Jimmy Martelli resigned as assistant coach at Rutgers University after an report from ESPN's Outside the Lines showed a video on Tuesday displaying a pattern of unsavory behavior from head coach Mike Rice towards his players.
On Thursday, ESPN released more video footage, this time showing Martelli shoving, grabbing and throwing basketballs at players in numerous clips, very similar in nature to the clips of Rice that came out to the public eye on Tuesday. Martelli was also overheard using a homophobic slur towards players.
The issue of homophobic slurs looms particularly large at Rutgers after student Tyler Clementi jumped to his death off of the George Washington Bridge on September 22, 2010. Clementi was videotaped by roommate Dharun Ravi and hallmate Molly Wei kissing another man on a webcam without Clementi's consent.
Martelli has been an assistant coach at the Division-I level since 2007, when he joined on with Rice after Rice was named head coach at Robert Morris. Rice had worked on Martelli's father, Phil Martell's staff at Saint Joseph's before moving on to assist at Pittsburgh before being named head coach at Robert Morris.
According to the ESPN report, Jimmy Martelli was known as "Baby Rice" because of his outbursts. The report cited both Eric Murdock, a former Director of Player Development under Rice from 2010-2012, as well as former Rutgers player Tyree Graham as both having heard Jimmy Martelli being nicknamed "Baby Rice."
Jimmy Martelli released a statement on Thursday night to the Associated Press saying: "I am sickened that as an assistant coach I contributed in any way to an unacceptable culture. Wednesday I resigned from Rutgers and I hope that coaches on all levels will learn something important from these events. For my actions, I am deeply sorry and I apologize to the players from the bottom of my heart."
In the final analysis, one would have to wonder why Jimmy Martelli modeled his coaching style after Rice, instead of his father, Phil Martelli, who is a well-respected coach at the national level. While Phil Martelli, like most basketball coaches, is at times quite intense, the type of conduct seen on multiple occasions from Rice and Jimmy Martelli would be practically unfathomable during a Phil Martelli practice.
