Mike Rice Being Mike Rice (And It's Not All Bad)

[RutgersRaRa]

Had his first practice with his new high school team, the Patrick School, tonight, and of course the Ledger had someone there to talk with him. When Mike saw who it was (strangely, the reporter referred to wasn't identified, though the author of this article has a by-line so it could be the same reporter), Mike refused. Also, click on the link to see the one-minute clip of him at practice. Funny guy, that Mr. Rice.

You go, Mike!

 

[Caliknight]

F that guy. He brought massive disgrace to this school.

 

[RC1978]

But......... the SL has nothing against RU

 

[vkj91]

F that guy. He brought massive disgrace to this school.

Why because he coached the way he always had? RU should have known he was that way just like USC knew their coach was a drunk. If you are going to hire a guy with "issues" you better be willing to fight for him.

 

[Spare130]

I don't get why people say how rice disgraces RU. Because the media says they saw "hundreds of hours of footage with rice abusing players" no they didn't. They had a 2 minute video of him throwing balls at players feet and using the words fa**ot one time in his 3 years as coach. If every coach in the country had all their practices put on espn , half would be fired.

 

[RU-ROCS]

I'm pulling for Mike Rice. He stepped over the line, for sure, but I think he's a good coach and a good guy, who deserves a second chance.

 

[RutgersRaRa]

I don't get why people say how rice disgraces RU. Because the media says they saw "hundreds of hours of footage with rice abusing players" no they didn't. They had a 2 minute video of him throwing balls at players feet and using the words fa**ot one time in his 3 years as coach. If every coach in the country had all their practices put on espn , half would be fired.

+1. Rice didn't bring disgrace upon the school, Murdock did by holding the school hostage for cash and then going to the media with footage that was two years old. If the media had any balls whatsoever, they would have taken Murdock to task primarily and Rice secondarily. Rice was a nut in his own right, but Murdock turned it into a circus. Rice and Murdock didn't see eye to eye on some things, and Murdock decided to take matters into his own hands not to protect the players, but to get paid after he was fired. If he'd cared in the first place, why did it take him two years to make an issue of what he found offensive about Rice's practices?

Anyway, it's still interesting that Mike is doing things his way and will be interesting to see where this goes.

 

[Spare130]

This thread brings back some bad memories. Without sounding like a 13 year old Eric Murdock is a piece of sh1t.

 

[Caliknight]

Why because he coached the way he always had? RU should have known he was that way just like USC knew their coach was a drunk. If you are going to hire a guy with "issues" you better be willing to fight for him.

Agreed, but that was always more unlikely than him calling players f&ggots and throwing balls at them. Bottom line is the dude was a meathead who should have been fired or stood up for. Still doesn't mean he isn't an idiot.

 

[KJ_RU]

What's funny to me is that alot of folks think Pernetti never saw a Mike Rice practice until he saw that infamous tape. Pernetti knew Rice was a loose cannon and did nothing about it until it became public.

Barchi gets blasted for not watching the tape, but Pernetti gets a pass for supposedly not knowing the head bball coach that he hired was abusing players for years under his watch?

 

[Knight Shift]

Had his first practice with his new high school team, the Patrick School, tonight, and of course the Ledger had someone there to talk with him. When Mike saw who it was (strangely, the reporter referred to wasn't identified, though the author of this article has a by-line so it could be the same reporter), Mike refused. Also, click on the link to see the one-minute clip of him at practice. Funny guy, that Mr. Rice.

You go, Mike!

Ra, next time, if you are going to disguise the link, warn us it is NJ.com. F them, they don't deserve our clicks.

 

[ruman]

Rice should have been fired for cause not only for his behavior, but also because the tape was well known and discussed daily on the board. There was a lot of concern about the tape being released. And Rice had all kind of problems recruiting that fall. Pernetti blew it. Big time. That said, the school probably did not need to fire him (TP)

Years later, we are finally in a better place our AD and football coach. This will all work. Basketball needs fixing from top to bottom, more than ever.

