Mike Rice takes reins of Rutgers program

Associated Press

PISCATAWAY, N.J.

Mike Rice never dunked a basketball or dreamed of playing in the NBA.

His desire was to be just like his father, a college basketball coach.

Rice, a native of Boardman whose father coached at Youngstown State from 1983-87, accepted his biggest coaching challenge on Thursday, signing a five-year, $3.2 million contract to resurrect Rutgers from the depths of the Big East Conference and to its first NCAA tournament berth since 1991.

“People may think differently, but I think it is a sleeping giant,” Rice said of Rutgers. “At least that’s what the last 100 or so AAU and high school coaches told me. Why can’t it be? It’s the state university, an incredible place to work, an incredible place in the metropolitan area in the best league in the country basketball wise.”

The 41-year-old Rice had a great three-year run in his first head coaching job, leading Robert Morris to two straight NCAA tournament berths and a 73-31 record.

Succeeding at Rutgers is going to be a lot tougher. Rice inherits a team from Fred Hill that went 15-17 last season and finished 14th in the 16-team Big East with five league wins.

Hill resigned under pressure about two weeks ago after an incident at a Rutgers baseball game put the embattled coach in the position of being fired. He and the university eventually settled on a buyout.

Rutgers also lost its top two players after last season. Conference defensive player of the year Hamady Ndiaye finished his eligibility and leading scorer Mike Rosario has decided to transfer to Florida.

When Rice addressed his returning players before his news conference, there weren’t enough to play 5-on-5.

Winning against the likes West Virginia, Connecticut, Villanova, Pittsburgh, Georgetown, Syracuse and Louisville is going to take more than eight players.

“There is not a white flag in my drawers in my desk where I work,” said Rice, who admitted that he and his team are going to enter next season as the “ultimate underdogs.”

“There are no white flags with Mike Rice. Patience is not something I do well either, but I will persevere. I will put daily goals of improving every single day and learning from some setbacks.”

Success will have its rewards.

Some of the bonuses in Rice’s incentive-laden contract include annual payouts of $15,000 for 20-win seasons and conference regular-season championships; $20,000 for conference tournament titles and NCAA tournament berths, $25,000 for a Final Four berth and $50,000 for a national title.