Rutgers University is a pretty prestigious university in the sports world. Basketball however, is not their strong point. They are a mediocre team playing in a beefed up Big East Conference. They may get into the NIT tourney every once and a while but that’s about it.
Recently Rutgers’s Men’s Basketball Head Coach, Mike Rice, has been under attack for abusing his players at practice. Rice has reportedly thrown balls at players’ heads, chests, and feet. Along with physical abuse Rice has been reported as verbally abusing players by calling them homosexual slurs and using inappropriate language.
Mike Rice Jr., son of Trailblazer’s announcer, Mike Rice, coached at Robert Morris University and in 2009 lead them to their first NCAA tournament since 1992. Rice was hired by Rutgers in 2010 and coached there for three seasons until being suspended in December 2012 and later fired April 2, 2013.
Now that you guys are up to date I have to ask a few questions. How could these 6-6, 215 pound guys put up with this abusive behaviour? How is the NCAA going to fix this problem? Many of the players on Rutgers gained Basketball Scholarships to go to college there. While you could say the players could just quit the team to avoid the abuse that is only partially true because if they quit the team then they lose their scholarship and may have to drop out or transfer colleges. When you break it down these kids were being forced to take this abuse in order to go to college. The NCAA can’t really punish the basketball program because then they would be punishing the players who just suffered the abuse.
I hope the players can overcome the Mike Rice incident and can move on and keep their careers alive.
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