A college basketball coach for four decades, Greg Vetrone has been involved in countless games. But the Rutgers director of player development says he’s never experienced a buzzer-beater or a demoralizing overtime loss that compares to this:

“My daughter is 27 years old, she’s in a court-appointed facility in New York state with my 7-month old grandson. My daughter has been a heroin addict for seven years,’’ Vetrone said, speaking to NJ Advance Media last week prior to a “Knock Out Opioid Abuse’’ event hosted by Rutgers that focused on tackling the opioid crisis at the community level by educating athletes on an issue affecting communities nationwide.

Vetrone, who was the head coach at Fairleigh Dickinson before arriving at Rutgers as an assistant six years ago, was among the speakers in a town-hall event designed to address the opioid epidemic through community outreach, prescriber education and parent education.

Vetrone is all-too-familiar with the latter category — a father of three children, the 58-year old New York native is doing his best coaching in an effort to support his daughter, Vanessa, who is battling drug addiction.

“I don’t think she thought when she played her first beer-pong game or smoked her first marijuana joint at 15 that three years later she’d be taking her first oxycontin and then two years later become a heroin addict,’’ Vetrone said. “I’m here to try to save a life and help this disease. People need to understand, I know it’s a self-afflicting disease but it’s a disease all the same.

“I’ll never stop fighting for my daughter. She’s now in a position where if she gets in trouble one more time she goes straight to jail and I’ll have custody of my seven-month old grandson. Think about the magnitude of this disease.’’

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Vetrone has experienced his share of basketball hardships in his 34-year coaching career. His assistant-coaching tenure at UNLV in the late 1990s was marred by NCAA secondary violations surrounding the recruitment of Lamar Odom.

"The truth is I’ve learned a lot,'' Vetrone told ESPN.com in a 2009 story. "I will never compromise my family. I’ve worked hard the last 10 years of my life ... to do the right thing.''

To that end, Vetrone’s last two decades in basketball have been rooted in player development. As Rutgers’ director of basketball operations, he has spearheaded community-engagement initiatives such as youth clinics, hospital visits, charity exhibitions, volunteer appearances at Elijah’s Promise Soup Kitchen in New Brunswick, toy giveaways and the team’s annual run in the Tunnel to Towers 5K.

“He’s been on a tough journey for a while now and I love the fact that he’s using it to educate other people,’’ Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell told NJ Advance Media. “He’s a great example of how to hang in there. We were real proud he got up and spoke about it, and it’s drawn a lot of attention too. Real thankful to have him on staff. It’s great for our guys. There’s adversity everywhere. You never know what people are going through in life, and he’s on a tough journey but he feels really good about where it’s headed with his daughter.’’

The man known as “Shoes’’ in basketball circles isn’t shy about talking about Vanessa’s story because of the importance of dealing with the opioid epidemic.

“Her birthday was on (October) 2nd, and it was an emotional day for her because she’s in this facility in Dix Hills, Long Island,’’ Vetrone said. “Think about how powerful this disease is that she was using when my grandson was 4-months old. Fortunately she got arrested, which was the best thing that could’ve happened. She’s been in there now four months. She probably has another six-to-eight months in the facility.

“This opioid thing when it hit the scene I don’t think the doctors understood the addiction rate. It’s just incredible. Then when she couldn’t afford oxycontin she went to heroin because it was cheaper. The oxycontin was $25 a pill — they called them ‘roxies’ in our neighborhood — whereas she could get a dime bag of heroin for $10. So I’m fighting the fight. That’s why I’m here. I want to touch one person today. That’s all I’’m trying to do.’’

Vetrone said he believes people in all walks of life can be part of the solution.

“At every college, this should be a freshmen (orientation) seminar,’’ he said. “Educate people. I’m not a drug counselor. I’m just a parent so I can just tell you from a parent perspective what I’ve lived. The one thing that people who have this disease need to understand, if you reach out for help there’s no judgement. They’re so afraid. Then you have the other side of the spectrum of kids who are afraid of their street cred and not rat. Well, I tell them would you rather rat on your friend or go to their funeral? Because that’s the reality. Because this oxycontin is a powerful addiction.’’

Vetrone credits Chris Herren, a former NBA player who used his well-documented struggles with substance abuse to build awareness to the drug-addiction issue, for supporting his own efforts to save Vanessa. Founded in 2011, the Herren Project works with families to find treatment options for individuals ready to tackle the addiction disease.

“Whether you’re a coach, or a parent — when you care about young people — this is what you have to do,’’ Vetrone said. “When people talk about, ‘We’re going to war tonight in this game,’ at the end of the day we’re all going home and putting our head in our pillow. This thing here, this is real life. This is a real-life battle. This is the toughest thing I ever had to live through, the toughest thing we’re going to overcome and beat. I love the games, but the games now have a different perspective to me. They really do.’’

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Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KSargeantNJ. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.