Eddie Jordan is going back to college in more ways than one.
The new Rutgers basketball coach is taking classes in an effort to get his degree after it was reported that he had never graduated, despite the school’s previous claim that he had.
“I’m in school taking classes,” Jordan told ESPN.com “It’s fun and exciting. I’m doing my work, trying to squeeze it in and get done by December or by this time next year. Rutgers is my school, and I always wanted to finish. I showed that every summer while I was playing and came back and took a class.
“When I was volunteering coaching here, the registration got screwed up. I take the blame for that. I showed there was an intent on finishing, but once you get into coaching and you have a young family and you’re in the NBA, it’s hard. The NBA isn’t a resume league.”
The embarrassing revelation, via Deadspin, came last month in the midst of a series of PR gaffes by the school starting with the December decision not to fire then basketball coach Mike Rice after viewing a tape of him physically and verbally abusing players that ultimately let to his dismissal and that of former athletic director Tim Pernetti. Jordan’s situation has been overshadowed by the hiring of new AD Julie Hermann, who quit her job as Tennessee women’s volleyball coach in 1997, after she allegedly called her players “whores, alcoholics and learning disabled.”
Jordan, who has had a successful recruiting start despite the turmoil, is now trying to rectify his failure.
“Everyone is a bit beaten up by the stories, but underneath it all, we’re getting kids excited about us and going into the Big Ten,” Jordan said of the move to the Big Ten in 2014. “There is no concern among the families and the kids about the AD situation. Kids are excited about the Big Ten and the new coaching staff. This is the first year. We are selling the Big Ten and New York. No other school can say that.”