<p>I’m amazed that no one has started a thread on this debacle, especially after the many strong opinions on college sports that were offered on the Penn State thread. I thought this opinion piece was a thoughtful take on the matter:</p>
<p>From the piece: “But before getting lost in the fallout it would be useful to take a step back and consider the broader picture, which is how a school with presumably good intentions could get to this point, how its sense of priorities and values could become so skewed it took the public airing of a videotape for people in charge to do the right thing. To be clear: The claims against Rice were stunning. But the conclusion seems sadly familiar: Intoxicated by sports, a school lost its way.”</p>
<p>I have honestly been at a loss for words since I saw it. I have coached for many years, been an athletic director, and a varsity basketball player. I literally cannot wrap my head around how screwed up you have to be to chuck a basketball at your players’ heads. Scream? Yell? Get in their faces? Ok. I get that. Homophobic slurs and physical abuse? Ugh. </p>
<p>Anyone who saw the video and took no action deserves to be fired. Period.</p>
<p>OTOH, I absolutely understand why the players “took it” rather than walking away. It’s a mentality to just suck it up and be tough. Not one I agree with, but I understand it.</p>
<p>As a Rutgers grad and parent of current student, I’m saddened by this. D1 coaches need to be SOBs - they are not your parent, nor your friend. Most of these players are there on scholarship, so their job is to play the sports and hustle. A player does not get to the D1 level without having coaches swear at them many, many times in practice or have balls thrown their way. I do think Rice crossed the line throwing a ball at the players heads and some of the physical interaction. Rutgers men’s BB has been a joke for many years, so he should have been canned for the performance on the court, not this sideshow. </p>
<p>Given all the AD has done for the school getting it into the Big 10 (which is a bigger research coup than sporting IMO), I’m sad to see him go.</p>
<p>I am surprised at least one of the players didn’t knock the daylights out of him. He is a real jerk. I guess they feared his power of kicking them off the team.</p>
<p>Nj, if you have to resort to physically hurting your players to get them to play well or listen, you’re a terrible coach and need to find another job. Jmo.</p>
<p>I have friends and family that play D1 sports and they all agreed this guy catapulted over any acceptable line.</p>
<p>The ESPN video was pulled together from 3 seasons of tapes. I challenge any Sweet 16 team to not have some tape they would prefer not shown on SportsCenter. </p>
<p>The leak of the tapes is from a wrongful termination lawsuit by a former assistant. He clearly had an axe to grind and took down the coach and the AD.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, Rice’s actions were bad, but Murdock’s lawyers pushed this into the national scene. This was news in the NY/NJ market in December. There’s a lot of CYA and finger pointing going on in New Brunswick/Piscataway today.</p>
<p>Former Rutgers head football coach Greg Schiano had a reputation for being a bully at Rutgers…maybe Rutgers has a culture in its athletic department that needs to be adjusted with a housecleaning?</p>
<p>NJ2011mom–he also resorted to ethnic derogatory comments, as reported by students from Lithuania and Guinea, who transferred away. I don’t care who’s doing that elsewhere, or who else uses homophobic phrases, or who else throws things at players, or over how long the actual time covered was.</p>
<p>I don’t want that behavior representing my state, and I don’t want to pay for it.</p>
<p>Sounds like a Steubenville defense. Everyone else does, he was just unfortunate to be caught on tape. If it wasn’t for Murdock making such a big deal, no one would have known.
Nope, not buying it.</p>
<p>Would ESPN gone after the story so hard if it were an SEC school?? Auburn just got caught with MAJOR infractions. Where is the ESPN 24/7 coverage of that?? Just sayin–ESPN has an agenda too.
RU had to do what they did but the original punishment was pretty serious too. Question is–did he learn from that or continue?</p>
<p>I suspect that type of behavior isn’t all that rare. I had a coach something like that in high school. I am glad he got caught, called out and fired. Now lets see some more tape.</p>
<p>I am guessing the tapes were made of practices so that the coach could review them to improve practices. If that is correct, it means Rice was a jerk, then watched himself being a jerk and then repeated that behavior. I hope no team in the nation ever hires him again.</p>
<p>Rice had to go. Clearly the AD is the scapegoat. The claim is that Pernetti the AD originally wanted to fire Rice but legal counsel and the HR department recommended against it. The head legal guy also resigned. Rutgers is trying to merge the med school and university. Barchi, the president is supposed to be the key guy to lead the merger. Pernetti had to be sacrificed for him.</p>