the game and appeared to have voiced those displeasures in his postgame with Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger.
The spying allegations found their way to media members around Manhattan, and pressed Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard to complete an investigation to look for proof of what was being alleged.
Proof of which, was not found.
“Let’s put this to bed here and now,” Otzelberger said following the Cyclones’ victory on the ensuing Saturday over Kansas. “It didn’t happen. It won’t happen. And others need to be much more careful with their words moving forward.”
T.J. Otzelberger’s statement on accusations of cheating during the Kansas State game: pic.twitter.com/sjvztSt7wY
— CycloneFanatic.com (@cyclonefanatic) January 27, 2024
The two teams will square off for the first time since the incident in Ames this weekend, and it’s expected that fans in the arena will have some fun with it. It would be shocking if they didn’t. None of which now concerns Tang, whose struggling team has won two games in a row after dropping six straight.
“No adjustment,” Tang said. “We are going to go up there and just enjoy the environment and see what we can do to get a road win.”
