seton hall vs rutgers end of game/post game antics

[spiral97]

didn't see the game but read this story about it.. get the feeling Hill and Gonzalez aren't really fans of each other?  Let's make tomorrow's game be Seton Hall's last of the season and the last of Nutter's college career.

http://www.nj.com/columns/ledger/politi/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/1205127392154160.xml&coll=1&thispage=2

Seton Hall, Rutgers basketball coaches' behavior hardly exemplary
Monday, March 10, 2008
BY STEVE POLITI
Star-Ledger Staff

In most corners of the college basketball universe, fans are debating where their teams should be seeded in the NCAA Tournament and which ones will make it off the bubble. Here, where the games are irrelevant long before March arrives, we get a much different debate.

Namely this: Which of our Big East head coaches was a bigger embarrassment to his school yesterday?
Was it Bobby Gonzalez, who charged onto the court like an uncaged animal at a referee after forward JR Inman hit an off-balance 3-pointer to give Rutgers a 64-61 victory over Seton Hall?

Or was it Fred Hill Jr., who celebrated like a junior high cheerleader after the shot went into the basket -- and directed most of his clapping and hooting at Gonzalez in a stunning show of poor sportsmanship?

Was it Gonzalez, who barked at a senior Seton Hall official to "relax" and "get out of my face" as everyone met at the scorer's table to watch the replay and make sure the shot counted?

Or was it Hill, who yanked away his arm at the end of a drive-by handshake that would have made Bill Belichick cringe?

We would have called this one a tie if not for a Gonzalez postgame press conference that was a textbook example of how not to conduct yourself in a room filled with reporters. Seriously, somebody should send the tape to young coaches everywhere as a learning tool.

In 15 minutes, he managed to:

# Rip one of the three officials -- he wouldn't name him but made it clear he was referring to Wally Rutecki, the most inexperienced member of the crew -- because he "took over all the big calls" and was too quick to hit him with a technical foul with seven minutes left.

# Insist that Hill also deserved a technical a few minutes later for arguing (rightly so) a shot-clock screw-up that led to a traveling call on guard Corey Chandler. "If you're going to do that to me," Gonzalez said, referring to his technical foul, "(then) somebody jumps and starts screaming and yelling and going berserk, do that to him."

# Insinuate that Rutgers center Hamady Ndiaye faked an injury with 43.7 seconds left after drawing a foul so a better free-throw shooter could take his place. Ndiaye, who was struck on the head twice on the play, never returned to the game.

"I'm not a doctor," Gonzalez said, but he sure was willing to play one after this game.

# And finally, all but invite Inman, who has clashed with Hill this season, to transfer to his team.

"(Inman) is a class kid. From what I understand that kid has been maligned all year," Gonzalez said. "Let me tell you something: That kid is talented. I wish we had the kid."

Of course, even as he praised Inman, Gonzalez couldn't simply say the kid managed to make a tough shot with the game on the line. He had to call it a "miracle shot" and say that "he got lucky." This was not some 50-foot heave. This was an open look from the corner at the buzzer.

But hey, this is what counts as March Madness in New Jersey. Maybe we should have expected it from Gonzalez, whose ridiculous sideline behavior has been a disgrace to Seton Hall from the moment he arrived on campus. But for Hill, who has carried himself with class even as the losses mount, it was surprising.

Hill insisted he "was clapping for JR Inman" after the shot, and that his postgame interaction with Gonzalez was "a handshake -- that was it." But most observers agreed the celebration was over the top, and that it was directed at his rival. Hill has to be smarter than that.

Gonzalez, it appears, may never learn. The Big East must fine him for brazenly calling out one of its officials, while Seton Hall has to ask itself this: How many on-court embarrassments like this will it tolerate under the excuse that Gonzalez is trying to motivate his players?

How many times can he charge onto the court to scream at a referee or yell at another Seton Hall employee before somebody decides that modest improvement and a 17-14 record hardly justify the headaches?

Because the ugliness after the game distracted everyone from the truth about these two teams, that unless the NIT is feeling generous with the Pirates, neither team will play beyond the Big East Tournament this week.

Seton Hall is the better team, as Gonzalez noted three times after this game, but loses Brian Laing and Jamar Nutter, its two most reliable players. Rutgers will finally have a Big East-caliber backcourt when prized recruit Mike Rosario arrives, but has yet to improve its MAAC-level frontcourt.

Which is the biggest frustration, of course. The most exciting month of the season will slip past without meaningful basketball games, and probably will next March, too, as the rebuilding continues. The rest of the country is talking about office pools, and we're stuck debating sideline foolishness.