Steve Pikiell has been hired as the new Rutgers head basketball coach and will be introduced at a press conference on Tuesday.
Steve Politi of NJ.com was the first to report the news.
Pikiell, 48, took a four-win Stony Brook team and led them to their first NCAA Tournament in school history this season.
Pikiell will replace Eddie Jordan after Jordan coached the team for three seasons, culminating in a seven-win season which led to his dismissal. The Scarlet Knights have won just three games in the Big Ten since joining the conference.
Throughout his 11 seasons as head coach of Stony Brook, Pikiell earned a 190-155 record, including this past season where the Seawolves went 24-6.
“I think Steve is a great hire,” Roselle Catholic coach Dave Boff, who coached Stony Brook star Jameel Warney, told SNY.tv. “My experience with him recruiting Jameel, he was on top of it all the time. They offered him very early but then they were still there and came to all of our big games and were constantly checking in on him, so I thought that they did a great job in terms of the recruitment of him.
“I also know that Steve was really a catalyst behind getting a new facilty at Stony Brook so he’s shown an ability to get things like that done and so for those I reasons I think he should be successful.”
During his playing days, Pikiell was a two-year captain for UConn from 1987-1991. That Huskies team won their first Big East title and advanced to the Elite Eight and Sweet 16, with Pikiell leading the way at point guard. Pikiell also worked under Jim Calhoun at UConn for two seasons.
“He might still be [at Stony Brook] because he loves it there,” Calhoun said earlier this week. “Clearly, he’s had a few opportunities before. He’s called me about them, but now I would think there will be more opportunities. As a coach and a person, he checks all the boxes.”
The Pikiell hire comes a few days after a few of Rutgers’ top candidates withdrew their names from consideration. Both Rhode Island’s Dan Hurley and George Washington’s Mike Lonergan were being linked to the open position, but they each took themselves out of the race.
Follow Adam Zagoria on Twitter
And like ZAGS on Facebook
NN
