Rice is suspended and has been under review since last summer. Tim Pernetti, Athletic Director at Rutgers, has already suspended Rice for three games this past December, fined him $50,000, and ordered him to go to anger management classes. Pernetti has a huge decision to make. In an article on ESPN.com, Pernetti says that he must do what's right for the reputation of the university and protect the players. Rice was Pernetti's first major hire as an AD in 2010. Rice is 44-51 at Rutgers, including 16-38 in the Big East. Prior to Rutgers, he went 73-31 in three seasons at Robert Morris.Many people are saying that Mike Rice should be fired, no questions asked. Ray Allen, a member of the University of Connecticut's board of directors and guard for the Miami Heat, told ESPN that
"it was despicable, throwing the ball at them -- it made me want to fight [Rice]. It made me want to fight this guy. Because that was me -- wanting to learn, making mistakes.
"You're not doing it on purpose. You're trying to learn. And that's what coaches should do -- you teach. Yelling at kids and throwing the ball at them, there's no place to that."
Allen also said he would try to get Rice fired had the incidents occurred at UConn.
"I would do everything I could to make sure that coach got fired -- in any sport -- because there's no place for that," he said.
What are your thoughts on this controversy?
As a former basketball player I would agree with everything Ray Allen said. There is no place for any of these actions by Rice during practice. As a player your there to learn not to be abused. Yelling and raising your voice as a coach are one thing but I don't think any coach should ever physically abuse a player over a mistake, thats not how people learn.
ReplyDeleteThis is an athlete's worst night mare. I would be horrible to have a coach like this. I can't believe that the program kept the coach around for the amount of time that they did even after the suspension and fine.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw this story on ESPN I was more in shock that the other coaches and the players themselves let this happen then him actually doing it. I've seen and heard of coaches getting physical with their players but he legit took it to the next level.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw this story the first few minutes was him just yelling at the players and I was just thinking... yeah all coaches are bound to yell at the players to get there point across, but then when he kicked one of his players and threw the ball at another I was like this is unreal. It just made me think of other ball players and Universities that are going through the same thing that we don't know about.
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