If you’re a Rutgers basketball fan who believes in the adage, “Man makes plans, God laughs,” then you must feel as if the man upstairs has been laughing so hard, that dormant volcano in Iceland finally blew.
Leading scorer Mike Rosario was granted a release and is headed to Florida. Dane Miller could be next. The recruiting class? Probably gone. The RAC still looks as if it’s stuck in a time warp.
And last night the Fred Hill Jr. saga, which at times seemed like a reality television show, came to an end — finally.
Athletic director Tim Pernetti announced that Hill (47-77 in four seasons), whom Pernetti wanted to fire after the season, had resigned after his inexplicable eruption at a Rutgers baseball game on April Fool’s Day.
Sources said Hill and Rutgers reached a settlement of about $825,000. So ends one of the weirdest chapters in Rutgers hoops history.
While the proverbial ash was falling on Rutgers, Steve Donahue, Steve Lavin, Fran McCaffery, Tom Pecora, Kevin Willard and Tim Welsh — some of whom would have been candidates for Rutgers had Hill been fired — took other jobs.
Maybe there was a cosmic plan in place all along. Eddie Jordan, the most public symbol of the short-lived golden era of Rutgers basketball, was fired as coach of the 76ers last Thursday.
He immediately becomes an option Pernetti must explore. Former Boston College and Ohio State coach Jim O’Brien and former Manhattan, St. John’s and New Mexico coach Fran Fraschilla also are intriguing possibilities.
But Jordan, who led RU to the 1976 Final Four and remains the school’s career leader in assists and steals, stirs the Scarlet embers most. Before ’76 and after ’76, Rutgers basketball was dormant.
Suddenly Pernetti, a former Rutgers football player, has a chance to write his legacy. He inherited a blossoming football program. Now he can hire a basketball coach, renovate the RAC and join the Big Ten.
As recently as March 17, the day Seton Hall fired Bobby Gonzalez and Pernetti was forced to swallow hard and say he looked forward to working together with Hill to build the program because Rutgers didn’t have $1.9 million to buy out the coach, such an opportunity seemed impossible.
Today anything is possible.
Pernetti was able to cut ties with Hill and save some $1 million in the process. A prime candidate, seemingly perfect for Rutgers, suddenly is available.
It’s not a day to laugh at Rutgers. But it certainly isn’t one to cry.
