Apodaca lashes out at transfers; Bannon treated unfairly
Although Hofstra’s season ended with the loss to UCLA in the NCAA Tournament last week, North Bergen native Rick Apodaca has nothing to be ashamed of, scoring 16 points in the loss.
However, Apodaca was deeply concerned with the news that his friends, Mawel Soler and Paul Williams, had transferred out of North Bergen High School to St. Patrick’s of Elizabeth.
"I saw them both last week and they couldn’t even say anything to me, because they knew I would say something," Apodaca said. "It’s their choice to go to whereever they want and I wish them the best, but I am a little disappointed. There’s a certain way to do things. You just don’t pick up and leave and not tell anyone. You sit down and discuss it. I love them both and don’t want to say anything bad, but they come from two different worlds than I do. If they thought they had some problems, they should have talked about it. I hope they made the right decision, but right now, I don’t think they did."
Apodaca should know. There were a lot of people tugging at him, telling him he should leave North Bergen, but he stuck it out, became Hudson County’s all-time leading scorer, earned a scholarship to Hofstra and has participated in two straight NCAA Tournaments. Now, what’s wrong with that?
Soler and Williams should be so lucky with their respective careers…
Rutgers men’s basketball coach Kevin Bannon was fired on Wednesday and in typical Rutgers fashion, the powers-that-be didn’t even have the decency to call him and tell him. He had to learn from his agent, who received word from some attorney. Nothing like being told third-hand that you’ve been canned.
Personally, I don’t think Bannon ever received the treatment that he deserved at the school. He was the perfect hire four years ago, the Jersey guy who could recruit Jersey kids. He hired a Jersey product, Danny Hurley, to be his assistant coach.
Bannon, a guy who I have known personally for more than 20 years, was destined to succeed at Rutgers. We were all rooting for him to succeed.
But he never got a full commitment from the school, which still wants a successful big-time athletic program under the auspices of trying to be an Ivy League institution academically.
Sorry, but that mix simply doesn’t fly in these parts, especially for a struggling athletic program. The established programs like Duke and Stanford could pull it off, but kids flock to both schools. They don’t line up to go to Piscataway.
True, Bannon dug part of his grave by some ill-advised actions. There is no excuse for stripping some of his players down to their birthday suits and forcing them to make free throws naked. That incident came back and bit Bannon on his bare butt.
But as a basketball coach, Bannon had a right concept. He just didn’t have the players to back up the strategy.
And it’s a damn shame that there were some other people outside of the Rutgers athletic family who were simply out to get Bannon. For some reason, Rutgers athletic director Robert Mulcahy is more concerned about how one particular sportswriter thinks that he’s willing to get rid of people at will to please the writer.
Please, this is New Jersey here, not the Big Apple. And when have sportswriters earned the right to hire and fire at will? When have sportswriters become larger than the events that they cover?
Well, it’s happened in New York, with a certain Daily News columnist believing that he is an almighty power and can get people hired and fired. And that mentality has now come across the Hudson, with one writer wielding so much power that he is lopping heads left and right at the state university.
With all his faults, Kevin Bannon and his staff deserved the right to clear up the problems in Piscataway and unfortunately, they will never get the chance.
Kevin Bannon will land on his feet somewhere soon. I will forever be a loyal friend to him. It’s a damn shame that other sportswriters cannot do the same…