PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Following a rare win for a MAAC team at an ACC team, Monmouth head coach King Rice wasn't most passionate about the win. Instead he brought up and spent minutes discussing the suspension of Pitt guard Ithiel Horton.
Horton suspended by the university for an off-campus incident, which is all the school will say about it. According to a police report Horton punched a Pittsburgh Police officer after he was upset at his car being towed. Then Horton ran from the officer before being arrested and taken to jail.
The junior hasn't practiced with the team since the incident in early November and Rice hopes he gets a second chance.
"A kid made a bad mistake, Ithiel Horton," Rice said Sunday. "I've known that kid since he was in ninth grade. One of the nicest families. I know what he did was wrong, you can't do that."
Horton and Rice's son, Xander, now a player at Bucknell, played two years of high school basketball together. Rice said his son called him before Sunday's game to ask if Horton had been reinstated.
Rice then told heartfelt stories of himself at that age. Hoping that Horton gets a second change like he did. Actually, as Rice tells it, he got several chances.
"I used to be that kid," Rice explained. "I never did anything wrong. All I was going to do is make the pros. Then one night some stuff went down and it changed my whole life. It made my angry. I got arrested and then everyone piled on. Then all of a sudden I'm a bad person."
Rice arrested in 1990 for assaulting a female, resisting arrest and destruction of public property while playing for North Carolina.
"Girlfriend hit me and I grabbed her and got arrested and then acted like a fool," Rice said. "Then alcohol kicked in. I started talking crazy to him (the officer). I pulled away there were five or six (other officers) and you don't do that."
"I got to the police station, I called my mother. She started yelling at me and hung up the phone. I thought that was my one call. When she hung up, I put my fist through the table and they added another charge."
"(North Carolina) Coach (Dean) Smith stood right with me. I did some other things later. He stood right with me. He believed I wasn't that kid. He saw alcohol was the problem. I didn't believe it."
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Still abusing alcohol, Rice made another mistake. This time as a college assistant coach.
"At 27-years-old, I got arrested again," Rice said. "I was a coach at Illinois State with the former coach here. He didn't fire me. I know everyone here doesn't like that man, but that man saved my life too. Kevin Stallings."
"He should have fired me. I got drunk driving on his staff at Illinois State after I had all of those problems. He stood with me. I still call him every October 27th to tell him thank you."
The reason he calls is that is now the 25th anniversary of the night he stopped drinking. He's been sober every night since.
"What he did, you just can't do," Rice said of Horton. "That's what I'm scared about all the time because if you make one decision like that, it changes your life. I'm praying for that kid and his family. I'm praying for that police officer that Ithiel obviously handled himself wrong with."
"I don't want him to go through what I went through the next 30 years and fight alcoholism and do all of this stuff because of one bad night. He had a whole bunch of good nights. That could break him."
"You put your arm around a young person when they mess up and you show them the way they did with me. I'm telling you guys, it's eight, nine, ten times they did it with me."
"Now I'm a head basketball coach for 11 years, I've been married for 25 years. I hope this one thing doesn't mess up this kid for the next 30 years. Maybe someday he will be a head coach or he will get his degree and go change the world and help kids not fight police officers or act that way when you get put in a situation."
Rice got another opportunity and eventually made the most of it. He's hoping Horton gets that same chance.