 

[Beancounter88]

I'm pulling for Mike Rice. He stepped over the line, for sure, but I think he's a good coach and a good guy, who deserves a second chance.

I'd like to see some choice video of Bobby Knight at Indiana. Difference is Knight won and local Indiana media knew it was good business to boost the program.

 

[derleider]

Why because he coached the way he always had? RU should have known he was that way just like USC knew their coach was a drunk. If you are going to hire a guy with "issues" you better be willing to fight for him.

Or smart enough to fire him before the entire national media makes a big deal of it.

 

[RUsojo]

Mike Rice's team with J Mitch, Mike Coburn, and Beaty as seniors(?) was the last "good coaching" Rutgers has seen since waters. Big improvement from the team that year.

 

[bac2therac]

F that guy. He brought massive disgrace to this school.

He didnt bring disgrace..it was the way Pernetti and Barchi handled it that was disgraceful....fire him or if you arent going to fire him you stick to your guns get ahead of the story and explain what happened

 

[bac2therac]

Its very satisfying to know that Murdocks restaurant failed

 

[RU848789]

Rice should have been fired for cause not only for his behavior, but also because the tape was well known and discussed daily on the board. There was a lot of concern about the tape being released. And Rice had all kind of problems recruiting that fall. Pernetti blew it. Big time. That said, the school probably did not need to fire him (TP)

Years later, we are finally in a better place our AD and football coach. This will all work. Basketball needs fixing from top to bottom, more than ever.

Agree Rice should've been fired as soon as the tape became available. That's on Pernetti, who certainly has the power to fire someone in his org, for cause and certainly could've convinced Barchi to fire him. Pernetti not firing Rice was also enough reason to fire him - horrible judgment of the risk of keeping Rice on. I also thought Barchi should've been on thin ice for his poor judgment in this case. The video/story will always come out - hoping it won't isn't a strategy...

 

[RUSK97]

Question for you all as I don't follow BB - if this whole media fiasco had not come about, could/would Mike Rice have produced a winning team? My impression was he wasn't a good coach either.

 

[czxqa]

Those practices were open. EVERYONE knew exactly how he coached and what he said. Players' parents went to practice all the time, and nobody had a problem with his coaching. To this day the player's mom I work with still speaks highly of Mike Rice and she told me what went on at practice at least a year before any of this went down. I've stayed away from this topic for two and a half years out of respect for the privacy of the families, but let's give this "Mike Rice abused players" line a rest. Enough already.

 

[Caliknight]

Question for you all as I don't follow BB - if this whole media fiasco had not come about, could/would Mike Rice have produced a winning team? My impression was he wasn't a good coach either.

He couldn't win either. That's the worst part. All that idiocy and his team's still couldn't run an offense.

 

[DJ Spanky]

I don't get why people say how rice disgraces RU. Because the media says they saw "hundreds of hours of footage with rice abusing players" no they didn't. They had a 2 minute video of him throwing balls at players feet and using the words fa**ot one time in his 3 years as coach. If every coach in the country had all their practices put on espn , half would be fired.

You are so on point with this. I had far worse things said to me on my HS teams and have heard even worse things said at practices for other sports in HS. If the SL didn't have an ax to grind with RU, this would never have seen the light of day.

 

[DJ Spanky]

By the way, the real ba$tard here is Eric Murdoch, whose contract didn't get renewed because he skipped required events for personal reasons, then tried to extort money from the school with that tape.

 

[DJ Spanky]

Its very satisfying to know that Murdocks restaurant failed

Did it? I hadn't heard anything about it for quite some time.

 

[bac2therac]

Question for you all as I don't follow BB - if this whole media fiasco had not come about, could/would Mike Rice have produced a winning team? My impression was he wasn't a good coach either.

