Almost 24 hours after the removal of Nae’Qwan Tomlin from the men’s basketball team became official, head coach Jerome Tang issued his first comment on the matter, using a video to make a plea for all moving forward.
A message from Coach Tang pic.twitter.com/67FzLKhxJd
— K-State Men's Basketball (@KStateMBB) December 8, 2023
The video was released just hours after Tang and assistant Jareem Dowling spoke with a group of students preparing to protest outside school president Dr. Richard Linton’s house for a second straight day, calling for Tomlin’s reinstatement. The appearance and comments resulted in the protesters leaving.
Tomlin had been serving a season-long suspension until Wednesday night after being involved in a fight at an Aggieville bar October 29th. He is currently working with Riley County prosecutors to fulfill a diversion agreement that would expunge the disorderly conduct charge from his record.
Fans chanted in support of him at Tuesday night’s men’s basketball win over Villanova and an Instagram post on his account the following day included a comment about wanting to be “free”. Protests at the President’s home followed and included members of the basketball team and Tomlin himself making brief appearances.
Tomlin is set to graduate this weekend. His former teammates will be at LSU to face the Tigers at 12:30 tomorrow afternoon. Coverage on Newsradio KMAN and 101.5 KROCK begins at 11:30am.