April 19, 2010 – Mike Rosario had kind words for Rutgers as he announced that he would take his crooked shooting to Florida to finish his basketball career. After all, he lives in New Jersey and wants to come back periodically.

Rosario will finish the semester on the state of New Jersey’s dime and then head south where he’ll sit a year before he has two remaining years of eligibility, which he hopes will resurrect his slim chances for the NBA.

He leaves a team that is crippled and reeling from player defections and a coaching drama that has already dismissed coach Fred Hill Jr., balking at his payoff settlement, and has slowed the search for his successor. Rutgers is destined to fall even farther backwards in the competitive Big East.

The ill will toward Rutgers demonstrated by Hill has also been mirrored by Rosario in his first commentary since being granted a “no strings attached” release by Rutgers AD Tim Pernetti. Despite his comments to the contrary, and being granted his freedom for two years to shoot and run the offense under Hill, Rosario is quitting and damaging a school that went all out for him.

In Florida, “we are going to win,” he said in his transfer announcement, meaning he thought that would never happen at Rutgers. The team is made up of “good guys who are passionate about the game,” he added, meaning the boys he’s abandoning were not. “The people down here are so wonderful, so different,” he backhanded to those who had supported him in Piscataway.

In an article from “The Daily Targum,” the RU student newspaper, there were alleged suspicions of drug use and an attitude from his teammates of “good riddance.” Perhaps the most inciteful commentary came from Rosario’s legendary high school coach, Bob Hurley, who said he was surprised at Rosario’s lack of drive at Rutgers. “He needs to be pushed,” Hurley said, citing Rosario’s failure to work extra on his shooting with Rutgers coaches when his shot went bad.

There are evident glimpses of Rosario’s approach to life in the recently released “The Street Stops Here,” a documentary by film maker Kevin Shaw, where we see Mike Rosario’s senior year with the St. Anthony Friars. In the film, Hurley, who doesn’t like dew rags or tattoos, demonstrates his “tough love” coaching style and tussles with Rosario, as the Friars charge in 2007-08 toward St. Anthony’s 23rd state championship. Rosario is shown being dressed down by Hurley, assistant Ben Gamble and by his teammates. Mike Rosario was the only McDonald’s All American on that unbeaten team which ended rated number one in the nation.

Today, the colorfully tatooed Rosario, succumbs to what he concluded as overwhelming adversity at Rutgers. Perhaps similar to what he grew up against in a broken home in Jersey City’s infamous Duncan Projects. He was quoted as saying “he had to get out.” But this time when everthing was stacked against him, instead of fighting and staying in Jersey City, he chose to run, leaving a broken home behind.