ATLANTA — Mike Rice's actions hang like a dark
cloud over the opening media sessions for the Final Four, working their
way into press conference questioning and drawing the ire of the four
coaches still standing in the NCAA tournament.
With the video leaking out of the Rutgers'
basketball program capturing Rice physically and verbally abusing
players in practice sessions — throwing basketballs, going off on
expletive-laced tirades, shoving and tossing players — there was a
certain
sadness present in the tone of Syracuse's Jim Boeheim and Michigan's
John Beilein.
Those actions, even in some minor capacity, overshadow the
coaching world, the same one they, along with Louisville's Rick Pitino
and Wichita State's Gregg Marshall, are at the
pinnacle of at the moment.
Following Rice's firing and the subsequent
scrutiny of the athletic department's handling of the situation, broader
questions are being asked about the coaching profession: How rampant is
this type of behavior in collegiate athletics? How might
this incident change the landscape of college coaching? And can Mike
Rice, the 44-year-old coach who carried out his narcissism for three
seasons at Rutgers, really be the only one acting out with such
unchecked behavior?
"I absolutely do not believe there's that
coaching style going on. I do not," said Boeheim, who is vying for his
second national title in Atlanta. "I'll go out where you probably
shouldn't go. I don't think there's a coach in the country that does
that."
Beilein, a 35-year veteran of the college
coaching community, agreed: "I think all the coaches in the community
are disappointed at how that transpired. I don't know Mike Rice well
enough. I don't know the athletic director (Tim Pernetti) enough. But I know
that in this day and age, there's certain lines you're not going to
cross with your student‑athletes.
"Those incidents are uncalled for, and I'm sure that Mike regrets
it. … It is not representative how Division I coaches in football or
basketball represent themselves in practice."
Pitino also labeled Rice's behavior a very serious, but isolated incident.
"I
don't think there's a coach alive that does that, what you witnessed. I
don't think you have to worry about that. I've never seen it in my
life," Pitino said. "As I've said, for eight years I went around and watched college
practices. I've seen guys who were very tough
on their players, but they don't physically throw balls at them, they
don't physically do those things"
The Rutgers basketball situation once again
brought out the accusations of the "softening" of our nation's sports,
but each of the Final Four coaches concurred that there is no room for
such violent, derogatory behavior in any gym — at any level.
Boeheim, who considers himself a long-time
acquaintance of Rice, said he watched 10 seconds of the video.
He
couldn't watch any more.
"You know, I get verbal. I'm on players. I
don't like to curse; I do curse sometimes," Boeheim said. "You get out
of control, just things come out when you're in the heat of the moment.
But you can't touch a player other than just on the shoulder
or something, and you certainly can't push 'em and grab 'em or throw
something at 'em. I have thrown a ball, and it's usually up in the
stands, and last time I hurt my arm, so I don't throw them anymore."
Much like Boeheim describing his mellowing out
as a head coach, times inevitably change. But if Rice does prove to be a
rare, if not singular, instance, what is there to change for coaches
and their interactions with players? Rice is fired, out
of coaching, presumably for quite some time — at least that was Pitino's
stance on Thursday afternoon.
So what will be the lasting effects?
Boeheim joked that basketballs will still be
thrown in gyms across the country in moments of frustration, but that
the Rutgers video will give coaches pause, to stop and consider their
actions.
This is the technology age. Public figures — and that is precisely
what coaches are in this billion-dollar industry — are on the proverbial
stage every public moment, or so it must be assumed.
Not even private
practice tapes are secure if a coach oversteps
the necessary boundaries protecting college athletes.
"You know, obviously today with the videos
anywhere, we have to be cognizant, whether I'm at a restaurant, whether
I'm going to the bathroom, whether I'm going anywhere, there could be a
video, walking out, how I treat an autograph, there could
be a video. That's life right now," Beilein said. "Yeah, there's moments
where you coach a kid up and you tell him a few things that he probably
needs to hear. But for the most part, people teach. That's how we've
always done it. Maybe we're 'soft', but we
just teach."
Rice completed his Rutgers career with a 44-51
record, with 38 losses coming in Big East play to the likes of Boeheim and
Pitino. Beilein coached against him while Rice was an assistant at Pittsburgh. There is a connection between the majority of the Final Four's head coaches and the nationally disgraced one now
answering for his actions.
However, as Boeheim pointed out, there's also a
certain irony in the disconnect and distance between Rice and his more
successful colleagues.
"I think the tragedy is his team would have
played exactly the same or better if he hadn't done any of that,"
Boeheim said. "If he never threw a ball, if he never touched anybody,
his team would have played better, in my experience."
