Hill May Cause His Own Departure

Three weeks ago, Rutgers basketball head coach Fred Hill Jr. met with athletic director Tim Pernetti about his future at the University-- and Pernetti decided to give his vote of confidence in Hill to return for a fifth season after another sub par year. Now the exit door has reopened a bit after a series of transfer, recruit, and behavioral problems surfaced over the weekend.

Fred Hill's father, Fred Hill Sr., has coached the baseball program at Rutgers for 27 years. This past weekend the baseball team was home against Pittsburgh. In the first game of the series on Thursday, the ballgame ended in a controversial safe-out call. After Pitt coach Joe Jordano went to argue the call to the umpire, the Rutgers coaching staff starting jawing at the Panther dugout.

According to eye witnesses at the game, both set of coaches emptied out onto the field where a yelling match ensued. Apparently, Fred Hill Jr. took offense to Pitt screaming at his father and decided it was OK to shout obscenities towards Pitt. Hill's outburst according to the eye witnesses was embarrassing and unnecessary.

The next day, Pitt's athletic director called Pernetti about the scuffle and was alarmed that the basketball coach had anything to do with the altercation. According to Jerry Carino and Keith Sargeant on their blog Scarlet Scuttlebutt-- Pernetti took action after the call by telling Hill Jr. to stay away from the Bainton Field complex for the remainder of the weekend series.

Hill did not oblige to his boss's recommendation. On Saturday Pernetti took a trip to the baseball field where he usually sits out in the left field hill with the players parents. There, Pernetti saw Hill in his car behind some trees, scrunched down watching the game.

There are no reports that Pernetti confronted Hill at the game but it was reported that the Rutgers AD did see his basketball coach at the baseball game.

And if that alone wasn't enough to stir up trouble, it was reported yesterday by Tom Lucci of the Star-Ledger that Rutgers guard Mike Rosario is seriously considering transferring because Hill is coming back for another season.

Hill already lost two players in the past three months to transfer, and 11 overall in his short tenure at Rutgers. This does not bold well for a coach that has a Big East record of 13-57-- the worst record by any coach in the past few seasons in the conference.

Aside from the transfer issues the program has had, it is now in even more trouble with future talent coming to the state university of New Jersey. Gilvydas Biruta, a 6-7 forward out of St. Benedict's who signed with Rutgers last November, has reportedly asked out of his letter of intent according to Zagsblog.com. The site also reported that Biruta went to Pernetti directly, instead of Hill. If Biruta does not come to Rutgers, the program will have only one incoming recruit for next season.

This leaves Pernetti with an enormous decision on the horizon. Hill has a behavioral clause in his contract-- and with the baseball outburst it is possible that Pernetti can terminate Hill for violating his contract. If Rutgers fired Hill without cause, the school would owe him $1.8 million.

The debate now becomes will Pernetti fire Hill? And if he does, who does the school go after to be its next coach? Those questions need to be answered within the week no matter what. The longer Rutgers waits, the more the damage already done could get worse.

One thing is certain, you would think a coach on the hot seat would be on his best behavior after getting a free pass on a joke of a coaching career-- but then again we've seen odder things in New Jersey before.