He was a decent enough coach...the problem was the year before Murdock started badmouthing the program in recruiting circles...Rice was in good with a number of recruits but they dried up overnight..had he landed those guys a ncaa push his 4th and 5th years wasnt out of the question

 

[RU82]

Mike Rice is a martyr of the wussification of America through PC culture.

There's a reason why every decent military in the world employs the mentor-tormentor method to toughen up soldiers. Somewhere along the line a little name calling and a shove here or there became 'abuse' and nobody is better off for it.

There has to be a place where it's okay for men to act like men. If not in athletics, then where?

 

[bethlehemfan]

I saw worse in high school and didn't think anything of it.

 

[RutgersRaRa]

I saw worse in high school and didn't think anything of it.

When the issue first came into the national spotlight and was being discussed on the mainboard, I was surprised (happily) that most of the guys commenting on it said the same thing, that they were expecting some atrocious abuse when they finally watched the video, but what was on it was nothing that they hadn't experienced at every practice in high school, let alone college. Being called names is what we do with and to each other as guys and as men.

 

[RU85inFla]

What's funny to me is that alot of folks think Pernetti never saw a Mike Rice practice until he saw that infamous tape. Pernetti knew Rice was a loose cannon and did nothing about it until it became public.

Barchi gets blasted for not watching the tape, but Pernetti gets a pass for supposedly not knowing the head bball coach that he hired was abusing players for years under his watch?

Worse than that. Pernetti was told by more than one about Rice's antics before he ever hired him.

 

[ScarletDave]

"The court has a big red R on it, like at the Rutgers Athletic Center where Rice was the coach for Rutgers" seriously? C'mon

 

[RutgersRaRa]

"The court has a big red R on it, like at the Rutgers Athletic Center where Rice was the coach for Rutgers" seriously? C'mon

It took a minute for me to figure that one out, then I had a similar reaction to yours.

 

[RU848789]

Mike Rice is a martyr of the wussification of America through PC culture.

There's a reason why every decent military in the world employs the mentor-tormentor method to toughen up soldiers. Somewhere along the line a little name calling and a shove here or there became 'abuse' and nobody is better off for it.

There has to be a place where it's okay for men to act like men. If not in athletics, then where?

Yeah, well, except coaching is just a tad removed from training people in the military. Verbal and physical abuse in an educational, university setting, especially from the essentially all-powerful coach, who controls playing time and just about everything else, is simply wrong. We weren't talking about yelling at a player once in awhile to make a point - there was an ongoing regularly abusive (verbally, at least) atmosphere in that program.

Some could "take it" but some hated and some left - I had a coach like that in HS and hated that tyrannical d-bag, so I stopped playing football (which I loved) and switched to another sport. Any decent coach ought to be able to teach and coach without Rice's antics. I certainly wouldn't want a coach like Rice coaching my kid (I coached soccer for 9 years and never had to resort to tactics like Rice did).

Cue @ruhudsonfan - I recall him making a great post when this all broke, differentiating military training from college athletics coaching.

 

[mildone]

Yeah, well, except coaching is just a tad removed from training people in the military. Verbal and physical abuse in an educational, university setting, especially from the essentially all-powerful coach, who controls playing time and just about everything else, is simply wrong. We weren't talking about yelling at a player once in awhile to make a point - there was an ongoing regularly abusive (verbally, at least) atmosphere in that program.

Some could "take it" but some hated and some left - I had a coach like that in HS and hated that tyrannical d-bag, so I stopped playing football (which I loved) and switched to another sport. Any decent coach ought to be able to teach and coach without Rice's antics. I certainly wouldn't want a coach like Rice coaching my kid (I coached soccer for 9 years and never had to resort to tactics like Rice did).

Cue @ruhudsonfan - I recall him making a great post when this all broke, differentiating military training from college athletics coaching.

