Rutgers head basketball coach Mike Rice was suspended in December for three games, and fined $50,000.  He was fired on April 3.

The reason is that he became infamous with a video that captured his abuse of players, which shows him shoving, grabbing, and kicking the athletes.   Rice also verbally attacks them.

Blake Baxter of Eureka College has more details on the situation with the Rutgers University basketball program.

In 2010, Rutgers Athletic Director Tim Pernetti was looking for a head coach that could rescue the university’s floundering basketball program. Mike Rice had a reputation for being “tough” and “fiery.” He was even known for getting into fights with his own players as coach at Robert Morris. Pernetti hired him under the stipulation that he would be held accountable for any questionable behavior in his new job. Nonetheless, Pernetti had high hopes that Rice would be the one to turn around the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.

Over the next two seasons, the Scarlet Knights continued to struggle, finishing with a 29-35 record. While the results were disappointing, Pernetti still stood firmly behind Rice as the right man for the job. All the while though, Rice was engaging in appalling misconduct behind the scenes. For what ended up being three seasons, Rice was reportedly a vulgar, offensive, physically abusive tyrant to his team and sometimes even his own coaching staff. According to former Rutgers assistant coach Erik Murdock, no one spoke up until he and Rice had a simple disagreement in the summer of 2012.

Murdock, who had a long career playing in the NBA prior to taking the coaching job at Rutgers, was scheduled to work at Rice’s summer basketball camp, but had a conflict with a camp that his high school aged-son was attending at the same time. According to Murdock, when he broached the subject of missing the session with Rice, the head coach screamed at him, angrily denied his request and fired him. Murdock, who was at the end of his contract, turned to Pernetti for assistance in the matter. He also informed Pernetti of Rice’s pattern of verbal outbursts and violent, irrational behavior. Pernetti arranged a meeting between the two parties, but before Murdock had a chance to talk to Rice, he received a letter informing him that his contract was not being renewed.

To Murdock, it appeared Pernetti had chosen to side with Rice, despite Rice’s known history of troubling behavior. Following his departure from the team, Murdock began building a case against Rice that he was wrongfully terminated. With the assistance of a team of lawyers, Murdock obtained DVD’s consisting of hundreds of hours of Rutgers’ practices. Murdock spent the fall reviewing the footage and compiling the most severe incidents into a 30-minute video.