Steve Pikiell
AP
The choice present was enjoying on three big-screen TVs, and Steve Pikiell didn't have to attend lengthy to let go of his worst fears. He was standing in a convention room stuffed with gamers, workers, and members of the family when, a couple of minutes into the heart-stopping drama, the Rutgers identify flashed earlier than his eyes on the identical bracket line with Notre Dame.
The room exploded with the sound of exhilaration and reduction. Pikiell wasn’t nervous Sunday till Richmond stole an at-large bid from somebody by beating Davidson within the Atlantic 10 remaining. He didn’t assume that somebody needs to be Rutgers, however then once more, what if the choice committee began trying sideways on the Scarlet Knights’ loss to Lafayette within the fifth recreation of the 12 months?
“I hoped they weren’t going to carry a day in November in opposition to us,” Pikiell mentioned.
They usually didn’t. Rutgers landed an at-large berth into the First 4 as a result of Rutgers deserved an at-large berth into the First 4, and after it was official, the 54-year-old Pikiell — latest recipient of a four-year extension that carries him via 2030 — began speaking about a lot larger long-term issues than successful a recreation or two within the match.
“You'll be able to compete for a nationwide championship right here, and that’s been my purpose since I took the job,” Pikiell instructed The Put up. “I feel when you can win on this league you're hardened sufficient to compete for a nationwide championship. I wish to go to a Ultimate 4.”
In case you knew the Rutgers coach from his enjoying days, you knew this was attainable. Whereas attempting to assist Jim Calhoun construct one thing particular at UConn, Pikiell had suffered two shoulder dislocations and two concussions throughout his freshman 12 months, and wanted a CAT scan on the eve of his first Large East Match recreation. He went out and scored 27 factors in opposition to Boston Faculty anyway, making his first journey to Madison Sq. Backyard extra memorable than he imagined it may very well be.
The shoulder damage and surgical procedure would dramatically alter his profession path, successfully turning Calhoun’s 6-foot-4 captain into Calhoun’s 6-4 player-coach. Pikiell would later construct his personal dominant regular-season program at Stony Brook that may invent methods to lose within the America East match, every sudden-death defeat extra heartbreaking than the one previous it, till the Seawolves lastly ended the distress in 2016.
Pikiell acquired the Rutgers provide from AD Pat Hobbs on the Tick Tock Diner, throughout the road from the Backyard, the place the previous UConn guard had that profession night time in opposition to BC. Pikiell headed to Piscataway together with his Stony Brook assistant, Jay Younger, now the pinnacle coach at Fairfield.
“Once we acquired there,” Younger mentioned, “you may make an argument that it was the worst Energy 5 program within the nation.”
How dangerous was it? The Scarlet Knights had misplaced 33 of the 36 convention video games they'd performed since becoming a member of the Large Ten. Within the early practices in Yr 1, Younger mentioned it was clear that Pikiell was one of the best ball-handler within the fitness center. He wasn’t kidding.
“So Steve acquired some under-recruited children who match his persona, and he developed these guys,” Younger mentioned. “I don’t know if we had one Large Ten recruit. I can’t describe to you the way dangerous these first few practices had been. I used to stroll out of the RAC and search for on the banners of the colleges in our league, the Indianas and Michigan States, and to assume Steve simply completed fourth in that league is unbelievable. He’s executed nearly as good a job at constructing a program as any coach within the nation.”
Pikiell did it by turning Atlantic 10 recruits into Large Ten gamers. Rutgers was useless final within the convention when he arrived, 14th out of 14 groups, and a few in and across the program thought ending tenth within the Large Ten could be a hell of an achievement.
Betting on March Insanity 2022?
- Learn our How you can Wager on March Insanity information
- Get free bets and promos from one of the best March Insanity betting websites
- Obtain the Put up’s clean and full NCAA brackets
After main the Scarlet Knights to their first NCAA Match look in 30 years, and to their first NCAA victory in almost 4 a long time, Pikiell simply put them within the NCAAs in back-to-back seasons for the primary time since 1976, once they reached the Ultimate 4 with an unbeaten file. Solely the pandemic stopped Pikiell from turning into the primary Rutgers coach ever to advance to The Dance three straight years.
“I feel he’s a visionary,” mentioned his senior guard Geo Baker. “Once we first acquired right here there was none of this. … We had been a bunch of underrated guys, he was an underrated coach, and he simply did a superb job of discovering folks with the identical mentality that he had.”
Mentioned classmate and fellow Rutgers star Ron Harper Jr.: “All the pieces Coach Pikiell talked about on my recruiting go to is enjoying out earlier than my eyes.”
No, not too many followers or guardians of the game shared that imaginative and prescient six years in the past.
“Once we first sat down,” Pikiell recalled, “folks mentioned, ‘That is the place coaches go to die.’ We simply noticed it slightly bit otherwise.”
Steve Pikiell noticed it Sunday the way in which the choice committee noticed it. Towards all odds, he has turned Rutgers into an NCAA Match common, and has established sufficient credibility to make his long-term national-title ambitions sound, you realize, believable.
Post a Comment