Former Rutgers men’s basketball coach Mike Rice was recently fired for both physically and verbally abusing his players during practice. Rice was exposed by former assistant Eric Murdock to ESPN’s Outside The Lines.
ESPN obtained video footage from Rice’s practices that featured the former coach whipping basketballs at players’ heads, kicking them and shouting profanities at them.
As a result of the scandal, Tim Pernetti resigned as athletic director of the school. Pernetti saw the footage of Rice abusing his players in November and decided that a three-game suspension and $50,000 fine was a suitable punishment.
He was wrong, and he was held accountable for his actions.
However, Pernetti will hardly suffer after resigning. According to The Associated Press, he will receive $1.2 million, an iPad, a laptop, a “car allowance” and two years of health insurance from Rutgers.
Pernetti’s baffling deal is just another ridiculous example of how flawed the NCAA has become.
UCLA recently fired men’s basketball coach Ben Howland after a 10-year tenure with the school that included three consecutive trips to the Final Four, a 233-107 overall record, and the development of 12 NBA draft picks including recent Olympic gold medalists Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love.
The Bruins hired former Indiana Hoosiers star Steve Alford to replace Howland, who coached New Mexico to a three-seed in the NCAA tournament this past year. Alford compiled a 126-46 record at New Mexico, but was recently upset by Harvard in the Lobos’ first game of the tournament.
Though the move was a head-scratcher to begin with, the fact that Alford signed a 10-year, $20 million contract with New Mexico on March 27, but and decided to bolt for the banners of UCLA on March 30, makes me want to buy a year’s supply of Head & Shoulders.
The former Hoosiers star performed the best backdoor cut of his career and packed his duffle bag for Los Angeles just two days before his deal with New Mexico was about to kick in.
Now, his players at New Mexico are left to play for a coach for whom they didn’t intend to play. They could bolt for another Division I school like Alford did, but they’d have to sit out a year.
So, just to recap recent events in NCAA basketball: A coach was suspended for three games for seriously abusing players, only to be fired after ESPN got a hold of the story; UCLA fired Howland after he amassed a resumé there that most coaches would sell their soul for; and Alford left New Mexico to fill Howland’s spot after signing a decade-long contract with UNM just three days earlier.
The “C” in “NCAA” might as well stand for corruption. But hey, at least those brackets are fun to fill out, right?
