#HandshakeLineGate: There Was A Little Bit Of A Beef Between Kansas And Kansas State Last Night
Little beef here between Kansas and Kansas State in the handshake line. Bill Self came out and tried to make it like Jerome Tang blew through the handshake line after Kansas put it on K State on senior night in a game K State needed badly for it's tournament resume. His quote references a "fly by" which means Tang gave the bare minimum effort of shaking hands, or as some people understood it completely blew off the handshake line. That second part was very much not true. Tang shook hands. Video is below.
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It picks up Tang as well as his entire staff (shoutout Coach Reem, A-W, Carp, and Coach Marco who can all be seen in these screen grabs)
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Seems pretty clear they went through the line. Did they smile and say how great it was to lose ? Hell no because they are competitors. I know Frank The Tank's teams love losing and smile, but anyone worth a damn in sports hates losing. That's what you see here. K State is pissed they lost, but took their loss with class and all went through the handshake line. I'm confused why a guy like Bill Self, one of the best in the business, would make a story like this out of nothing especially after a big win and a night honoring his seniors. Kansas State lost with class. Simple as that.
It's also kind of weird for Self to call it a "fly by" when the internet sleuths dug up this video from this year when K State beat Kansas.
Again, I like Tang a lot, and I think Self is really good, and respect his staff as well (shoutout KT and Brady). I felt like this was a very weird move to make a story out of this when Self literally did the same thing early this year.
The moral of the story is this. No one is ever happy when they lose. No one who is a self respecting competitor is laughing or happy with a loss. Some people go ultra extreme and act like babies when they lose, and bitch and cry etc. Most take the loss, shake hands and try to be better the next day. That's exactly what Kansas State did last night and lost with class, and it's exactly what Kansas did when they lost. Same exact thing.
Self either has an axe to grind with a rival team on something else, or just forgot how he "flew by" the handshake line. Either way, Self is at the top of the game that he shouldn't be out getting in petty pissing matches, and Tang is so respected across the sport he deserves the benefit of the doubt that Self should have known Tang wouldn't act like a baby.
End result … Self shouldn't have tried to make this a story, and both these teams are perfectly fine in how they acted after losses. Still very odd as to what Self's real motivation was behind this … I'm sure we'll hear about it at some point.