Rutgers had to part ways with Eddie Jordan after awful season
A little less than a year after Eddie Jordan earned his bachelor’s of science degree from Rutgers in Labor Studies and Employment Relations, the school fired him Thursday for not winning enough games on the basketball court.
It’s sad to see a good man lose his job, especially when you know it’s one he cares about deeply having played guard in the program in the 1970s and helping the Scarlet Knights reach the Final Four in 1976.
But Rutgers really didn’t have a choice.
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Jordan’s presided over one of the worst seasons in recent college basketball history by a team from a major conference. His team finished this season 7-25 and 1-17 in conference, which is actually slightly better than ACC doormat Boston College, which went 7-25 and 0-18 in conference play. But it was the way that Rutgers lost that made you cringe and wonder what might be missing.
There were multiple losses that made the program a punchline because of the margin of defeat such as losing at home to Nebraska in early January 90-56 or a home loss less than two weeks later to Purdue 107-57 or losing to Northwestern two weeks ago 98-59. Of the 17 conference losses this season, only two were decided by single-digit margins.
Whether it was his own struggle to adapt to the college game after years in the NBA, difficulties in recruiting more talented players or a combination of those factors and more, the Scarlet Knights simply weren’t competitive at times.
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They lost 17 consecutive games and 32 straight Big Ten games before snapping the streak with a win over Minnesota in the regular season finale Saturday. It was the first conference win for Rutgers since what was probably the biggest win of Jordan’s tenure, a takedown of Wisconsin on Jan. 11, 2015. The Badgers went on to play for the national title last year.
While Jordan didn’t win at Rutgers, he deserves credit for completing an overhaul of the culture that he found in the program when he was hired. His predecessor, Mike Rice, was ousted because of mistreatment of players that was captured on video. Jordan had to rebuild trust between coaches and players before moving forward.
Off-the-court issues were not a problem under Jordan and he set a strong example for his players of how to be a good student by attending classes for two years, often attending study hall sessions with players and earning his degree last spring.
Now the school can move forward by finding someone who will be fortunate to start from a place considerably ahead of where Jordan started, though Rutgers still has major work to do in terms of catching up to its peers with facilities.
Sometimes a program needs to find some momentum and if it can’t generate it on the court, it comes through a change in leadership.
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[Kyle Ringo is the assistant editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo
