Mike Rice fallout: Rutgers hires Eddie Jordan, Julie Hermann as new hoops coach, AD

Jordan decided to return to classes after a report last month leaked the news that the former NBA head coach did not actually graduate from Rutgers -- despite the university claiming otherwise on its website when announcing the hire. Jordan is working toward a degree in Labor Studies and Employment Relations because the major he initially pursued while in college, Health and Physical Education, no longer exists at Rutgers.

Nevertheless, the longtime coach is apparently pleased to be taking classes and working toward finishing what he started, he told Prunty:

A Rutgers professor who was on the athletic director selection committee asked argumentative, pointed questions to one candidate for the job, while letting the other candidate -- the embattled Julie Hermann -- pass without inquiry.

Associate professor Jeffrey Longhofer asked pointed, “hostile” questions of Wisconsin assistant athletic director Sean Frazier regarding the NCAA’s new guide on LGBT athletes, while Hermann was only asked if she was aware of the new NCAA guidelines, according to the New York Post’s Lenn Robbins:

Despite consistent claims of a transparent and comprehensive process which led to the hiring of new Rutgers athletic director Julie Hermann, sources tell Tara Sullivan of NorthJersey.com that’s not the case. Rather, the new AD was brought in through a “sometimes secret and often rushed procedure,” leaving numerous questions in its wake.

After scandal drove Rutgers to fire AD Tim Pernetti and men’s basketball coach Mike Rice this spring, the school said all the right things as Hermann and Eddie Jordan were hired to fill the respective roles. Even as discouraging information became public regarding the two hires, Rutgers continued to defend its hiring practices, insisting all candidates were properly vetted despite the revelations.

Former Tennessee Volunteers women’s athletic director Joan Cronan gave her endorsement to new Rutgers athletic director Julie Hermann Tuesday, contradicting the account of former players who had accused Hermann of being physically and emotionally abusive while head volleyball coach at Tennessee in the 1990s:

Cronan later classified Hermann as “one of the most outstanding administrators in the country.”

New Rutgers athletic director Julie Hermann has been connected with a sexual discrimination lawsuit when she was at Louisville, according to the New York Times. Hermann, who was hired less than two weeks ago, was alleged to have fired a female assistant track and field coach in 2008 after she complained of discriminatory treatment from the head coach.

This is actually the second bombshell to be dropped on Hermann since she took the Rutgers job. After she was announced by the school, several of her former volleyball players at Tennessee came forward to say Hermann was verbally abusive to players back in the 1990s.

New Rutgers athletic director Julie Hermann spoke to reporters Monday to deny accusations that she had been cruel towards her players as Tennessee’s volleyball coach in the 1990’s and say that she had no intentions of stepping down from her post, per the Star-Ledger.

The allegations have reignited controversy at Rutgers, as Hermann’s former players said that she was herself guilty of behavior she was supposed to clean up, months after the abusive behavior of basketball coach Mike Rice led to a rash of firings and Hermann’s eventual hiring.

Newly minted Rutgers athletic director Julie Hermann, hired in the wake of the Mike Rice player abuse scandal, was herself accused of abusing players as a volleyball coach in the mid-90s, according to a report from The Star-Ledger released late Saturday. Players on Hermann’s Tennessee Volunteers 1996 volleyball team wrote a letter to administrators describing the “mental cruelty” exhibited by Hermann:

Players on that team reported that Hermann forced the team to wear their warmup clothes inside out in public after a loss to Kentucky, frequently pulled players by their jerseys while making substitutions, and, according to one player, punctuated an insult “with a backhand to my gut.”

Rutgers has hired Julie Hermann as its new athletic director, according to Tom Luicci of the Newark Star-Ledger. Hermann moves to Piscataway from Louisville, where she served as the top assistant to athletic director Tom Jurich.

She will be the first female athletic director in school history, and is only the third female athletic director in major college athletics behind N.C. State’s Debbie Yow and Cal’s Sandy Barbour. She narrowly beat out Wisconsin deputy athletic director Sean Frazier for the job.

After being courted by schools from all over the country in the last few weeks, Rutgers sophomore Eli Carter has decided to transfer to Florida. Carter announced his decision on Twitter Tuesday afternoon.

Carter, who was the Scarlet Knights’ leading scorer last season, is the fifth player to leave Rutgers in the wake of the scandal that cost Mike Rice his job.

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Rutgers has suspended head lacrosse coach Brian Brecht and is currently investigating his behavior following allegations of verbal abuse, shortly after a scandal over player abuse led to the firing of head basketball coach Mike Rice and resignation of athletic director Tim Pernetti.

The school’s president, Robert Barchi, had said that the university would look more closely into the behavior of its coaches after the apparent cover-up of behavior by Rice, which included throwing balls at players, kicking them and firing slurs at them. That emphasis on preventing a repeat of the Rice fiasco has yielded its first lead: the Rutgers police are currently investigating Brecht. It’s not clear what he did -- or if there’s a smoking gun tape like the one of Rice that caused a media firestorm.

Eddie Jordan has agreed to become the new head basketball coach at Rutgers, according to multiple reports. The contract is expected to be for five years and pay $1.3 million annually. Jordan takes over for Mike Rice, who was fired after a tape of him verbally and physically abusing players was leaked to the public.

