How Did Rutgers Get Here? Steve Pikiell Doesn’t Let People Down

Rutgers beat Purdue 70-63 on Tuesday night at The RAC, ensuring their name stays in the national rankings and earning the respect of any remaining college hoops fans who weren’t already believers. Beating Purdue says something. They’re a basketball school with sustained success, and less than a year ago they were a bounce away from the Final Four.

Purdue is the kind of school Rutgers played JV to once upon a time, yet there they were, winning as the favorite at home like a ranked team is supposed to. It was the Scarlet Knights’ first win against the Boilermakers since they joined the Big Ten in 2014, and it calls for some reflection. Namely, how exactly did Rutgers get here? How did the doormat turn into a 16-5 powerhouse?

Do you remember the days when Rutgers was the doormat of the Big Ten? Oh man, they were stepped on by everyone, and as a result, all the old-school Big Ten fans thought it was stupid they were even taken in by the mega-conference. It was bad for a while, particularly their first two seasons under Eddie Jordan. Rutgers went 3-33 in their first two seasons in the Big Ten, leading to the best decision by Rutgers in my lifetime. The school made the tough choice to move on from Jordan, an alum with NBA head coaching experience who was brought in as a safe hire after the Mike Rice debacle. He didn’t win much, but he was to the basketball program what Bill O’Brien was to Penn State football in the wake of their own scandal. Jordan got them back to normal — that’s all they needed and wanted at the time. So it wasn’t a tough choice because of X’s-and-O’s or recruiting, it was a tough choice because he kept their nose clean when they were down and out. He did them a solid.

Three years was enough, though, and Rutgers’ normal — zero NCAA Tournament appearances since 1991 — was below-standard in arguably the best conference in college basketball. You can’t lose 32 consecutive conference games in the Big Ten and not make changes. New blood was needed, the blood of someone who knew what it took to rebuild a program and change a losing culture.

I remember hearing King Rice‘s name floated around during the coaching search, a tri-state guy who turned nearby Monmouth into a successful program, as well as New Jersey’s own Dan Hurley, then the head coach at Rhode Island. The school did their due diligence, for sure, before ultimately hiring Stony Brook head coach Steve Pikiell.

At the press conference, Pikiell called Rutgers “a dream job” before telling reporters his teams went “worst to first” at every stop along his basketball journey. He also talked about one of his mottos: “In order to achieve, you must believe.”

“I don’t let people down,” he added, “and I believe we will dance.”

Pikiell fit the bill perfectly for the task awaiting him on the banks. Once a guard at UConn under Jim Calhoun, Pikiell took Stony Brook from four wins in his first year to 16 in his fourth year, then to a 156-75 record, six postseason tournaments, and six 20-win campaigns in his final seven seasons. He had experience recruiting the tri-state and already accomplished at Stony Brook what Rutgers craved for its own program — he just needed to replicate it.

Nothing is a fluke for Steve Pikiell, however, so replicating his rebuild was all wrapped up in his system, a very specific style of play driven by relentless defense and non-stop hustle. And the hustle he asks of his players is mirrored by their coach on the recruiting trail. Pikiell never relied on a stud going out and carrying the program with 25 and 30-point performances, and he didn’t borrow a playbook from the D’Antoni family. He was going to make his own guys work their tails off, then make opponents work twice as hard on offense. His Stony Brook teams regularly finished in the Top 100 in KenPom’s defensive efficiency rankings, a feat Rutgers hadn’t accomplished since they were in the Big East under Rice.

Once he got to Rutgers, it wasn’t a quick fix and his teams didn’t knock off everyone in sight. Success came gradually, but the culture changed right away. Rutgers adopted his style from the jump, his first Scarlet Knights team finishing 166 spots higher in defensive efficiency than Jordan’s final year (No.236 to No.70). They beat up on the teams they were supposed to and turned heads with an 11-2 non-conference record, then kept games competitive when conference play rolled around. They won three Big Ten regular-season games in his first season, matching their total from the two years prior, followed by a win against Ohio State in the Big Ten Tournament, the first in program history.

