Steve Pikiell, flanked by president Robert Barchi, left, and Rutgers University–New Brunswick athletic director Patrick E. Hobbs.

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Steve Pikiell, flanked by president Robert Barchi, left, and Rutgers University–New Brunswick athletic director Patrick E. Hobbs, brings 25 years of coaching experience to Rutgers, most recently as the head coach of the men’s basketball team at Stony Brook University on Long Island.

Photography: 
Nick Romanenko

“This has always been a dream job for me.” That’s the enthusiastic sentiment of Steve Pikiell, the new head coach of the Scarlet Knights men’s basketball team, expressed during the March press conference to announce his appointment. Rutgers fans are hoping that he can make their dreams come true for men’s basketball, too. It’s been awhile.

Patrick E. Hobbs, the university’s new athletic director, believes Pikiell, who becomes the team’s 19th head coach and succeeds Eddie Jordan SAS’15, is a natural to lead the Scarlet Knights. Pikiell, the 2016 American East Conference Coach of the Year (for the fourth time), has been the head coach of the men’s basketball team at Stony Brook University on Long Island for 11 seasons, compiling six postseason appearances for  the Seawolves during the last seven years. An alumnus of the University of Connecticut, where he played point guard and was a captain for famed head coach Jim Calhoun, Pikiell brings not only 25 years of coaching experience to Rutgers, but also a proven commitment to having athletes perform in the classroom. His team’s Academic Progress Rate scores over the two most recent reports put Stony Brook in the top 10 percent among Division I basketball programs. Pikiell also gets high marks for developing young athletes and molding them into excellent defensive  players, defense being the hallmark of his successful teams, which have featured First Team All-Americans. He also had a big hand  in upgrading the basketball facilities at Stony Brook.

But that was then, and this is now, and Pikiell can’t wait to get going. “I am so excited about the vision that Pat has for Rutgers athletics, and I’m very fortunate to be a part of it,” he says. “There is so much potential here. Rutgers has all the ingredients … I look forward to building a program that the Rutgers community will be proud of.”