It only took one day for administrators at Rutgers University to fire its head men’s basketball coach after ESPN showed footage of Mike Rice yelling gay slurs at players and hurling basketballs at their heads.
The video was originally seen by athletic director Tim Pernetti back in December, who at that time suspended Rice for three games, fined him $50,000 and ordered him to sensitivity training. But after the video was shown on ESPN’s Outside The Lines, Rutgers fired Rice.
“I am responsible for the decision to attempt a rehabilitation of Coach Rice,” said Pernetti in a statement released by the school.”Dismissal and corrective action were debated in December and I thought it was in the best interest of everyone to rehabilitate, but I was wrong.
“Moving forward, I will work to regain the trust of the Rutgers community.”
This isn’t the first time that fans of the university’s basketball program have heard allegations of the mistreatment of players. Former basketball development director Eric Murdock made accusations in the 2010-2011 season, only to have his contract not renewed for the 2011-12 season.
The video, aired on April 2, showed Rice manhandling players, pushing and shoving and pulling them by their jersey. He fired balls at his players, including one instance where it appears that he threw a ball at one player’s head. He called his players every name imaginable, including one instance where he can be heard yelling “f***ing fairy, f***ing faggot.”
Several politicians have spoken about the videos, including New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who said he was “deeply disturbed” by the footage. Christie, and a number of state politicians, had called for Rice’s firing.
According to NBC Sports, Rice is the fourth consecutive Rutgers men’s basketball coach to leave under a cloud of controversy. In 2001, Kevin Bannon left after forcing his players to shoot naked free throws as part of a practice contest and in 2006, Gary Waters was let go when he missed a game when he was snowed in at Kent State after a ceremony honoring him. Kent State was his previous school. And in 2010, Fred Hill was bought out of his contract after he made a scene at a Rutgers baseball game.
The string of strange behavior in its coaches have led to a string of players leaving Rutgers’ basketball program. Last year five players transferred out of the program. At the end of last season Austin Carroll (American) and Gilvydas Biruta (Rhode Island) left, with Malick Kone, Vincent Garrett and Jerome Seagears saying they intend to leave at the end of the 2012-13 campaign, NBC News reports.