Jordan played at Rutgers from 1973 to 1977, where he set multiple school records. He then moved on to the NBA for an eight-year career that included stints with the Cavaliers, Nets, Blazers and Lakers.

Jordan is a proponent of the Princeton Offense -- a scheme predicated on constant motion, backdoor cuts, and wing or high-post entries as common points of initiation. He has coached the Sacramento Kings, Washington Wizards and Philadelphia 76ers, and amassed a .428 winning percentage (257-343) over nine seasons.

Rutgers had initially pursued Pistons coach Lawrence Frank and Rhode Island head coach Danny Hurley as potential replacements for Mike Rice, but both candidates backed out from consideration. Hurley was reportedly offered a $5 million deal from Rutgers and turned it down to sign an extension at Rhode Island. Frank noted that he liked his position with the Pistons and intended to play out the final year of his deal in the NBA.

Hurley’s decision leaves Rutgers, which fired former head coach Mike Rice last week after he was shown on video physically and verbally abusing players, still in limbo. The school is concerned about more players leaving the program if the coaching position isn’t filled soon, sources told Katz.

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The video that surfaced of Mike Rice verbally and physically abusing players at Rutgers is not the first time he has displayed such behavior. A former player for Rice says that the coach used gay slurs and threw a basketball “once or twice” while at Robert Morris, according to the Associated Press.

The unnamed player’s accusations give credit to a former Rutgers staff member who said that Rice was a part of “coaches versus players” brawls while at Robert Morris from 2007-2010.

The Big Ten won’t take any chances as one of its new additions chooses its new athletic director: NJ.com reports that Jim Delany will be involved in some way in choosing the next athletic director at Rutgers after the scandal that led to the firing of basketball coach Mike Rice and AD Tim Pernetti.

Delany has pretty firmly established his role as one of the most powerful behind-the-scenes people in college sports, launching the Big Ten Network while negotiating big TV contracts that turned his conference into a money-printer. He also was one of the catalysts in the most recent wave of conference realignment, as he and Pernetti alongside worked with each other to bring Rutgers into the Big Ten.

Following the firing of former head basketball coach Mike Rice, Rutgers University has launched an independent investigation into its entire athletics department, according to NBCSports.com.

The announcement came at a town hall speech on Monday morning by Rutgers president Robert Barchi on the university’s Newark campus. Barchi said that the school is reviewing practice videos from all sports to ensure that no other coaches at the school are engaging in similar behaviors. The Rutgers Board of Governors will meet Thursday to hire an independent adviser for the case.

The Rutgers women’s lacrosse team was in action on Sunday with the letters ‘T’ and ‘P’ painted on their calves in a show of support for former athletic director Tim Pernetti.

via @NewBrunsNJ

Eric Murdock, the whistle-blowing assistant in the Rutgers basketball scandal, is seeking nearly a million dollars from the school for wrongful termination (via NJ.com) after he brought light to Mike Rice’s physical and verbal abuse of players.

Murdock, who was the director of player development for the Scarlet Knights, compiled video of Rice’s mistreatment of the basketball team. The school says that Murdock’s contract was simply not renewed. Murdock says he was fired, officially for attending his son’s basketball camp instead of one run by Rice, but perhaps due to his role in trying to expose Rice’s behavior.

Parrish writes it will likely be some time before Rutgers basketball has a new head man because Rutgers President Robert Barchi likely wants to hire a new athletic director to replace Tim Pernetti, who resigned on Friday, and let the new AD help choose a new men’s basketball coach.

Howland led the Bruins to a Pac-12 title this year, but, after being given a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament, was upset in the first round by Tubby Smith — also recently fired — and the Minnesota Gophers. Rice was the head coach at Rutgers for three years before ESPN aired a videotape of him cursing out, hurling balls at, shoving and kicking players earlier this week.

Heads have begun to roll at Rutgers following the publication of coach Mike Rice’s controversial practice techniques that involved verbal and physical abuse of players.

On Friday, Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti resigned. The decision came just hours after Rice was fired. To address everything that had transpired in the past 72 hours, Dr. Robert L. Barchi, the president of Rutgers, held a press conference.

Athletic director Tim Pernetti is a big reason why Rutgers is headed to the Big Ten Conference next year. For the most part, he was widely liked and respected within the community.

As the impact of Mike Rice’s controversial practice videos continues to be felt throughout the sports world, Pernetti has resigned as AD at Rutgers.

After making the decision to retain then-basketball coach Mike Rice, despite having seen video of him abusing players, Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti will reportedly be fired by the school. He will the latest to lose his job over the scandal caused by Rice’s behavior.

Pernetti was responsible for hiring Rice and saw the inflammatory video of the coach hurling balls at players, kicking them and slinging insults at them months before it leaked. He decided to suspend the coach rather than fire him, and withheld the video from his higher-ups, which looks to be enough to cost him his job.

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In a 40-minute long video provided to ESPN, it was revealed that Martelli was also involved in the abuse of players. He was shown shoving an unidentified player in a segment of the video that was not aired on television. Rutgers athletic director Tom Pernetti addressed Martelli’s resignation in a brief statement:

Martelli was part of Rice’s coaching staff at Robert Morris for three seasons before following his boss to Rutgers after the 2010 season.