If There’s ever a remake of “Dead Man Walking,” the lead role has fallen to Mike Rice, the Rutgers basketball coach.
Rice was suspended three games and fined $50,000 earlier this season for conduct unbecoming a raving mad man.
Since then, he has been on double secret probation. Every step he takes, every move he makes, is monitored. A file is being kept. One foul word, one thrown basketball that comes remotely close to a player’s head and Rice will be out of work after the season.
Rice is 43 for another month, a young man in almost any professional but an old dog in the coaching profession. He’s been doing this for more than 20 years, since he was an assistant at Fordham in 1991. The word from Providence to Piscataway was that he couldn’t be taught new tricks.
But last night Rice led Rutgers to a 58-56 win over St. John’s in the Garden. In the final minutes his players played with poise, made the clutch shots and the tough stops. And Rice, despite getting the short end of the whistle most of the night, never came close to a technical foul or even a warning.
The Scarlet Knights improved to 11-3 overall and, more importantly, 2-1 in the Big East for the first time in seven years and just the third time in history. Another record is almost as important. Sources close to the program told The Post that in the nine practices since Rice has returned, he hasn’t dropped one f-bomb.
“I’m not holding back as far as my energy or my passion or my intensity,’’ Rice told The Post. “It’s just, I’m being smarter. I’m being more under control. I’m developing as a coach and a teacher. This is going to be the best thing for me.’’
Since Rice came into most people’s living rooms in March of 2010 when his Robert Morris team almost upset Villanova before losing 73-70 on a tough call at the end, he has been compared more to former Manhattan and Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez than Jim Boeheim. TV cameras caught him chasing officials off the court.
Fordham could have hired him but passed. Seton Hall could have but didn’t dare. Rutgers AD Tim Pernetti took a chance.
Pernetti wants Rice, his first big hire, to succeed. But he couldn’t, and wouldn’t, stand by and watch Rice embarrass the program. He didn’t drop a hammer on Rice with the fine and suspension, he dropped an anvil.
“It was like taking my family away,’’ said Rice. “The thought of letting [my team] down for that extended period of time, now that I’m back with them, I don’t take it for granted, that’s for sure.’’
The Scarlet Knights are making it hard on Pernetti to fire Rice. As Rice accurately pointed out after the game, there are a couple of very good teams in the league this season and then there is a group from which a surprise will emerge.
“Like I keep telling the players, ‘Why not us?’ ”
The players said that Rice hasn’t changed. He’s still intense. He still wants them to be comfortable in chaos. They were at the end last night.
It would be nothing short of amazing if Rice completes his personal transformation and the Scarlet Knights continue to win.
“I love what I do too much,’’ he said. “To me it’s easy because of what I could lose if I don’t change and I don’t develop.’’