Man, poop has hit the fan in Piscataway, New Jersey. Head basketball coach, Mike Rice, took his coaching a little to serious and his actions reached the “inappropriate” level (here is the video). Did you watch the video? Good, I don’t want to explain what he did. I want to get into the real reason he was fired. It is really simple math. Here are the numbers .463 and zero. That is his win percentage and a zero representing many things: winning seasons at Rutgers, national titles and NCAA tournament appearances. Those numbers are the real reason Rice got the axe.
We have seen a coach go about things very similarly and he got to keep his job. I am sure you all remember some guy named Bobby Knight. His numbers are a little better. Just looking at his time at Indiana, he had a .731 win percentage, three national titles. The only zero he had was the losses his team had in 1975-76. Yes, Knight eventually got canned, but it wasn’t the chair throwing, the player choking, the fan pushing, the cop punching, the lack of sensitivity toward rape, the cussing at Big Ten commissioners, the shooting of hunting partners or the grabbing of students. It was the losing.
Bobby Knight had quite a few more incidents over a longer period of time and got to keep his job. Why? It’s simple, he won. Winning cures all problems. Mike Rice no longer has a job, because he didn’t win. Losing creates problems that may not even exist, so when the problem does exist, it makes it exponentially worse. The point is when you win, you can get away with murder. My suggestion to everyone is just win a bunch and then go crazy. You’ve earned it!
