By Zach Smart
It was all on tape.
After all these years of extreme volatility, amusing
abusive behavior which has entertained crowds from the bandbox gyms of the
Northeast Conference to the jam-packed arenas of the Big East, Mike Rice’s over
the top antics finally got….#taped.
Holding a thousand-plus word rap sheet citing everything
from over-aggressive, in-your-face venom spewing to excessive verbal thrashings,
malicious shoving, and pelting players’ heads with basketballs (very few of these
incidents have resulted in suspensions, until recently), the once-invisible
Mike Rice’s shithouse rat-crazy antics have taxed the patience of Rutgers
athletic director Tim Pernetti.
Pernetti is no stranger to severe nut bag coaches.
He dealt with
the NCAA’s version of comic the insult dog in Fred Hill.
Hill, who
helped lodge lowly Rutgers into the Big East basement year after year, was fired
in June of 2010 for an off-the-court incident. An embarrassing off-the-court
incident during a baseball game that is. Hill was rendered a veritable child, berating
players and an umpire in clear plain sight. Nobody ever called Rutgers a haven
of high character coaches. Not on the men’s sports side, at least.
The eye pollution Pernetti and sports fans
everywhere were awakened to showed the sheer desperation of Rice’s mechanisms.
Scenes from a marathon-load of tapes, in which Rice is hurling balls at his
players’ heads (while calling them pussies, motherfuckers, faggots, and cunts)
have spread to ESPN, Youtube, and the growing blogosphere.
The style Rice has been enforcing for years, the
style he inherited from his father, Mike Rice Sr. (who coached at Duquesne and
Youngstown State, preaching intensity and discipline with an iron fist) has dented
his credibility. It has made him public enemy No.1 to sports scribes and
columnists across the eastern seaboard.
But has it hampered his relationship with his
players? Will it lead to his dismissal?
Despite the claims of since-fired assistant Eric
Murdock, the former NBA player now filing a wrongful termination lawsuit
against Rutgers, a number of players—Mount Vernon native Mike Colburn, Robert
Lunkins, and Wally Judge to name a few—defended their fiery floor leader during
a recent interview with ESPN .
Murdock claims that Rice also disrupted the mental health
of his players, which does not seem far off at all. Murdock said that multiple players lost sleep, weren’t eating right,
and were affected deeply beyond the basketball court due to Rice’s bullying. Murdock
himself said he was victim to the name-calling and in-house hostility that nobody
under Rice’s military-like command is spared from.
Demanding
His Respect
The incident jolted folks (those who were unaccustomed
to Rice’s style) out of their seats.
During a game at Quinnipiac in 2007, former Robert
Morris Guard Tony Lee brushed Rice off while the coach was giving him a very
cold, long stare-down. Lee shook his head in a “man, forget you” fashion, as he
walked away from him during a team huddle.
Within a matter of seconds, the dangerous disciplinary
style of Mike Rice was on full display. Looking like Gunnery Sergeant Hartman confronting
Private Pyle in Full Metal Jacket, Rice’s eyes lit up. His teeth clenched
together, his right hand hung by his waist and quickly curled up into a fist.
The nut was furious. Akin to a mad dog that refused morning medication, Rice
was steaming. Breathing hard and about as heavily as Darth Vader after smoking
a pack of Newports, Rice spewed out a slew of eardrum-piercing obscenities.
The children sitting in the front rows were forced
to cover their ears, to no avail. The words ricocheted from one end of the TD
Banknorth arena to the other.
“This guy is fucking nuts,” blurted out one reporter
on press row, failing to hold in his laughter.
Did Lee seem incensed
or offended by it?
Not at all. As the game went on, the two acted as if
nothing ever happened. Rice later heaped praise on his player in the post-game
press conference.
There was the incident at Robert Morris’ home court
in 2010. After a series of calls drew the coach’s ire, Rice charged at a pair
of refs at his home court. Like a rabid dog attacking intruders, Rice chased them
off the floor.
Players recruited by Mike Rice know what they are
signing up for when they pen that letter of intent. They should be well aware
of Rice’s known reputation as wild disciplinarian.
He’s a poor man’s Bobby Knight. At any given moment,
the mercurial Rice can snap… like Rasheed Wallace if he found his grape Dutch
Masters collection or strawberry Phillies missing.
You can see why Murdock is upset. He did not agree with
the system Rice was running. He turned his nose at Rice’s Hitler-like tactics through
practice, trying to serve as the good cop to Rice’s T1000.
Murdoch, like so many before or after him, does not see
how Rice’s maniacal methods could translate to team success. Being a complete
dick usually doesn’t result in a core of players willing to walk through fire
for you.
In Rice’s case, this is his way and his way only. This
is the only way. You can’t change the stripes of a zebra. Rice yells at his
assistants the same way he does his players. He will shred, scratch, punch,
kick, and heave a basketball at the dome of anyone who refuses perform
everything his way.
Despite how the case with Murdoch pans out, despite
the stream of bad publicity this has given the school, Rice will remain at the
helm. That’s because (as Murdoch initially stated) Rice is Pernetti’s golden hire,
a proven winner burning to put Rutgers men’s basketball on the same plane as
women’s basketball. At Robert Morris, Rice piloted the Colonials to three
straight first place finishes, back-to-back conference titles and an overall
NEC record of 46-8.
Players have claimed Rice’s proclivity for pelting
them with basketballs in practice isn’t all out of rage. Rice is said to be
doing this to express the lack of respect opponents have for Rutgers, in effort
to fire them up.
He may be the craziest coach on this side of Bobby
Gonzalez, but Rice earns a certain measure of respect and love from his
players.
Basketball is a macho sport. Scour a football
practice one day, sit in on a practice of the most physical NCAA hockey team.
Then, come back and see how bad of a guy Mike Rice really is.
It’s not always pretty. It’s never excusable. The
video, which many coaches should find disturbing, is indicative of that.
Mike Rice is about as charming as Jim Boeheim, Bobby
Knight, Bobby Huggins and Coach K put together. Think about that statement. Chew
on it.
Whether right or wrong, no coach is better suited
for this job than Mike Rice.