newjerseynewsroom.com

BY MIKE VORKUNOV

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

UPDATED

Rutgers granted Mike Rosario a conditional release from the program Wednesday afternoon, a week after it became public that he was looking to transfer out of the program. There was speculation that Rutgers would wait until a new coach was hired, replacing the ousted but still present Fred Hill, to give Rosario his getaway ticket in hopes that the new coach could assuage him and change his mind.

Before Rosario decides where he will go, he will have a meeting Friday with his high school coach Bob Hurley and someone else who was influential with a young Rosario in Jersey City. Despite the St. Anthony's coach being an advocate and confidant of Rosario's, the erstwhile Scarlet Knight can expect to hear some strong words from Hurley.

"To be honest, I'm going weary with the whole process," said Hurley when reached by phone. "There's 40 kids in high school that we need to invest some time with and when you have a scholarship to a great school like Rutgers and play in a great conference, I don't see that there is a lot of things wrong in his life. So we're going to talk to him perhaps differently than somebody might perceive. Whatever he chooses to do, it's based on what he thinks."

"This is not about Rutgers winning and losing but him maybe not working as hard as he needs to and maybe blaming the Rutgers staff that they were not responsible for," Hurley said. "Basketball kids in college spend more time talking about playing than playing. They spend too much time on Facebook and everything under the sun talking about their careers and they don't spend enough time in the gym working on their careers."

Hurley drew a parallel to his son Bobby's career, who by the end of his sophomore year at Duke had already garnered a Regional MOP and played in two national championship games before becoming the seventh overall selection in the 1993 NBA Draft after four years ofcollege. After the end of those two years the elder Hurley and his wife implored their son to keep working towards his degree.

"That stuff is laughable," said Hurley about Rosario bringing up the NBA. "When you're a sophomore in college, NBA career? Everybody can dream about playing in the career, if you're not a power player say 6'10" or bigger, the numbers are very, very low that you're gonna play. Certainly, I don't want to get into a thing where if you don't play as well in your sophomore year as your freshman year is the NBA becoming more interested in you or less interested in you?"

MyCentralJersey.com reported Friday that were Rosario to be granted his release, he would not be allowed to transfer to USC — against whom Rutgers has filed tampering charges according to the same report — to join his good friend and former high school teammate Jio Fontan. Kansas and Florida were also said to be on the list of schools Rosario would be unable to go to.

As of last week Rosario was thought to be deciding between USC and North Carolina, but that was before news of the reported constraints on his final destination. Hurley said he heard "some things that I don't know to be true" about USC having reached out inappropriately to Rosario but he did not mince words when it came to Fontan and Rosario and their parallel situations.

"You don't like to see anybody quit anything in life," Hurley said. "Like leaving a school just to go someplace else, you're quitting. No matter how you perceive it. He and his teammate Jio Fontan; Jio Fontan quit on a team at the beginning of the year this year at Fordham and they're very good friends. Mike finished the season, he's not quitting on this team but he's quitting on next year's team being successful. He's saying, No I don't think they can be successful, I want to go someplace else. That's the world these guys are in now but I don't agree with it."

Note: A release from scholarship by a program that allows a player to transfer is by definition conditional. Any school that wishes to lure Rosario to their campus will have to apply to the Rutgers athletics department and receive permission from Athletic Director Tim Pernetti for Rosario to transfer there, with any Big East school to be denied. While there is no explicit letter drafted that precludes Rosario from going anywhere, it is up to Pernetti's discretion where the guard can go that creates the conditions of his release.

For more Rutgers and Seton Hall basketball news, follow Mike Vorkunov on Twitter at @Mike_Vorkunov. If you have any comments or criticisms, email Mike at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it