Eddie Jordan Agrees to Become Men's Head Basketball Coach at Rutgers

UPDATE: According to a report from NJ.com, Jordan’s hiring could be on hold which would allow the university’s governing board to review his contract. This delay could last to Tuesday.

 

The Rutgers Scarlet Knights men’s basketball program finally has a new head coach to move forward with.

It’s been a tumultuous past month or so following the surfacing of practice footage in which former head coach Mike Rice was seen throwing basketball, shoving players and verbally abusing them to an extent in which public outcry called for his removal.

Well, the school agreed to a contract with Eddie Jordan on Thursday afternoon, ending about a week of speculation between the two sides. Jordan, who was a former player at Rutgers from 1973-77, agreed to take the job, but the complete overhaul and rebuilding process will not be an easy task.

Even since Rice’s firing, Rutgers has seen a number of players, including some of their high profile contributors, make the decision to either transfer or ask for their release. At this point, it’s unclear how many scholarship players Rutgers will even have to work with next season and considering the month of April is already nearing a close, Jordan is going to have to work like crazy to at least attempt to fill in some of the cracks between now and the beginning of the 2013-14 season.

As for Jordan’s hire however, Rutgers is making a solid move by bringing back an alumni. The only minor set back is that Jordan has no prior heading coaching experience at the collegiate level. Jordan has however, held a few assistant coaching positions in his career, including at Rutgers.

Jordan’s NBA career spanned from 1977 to 1984 and he has been involved with coaching ever since. Jordan has held prior head coaching stints with the Sacramento Kings, Washington Wizards and Philadelphia 76ers.

 

Follow Paul Seaver on Twitter: @PaulSeaverRS