To folks not watching regularly and looking only at the standings, it was the same old Scarlet Knights. To those paying attention, you knew something was brewing. More importantly, everyone in the know knew Pikiell was the right guy, and respect was finally being earned around the conference.

It took time for the roster to fill out. Never forget, he took over a program that was 3-33 in Big Ten play; four and five-star recruits weren’t exactly banging down the doors. Pikiell’s system didn’t need the hyped-up recruits, he needed guys that would fit the program and buy-in to their defense-first mindset. Each year he’d find a diamond in the rough that was underrecruited, building up to the deep team you see now.

His second season saw even more improvement, winning two games in the conference tournament — including their first win against Indiana — and getting the stamp of approval from the Big Ten’s patriarch, Tom Izzo.

“I’ve been a Steve Pikiell fan since the day he came into the league,” he said. “I know I’m not supposed to be a cheerleader for him but I really appreciate where this program is going. It’s good for the Big Ten, it’s good for us. The fans tonight were awesome. He’s building something.”

(via Scarlet Nation)

Slowly but surely, it was coming along, and all the momentum was positive.

Pikiell’s third year, the 2018-19 season, was another building block. The incoming class was loaded and ready to go, and previous Pikiell recruits Geo Baker, Myles Johnson, and Eugene Omoruyi started rounding into form. They started slow, but it came together eventually and set the stage for the balanced team currently in the AP Top 25. Freshman Montez Mathis, Ron Harper Jr., Myles Johnson, and Caleb McConnell all played major minutes, a baptism by fire that ramped up their understanding of Pikiell’s high-intensity defense and half-court offensive attack. Omoruyi (13.8 ppg) and Baker (12.2 ppg) handled the bulk of the scoring load for Rutgers, each finishing with career-highs in points per game.

Overall, Pikiell led the Scarlet Knights to seven wins in Big Ten play, shattering their previous record for a single season, and they finished with their first KenPom Top 100 finish since joining the Big Ten (№78). The RAC was another area that saw improvement last year. Although attendance improved each year under Pikiell’s watch, the 31.1 percent increase from 2018 to 2019 was among the best in the nation (№17), going from 4,759 to 6,240 fans per game.

It’s no surprise that this year’s team made the real jump into the national spotlight. The current group is Pikiell’s deepest by far, and that’s after they lost Omoruyi to the transfer portal. In past years, they were so top-heavy on offense — Corey Sanders or bust! — yet this team has a mind-blowing number of playmakers, almost all who came into the year with big-game collegiate experience. Aside from their six core returners — Baker, Harper Jr., Johnson, McConnell, Carter, and Mathis — the Scarlet Knights welcomed two high-impact transfers to the squad — Jacob Young, a two-year rotation player at Texas, and Akwasi Yeboah, the leading scorer for the last two years at Stony Brook. Only one freshman is featured in Pikiell’s nine-man rotation — Paul Mulcahy — and he’s a pass-first point guard that’s wise beyond his years.

Altogether, the group is as unselfish as they come and breaking barriers left and right. Seven different Scarlet Knights have led the team in scoring this season and their entire rotation can defend. The Scarlet Knights are putting up more points per game (70.1) than any Rutgers team in the Big Ten era and allowing fewer points per game (60.8) than any Rutgers team since 1982.

Nationally, they are ranked for the first time since 1979 and the proud owner of the nation’s best record at home (15-0). They have the banks going crazy in support, turning in their fifth consecutive sellout against Purdue on Tuesday, and The RAC is once again becoming one of the most feared places to play in the country. The record at The RAC is eight sellouts in a row, so with four home games remaining, they could check another milestone off the list.

What they really want to check off is the RSVP to the Big Dance at the end of the year. Per Team Rankings, they’re currently in as a No. 10 seed. An appearance would close the book on the longest drought among high-major programs and fulfill his belief during his introductory press conference.

This season for Rutgers has been a delicious gumbo consisting of many parts, decisions, and factors that date back to the school’s decision to fire Eddie Jordan. Credit can be divvied up however you see fit, but it’s clear to me how Rutgers got here.

Steve Pikiell.

He doesn’t let people down.