I've seen tougher tennis coaches than Mike Rice. The guy that coached the Metuchen High basketball team back when I was there (one of the Flaherty brothers, not Artie) was way, way tougher than Rice. We had a wrestling coach that brought a box of adult diapers to practice for anybody that bent their legs during leg lifts, and that was the nicest thing he did. He and other coaches I had were physically and emotionally tough on us and I'm glad because it helped me become stronger and more resilient.

Our middle school play director was considerably more abusive than Rice. She literally had some of the kids in tears. I gave her a ton of shit, but you know what, those kids are tougher for the experience.

Today, parents call that sort of stuff abusive. We're raising veal.

The world is a harsh, unforgiving place where the tough succeed and the weak die off. All this focus on making everything fair, making everything safe, making everything easy - it's a serious problem for this country.

 

[ruhudsonfan]

Yeah, well, except coaching is just a tad removed from training people in the military. Verbal and physical abuse in an educational, university setting, especially from the essentially all-powerful coach, who controls playing time and just about everything else, is simply wrong. We weren't talking about yelling at a player once in awhile to make a point - there was an ongoing regularly abusive (verbally, at least) atmosphere in that program.

Some could "take it" but some hated and some left - I had a coach like that in HS and hated that tyrannical d-bag, so I stopped playing football (which I loved) and switched to another sport. Any decent coach ought to be able to teach and coach without Rice's antics. I certainly wouldn't want a coach like Rice coaching my kid (I coached soccer for 9 years and never had to resort to tactics like Rice did).

Cue @ruhudsonfan - I recall him making a great post when this all broke, differentiating military training from college athletics coaching.

The military has certainly evolved on the physical abuse and name calling. Putting your hands on anyone, at any stage of the training pipeline, is a good way to have your career end. That is just flat out not accepted anymore.

The verbal and psychological stuff is much more nuanced.

That said, comparisons between athletics, even at the highest level and military training, is silly.

 

[ruhudsonfan]

I've seen tougher tennis coaches than Mike Rice. The guy that coached the Metuchen High basketball team back when I was there (one of the Flaherty brothers, not Artie) was way, way tougher than Rice. We had a wrestling coach that brought a box of adult diapers to practice for anybody that bent their legs during leg lifts, and that was the nicest thing he did. He and other coaches I had were physically and emotionally tough on us and I'm glad because it helped me become stronger and more resilient.

Our middle school play director was considerably more abusive than Rice. She literally had some of the kids in tears. I gave her a ton of shit, but you know what, those kids are tougher for the experience.

Today, parents call that sort of stuff abusive. We're raising veal.

The world is a harsh, unforgiving place where the tough succeed and the weak die off. All this focus on making everything fair, making everything safe, making everything easy - it's a serious problem for this country.

I agree with this. And there can be some parallels in military training and developing mental toughness, determination and grit in the civilian world.

However, most people have a Gunny Hartman view of military training. That is a bygone era. That was my father's Marine Corps. That doesn't exist anymore.

There are many ways to make people tougher without putting your hands on them. When I was at the Academy, a favorite after lunch treat was to get every single piece of clothing that lived on a hanger and hold it all on your first 2 fingers with your arms fully extended in front of you--for like 40 minutes before afternoon classes started. Thinking of now, I cringe. I'd rather be punched in the face. lol

 

[AreYouNUTS]

I agree with this. And there can be some parallels in military training and developing mental toughness, determination and grit in the civilian world.

However, most people have a Gunny Hartman view of military training. That is a bygone era. That was my father's Marine Corps. That doesn't exist anymore.

There are many ways to make people tougher without putting your hands on them. When I was at the Academy, a favorite after lunch treat was to get every single piece of clothing that lived on a hanger and hold it all on your first 2 fingers with your arms fully extended in front of you--for like 40 minutes before afternoon classes started. Thinking of now, I cringe. I'd rather be punched in the face. lol

Yeah that sounds about as fun as having a nail rip off your toe.

