Thoughts on SJ hiring Mike Rice as assistant coach

[EMT]

A few years ago we ran into Rice's AAU team at a tourney in PA. He was the same Mike Rice in terms of temperament. I asked a couple of the moms on his team what they thought of him. They all said he was the best thing to ever happen to their sons and the best coach they ever saw. Practice & game.

The main reason was this generation of kids we were raising was soft and Mike Rice coached kids don't stay soft.

We jumped out to a 12 point lead in the 1st half which caused Rice to call TO and meet his team at 1/2 court. The whole gym could hear him in the huddle. We lost by 15.

Mike Rice will be the best coach on that sideline since Louie.

[billyjack]

A few years ago we ran into Rice's AAU team at a tourney in PA. He was the same Mike Rice in terms of temperament. I asked a couple of the moms on his team what they thought of him. They all said he was the best thing to ever happen to their sons and the best coach they ever saw. Practice & game.

The main reason was this generation of kids we were raising was soft and Mike Rice coached kids don't stay soft.

We jumped out to a 12 point lead in the 1st half which caused Rice to call TO and meet his team at 1/2 court. The whole gym could hear him in the huddle. We lost by 15.

Mike Rice will be the best coach on that sideline since Louie.

I don't have a problem with the Johnnies hiring Rice at this point, but I'm pretty sure of several things:
- he acted like a complete raving lunatic mentalcase at Rutgers.
- throwing basketballs at his players' heads and using slurs to insult the players is crackpot behavior, and normal adults don't do that, and there was no excuse for it.
- every generation thinks the younger generation is soft and weak and wimpy. Some Roman dude in AD 102 would've complained about the wimpy younger generation.

also:
- In every sport, either pro, college, or even high school or younger, the best coaches didn't need to belittle and scream at their players like crackpots to get the best out of them. For every successful Bobby Knight or Billy Martin, there are 50 successful steady guys like Belichick, Dungy, Bill Walsh, Wooden, Joe Torre, Sparky Anderson, Popovich, Terry Francona, and so on. Even excitable guys like Earl Weaver and John Madden would never humiliate their own players like Rice did.

[GumbyDamnit!]

BJack. Spot on. Agree 100%. I'm all for 2nd chances but let's not pretend that his actions while at Rutgers were not completely reprehesible. I can name 100 coaches who can motivate this generation of players without throwing balls at their heads. I root for the Johnnies but can't see myself rooting for Rice to succeed.

[mel ott]

BJack. Spot on. Agree 100%. I'm all for 2nd chances but let's not pretend that his actions while at Rutgers were not completely reprehesible. I can name 100 coaches who can motivate this generation of players without throwing balls at their heads. I root for the Johnnies but can't see myself rooting for Rice to succeed.

Totally agree. I believe these two posters may be among the elite, most sensible, posters on the board ( no offense GITMO- still love reading your stuff ).

[NJRedman]

BJack. Spot on. Agree 100%. I'm all for 2nd chances but let's not pretend that his actions while at Rutgers were not completely reprehesible. I can name 100 coaches who can motivate this generation of players without throwing balls at their heads. I root for the Johnnies but can't see myself rooting for Rice to succeed.

So you aren't all for second chances since you can't move past his past.

[GumbyDamnit!]

BJack. Spot on. Agree 100%. I'm all for 2nd chances but let's not pretend that his actions while at Rutgers were not completely reprehesible. I can name 100 coaches who can motivate this generation of players without throwing balls at their heads. I root for the Johnnies but can't see myself rooting for Rice to succeed.

So you aren't all for second chances since you can't move past his past.

Actually the two are mutually exclusive. I agree that all people deserve a second chance and he is getting his. But that belief does not affect my rooting interest. He just has never struck me as a good guy. Just as I don't root for Rick Pitino and John Caipari, my hope is that Rice leaves SJU after a year, without incident, and goes to a program I don't like and fails miserably.

[EMT]

It is quite comical that a coach that gets fired for what he did, immediately goes to work in AAU. Too mean for 18-22 year olds. Let's hire him for 14-16 year olds.

[RedStorm]

The only down side is some negative press, which is likely to come on 2 fronts. One being hiring a coach with Rice's behavioral history and the other being hiring a coach just to land his recruits (2 big NJ recruits are widely considered to be a package deal with Rice, should anyone hire him). However, after the initial 24-48 hour firestorm, both stories will blow over and leave the program in better shape than it was previously. Overall, if there's room on the staff, it's a smart move - the positives far outweigh the negatives.

Hiring a coach just to land recruits...seemed to work for those Pirates from what I remember I kid, I kid. But seriously, getting Whitehead can be seen as the first domino to fall in the resurgence of SHU. If we can land those 2 recruits in a package with him while also upgrading our defense it will be one of the best things to happen for SJ in a long time. Getting those 2 would likely give us a top 10-15 recruiting class nationally. Sometimes you just need that spark no matter what you have to do to ignite the program. Not really sure what the hold up is however...the earlier we can land Rice, the earlier those 2 stud 2018 kids may pop. We need to land big time recruits before the blue bloods enter at the last second as they always do.

It is a good comparison - it's a very similar situation. Tiny Morton needed to ride a recruit to get his first shot coaching in college...Mike Rice needs to ride recruits to get someone to give him a second chance. Kevin Willard absolutely did face a firestorm of criticism in the immediate aftermath with Whitehead, but it blew over and now Whitehead's legacy at SHU is overwhelmingly positive - even with only staying 2 years - and the program is in far better shape than it was previously.

St. John's may (likely will) face that same firestorm, but they're not doing anything illegal and the results will likely be worth the few days of criticism. But if this happens, SJ fans no longer have any room to accuse Willard and SHU of dirty recruiting with Whitehead

This is not remotely the same situation as Willard hiring a totally unqualified coach to land one kid.

Rice is a former BE head coach and is being considered for his defense and X&Os . There is no "packaged deal" with Lewis and Antoine. Those two will almost certainly end up at Duke or UK no matter where Rice goes and Mullin knows it.

And for Willard, it was a desperation move to get one kid who then got other talented kids to follow him. Without Whitehead, Willard fails to lure talent and is gone the next yr.

Mullin has already recruited tourney caliber talent and is poised to see the post season over the next two years with or without Lewis or Antoine. What he lacks is experience and defensive accumen and thats what Rice can bring.

The two situations are not at all similar.