Richard Kent, Rutgers News

HAS RUTGERS FINALLY GOT IT RIGHT?

Scarlet Knights’ staff looks to be finally of quality to compete in the Big East basketball conference

by RICHARD KENT

After 30 years of trying, Rutgers may finally have gotten it right. And not only by hiring Mike Rice from Robert Morris last spring as the head coach. Rutgers finally has some assistants who can perform their functions with competence in the cutthroat Big East recruiting battles.

There are far too many echoes in the Rutgers Athletic Center of the likes of Tom Haggarty, Jeff Mitchell and the champion of them all, Kevin Heck who served under Gary Waters.

If as assistant was ever more misplaced in the Big East and New Jersey it was Heck. His most classic mistake was his venture into the St. Anthony’s Gym for the first time to search out fabled coach Bob Hurley. He strode into the gym playing with a yo-yo and asked one of the first people whom he ran into, “where is Hurley?” Well, of course, that person was Hurley and let it be said that Waters and his damaged regime never got a St. Anthony’s player to venture on the banks.

Rice named Gerogetown assistant coach David Cox to be his associate head coach. He also signed up Van Macon from Hofstra and Jimmy Martelli, son of the great St. Joe’s head coach Phil, to round out his full-time assistants.

Kids from Jersey and New York, who can really play, have been visiting Rutgers all summer and the staff expect some major commitments by August.

In the past Rutgers would get an occasional Lance Thomas to visit as an accommodation to the head coach. RU never came close to getting kids like Thomas who would end up at Duke. The same applied to kids who ended up at Seton Hall and Syracuse.

Rutgers now has a closer in Rice and the aforementioned assistants, along with Jim Carr, the Director of Basketball Operations, and Brad Wachtel, an assistant to the head coach, have contacts in recruiting all along the east coast that RU fans have not seen in their staff before. The Scarlet Knights may not do any better than 13 or so wins this year as they lack a true center, among other things, but look out for 2011-12. The Knights should be rolling by then as there might finally be some light at the end of this long tunnel.
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Early Big East tidbits:

Q: Who are the only teams to turn down Big East bids?

A: Rutgers and Holy Cross.
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Q: Which coach talked Rutgers AD Fred Gruninger out of joining the Big East?

A: Penn State’s Joe Paterno.
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Q: Which team lost out on a vote to join the Big East?

A: Penn State.
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Q: Who was the first full-time employee of the Big East?

A: Former commissioner Mike Tranghese.
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Q: Was the Big East Tournament ever played in Connecticut?

A: Yes at the Hartford Civic Center in 1982 and 1983.
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NBE welcomes Richard Kent, a veteran college basketball writer, to our growing team. Richard has written for SI.Com, Athlon and has covered the NCAA Tournament in the CBS Studio. He also has done extensive work on women’s college basketball, having founded the Big East Women’s Basketball Report and written three books on the topic. He broke the story nationally that UConn and Tennessee would no longer be playing. His day job is practicing law as a matrimonial attorney in Fairfield, Connecticut where he is a member of Best Lawyers In America.
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