New Jersey's Rutgers to review handling of basketball abuse claim

By David Jones

NEWARK, New Jersey (Reuters) - Rutgers University plans to commission an independent review of how the school handled allegations that its men's basketball coach physically and verbally abused his players, Rutgers officials said on Monday.

"It is our intention to move quickly with this review," Robert Barchi, the university's president, and Ralph Izzo, the chairman of the school's board of governors, said in a statement.

Rutgers, the largest public college in New Jersey, received a video last year showing the coach, Mike Rice, throwing basketballs at players' heads and berating them with homophobic slurs during practices. The school suspended him for three games and fined him $50,000.

Last week, after the ESPN sports network broadcast the videos, Barchi watched the videos and fired Rice. The videos sparked outrage among Rutgers' students, faculty and fans.

Three other officials have left in the wake of Rice's ouster: Athletic Director Tim Pernetti, interim University General Counsel John Wolf, and Assistant Coach Jimmy Martelli.

Barchi is due to speak to Rutgers students, faculty and staff in a town hall-style meeting at the school's Newark campus on Monday. The meeting, scheduled before the Rice video was released and postponed until this week, had been intended to discuss a major restructuring of the 58,000-student university.

(Writing by Scott Malone; editing by John Wallace)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jerseys-rutgers-review-handling-basketball-abuse-claim-134251555--finance.html

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