Monmouth coach King Rice's past gives him unique perspective on suspended Pitt player Ithiel Horton

King Rice stopped by Petersen Events Center on Sunday night, presumably just to win a basketball game.

He did that, leading Monmouth to a 56-52 victory against Pitt, boosting his team’s record to 8-2. After the game, he had something to say about an issue that matters to him more than basketball.

Rice made a plea for suspended Pitt player Ithiel Horton, hoping “he doesn’t turn into King Rice.”

“I know what he did was wrong. You can’t do that. But I used to be that kid.”

Horton, 21, is the Pitt player arrested Nov. 6 and charged with punching a police officer during an altercation on Pittsburgh’s South Side. He has been suspended from the team indefinitely.

Rice said he has known Horton for years. Horton was a teammate of Rice’s son, Xander, for two seasons at St. Anthony High School in Jersey City, N.J.

“One of the nicest families,” Rice said.

Rice can approach players’ indiscretions from a different perspective than most coaches. His past includes arrests and bouts with alcoholism. A year before he was the point guard on North Carolina’s 1991 Final Four team, he was arrested for assault. Five years later, he was cited for drunk driving while he was an assistant on former Pitt coach Kevin Stallings’ staff at Illinois State.

“As a college coach. How dumb was that?” Rice said. “I stopped drinking that night. He didn’t fire me. I know everybody here (at Pitt) doesn’t like that man. But that man saved my life.”

Rice said he remains sober to this day.

“He should have fired me,” Rice said of Stallings, who picked him up from jail that night. “Called him first. He stood with me. I still call him every Oct. 27 (the day of the arrest) to tell him, ‘Coach, it’s 25 years now. Thank you.’ ”

Rice also credits former North Carolina coach Dean Smith for standing by him during his troubled past.

“I got whupped like I was supposed to get whupped,” Rice said. “But Dean Smith stood with me the whole time. He kept saying, ‘King, that’s not the kid you are.’ ”

Before Sunday’s game, Rice said he received a phone call from his son, who plays at Bucknell, asking if Horton was back on the team. “I said, ‘Xander, what he did you just can’t do?’

“I’m praying for that kid and his family. I’m praying for the police officer that Ithiel, obviously, handled himself wrong with. I don’t want (Horton) to go through what I went through for the next 30 years … fighting alcoholism and doing all this stuff because of one bad night. He had a whole bunch of good nights for years.”

Rice, 53, spoke more about his past, his son and Horton than he did the game, but he has learned over the years to keep basketball in perspective. He said he’ll meet his team in New Haven, Conn., Monday evening before a game Tuesday against Yale. He said he planned to drive home Sunday night to be with his family.

“I don’t like being gone from my family that much,” he said.

On the drive to New Jersey, he thought about Yale, but Horton wasn’t far from his thoughts.

“It probably wasn’t my place to say,” Rice said, “but I know (Horton). My son is hurting because he’s hurting. I ask everybody here to step up for a second and try to remember he’s a kid. Let’s look at his whole body of work and not just that one night.

“I’m not making small talk on that one night. You have to pay for that one. But I still don’t believe your whole life should get changed because you made a bad choice on one night. From 18-, 19- to 27- (years old), I was lost. I’m lucky I’m still here, as much as I was drinking and the stuff I was doing.

“I needed Dean Smith. Right now, Ithiel might need all of us.”