 

[ruhudsonfan]

Yeah that sounds about as fun as having a nail rip off your toe.

another favorite was to get everyone in push up position. We were rarely ever allowed to just bang out push-ups. You had to do them in cadence. The upperclassman who was torturing you at the time would call the cadence.

Normally, it would go something like, "Down...(1 count, 2 count) UP."

When they were really in a bad mood it would go, "Down...(and they would walk away for about a half hour)...so you were killing yourself to hold the down position while they were off taking a leak, talking to their buddy, etc. And you can't wear your cover (your hat) inside the building. So you would put your cover on your lower back while you did push-ups. Holy shit if it fell off your back onto the deck. hahaha... their heads would explode.

 

[RU82]

The point is we're creating a country of emasculated males.

It's gotten so bad that whenever a guy does something quintessentially masculine women start dripping in their panties and they hate themselves for it because they've grown up in a world that tells them it's not acceptable behavior.

We used to teach people how to handle name calling through kindergarten nursery rhymes. "Sticks and stones can break my bones but names can never hurt me." Now it's a nationally scandal when a basketball coach calls one of his players a pussy.

Nobody benefits from this.

 

[mildone]

I agree with this. And there can be some parallels in military training and developing mental toughness, determination and grit in the civilian world.

However, most people have a Gunny Hartman view of military training. That is a bygone era. That was my father's Marine Corps. That doesn't exist anymore.

There are many ways to make people tougher without putting your hands on them. When I was at the Academy, a favorite after lunch treat was to get every single piece of clothing that lived on a hanger and hold it all on your first 2 fingers with your arms fully extended in front of you--for like 40 minutes before afternoon classes started. Thinking of now, I cringe. I'd rather be punched in the face. lol

Agreed that it's not necessary to put hands on people. There are better ways to achieve the same thing.

Having said that, that same wrestling coach from HS I mentioned above had this thing we did at the very end of the workout phase of every practice, which lasted at least 90 minutes, that I'll never forget. The workout phase, calisthenics mixed w/some other creative forms of physical torture (e.g. hand over handing our way up steeply angled parallel bars a bunch of times), was unpleasant in the extreme. Many people came out for the team only to quit after a couple practices. Was particularly hard on the football players that came out for the team because the rest of us had a week or two head start and they had to play catch up, fitness-wise. Few football players lasted more than a day. Coach called it the revolving door.

Anyway, this thing he had us do at the end of the workout phase was that we had to hang by our hands from one of those wooden vertical stretching racks on the wall, 4 at a time, for an indeterminate amount of time (probably averaged about a minute). During this time, while we're hanging there exhausted arms vibrating, the coach would walk down the rack and punch each of us, hard, in the abdomen (why, I do not know). At the end of the hanging time, we had to do ten leg lifts touching the rack over our heads with our toes before we could hop down and the next group could go.

Nobody ever knew how long they'd have to hang there exactly and when the coach felt enough time had elapsed, he'd often count off on his fingers as if counting down to zero. But nobody knew if he'd stop at ten fingers or just restart. If you slipped, which nobody ever did more than once, you got ridiculed mercilessly by the coach. He played a lot of mind-fvck games like that.

I look back fondly on those days. But it was a love/hate thing back then.

 

[ruhudsonfan]

The point is we're creating a country of emasculated males.

It's gotten so bad that whenever a guy does something quintessentially masculine women start dripping in their panties and they hate themselves for it because they've grown up in a world that tells them it's not acceptable behavior.

We used to teach people how to handle name calling through kindergarten nursery rhymes. "Sticks and stones can break my bones but names can never hurt me." Now it's a nationally scandal when a basketball coach calls one of his players a pussy.

Nobody benefits from this.

Again, I agree with this aspect of your point 100%.

The physical aspect is where we may part ways. It's not necessary and frankly, doesn't work. If I'm tasked with getting a group of individuals with less than adequate talent to achieve more, I'd rather own them psychologically than have them intimidated physically.