Steve Pikiell ‘up for the challenge’ of Rutgers rebuild

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Music blared and cheerleaders lined a path to the podium as Steve Pikiell was introduced Tuesday as the new men’s basketball coach at Rutgers. In the audience was a 6-8 trophy from his former job at Stony Brook, Jameel Warney, a living symbol of the success Pikiell produced at Stony Brook and hopes to emulate at Rutgers.

Pikiell’s parting from the Seawolves came with the sweetest of sorrow. His work complete at Stony Brook, Pikiell was ready to move on after 11 seasons. The coach had met with the team Sunday, a day after he formally agreed to sign a five-year deal at Rutgers that reportedly will total $8 million.

“You announce to your team that you just left that you love, that helped you get this opportunity, that you’re leaving,’’ Pikiell said, “so there’s a lot of emotions that go on. Love those guys, I recruited them, gave them all scholarships. That was the hardest thing I had to do in this process.’’

Warney, who played high school basketball in New Jersey, said, “He just has to know how emotional it is for his seniors. We played our last collegiate basketball game, he’s leaving now, too. So it’s like double of the emotions. We’re graduating, moving out on top of the [America East] conference. We kind of knew this was going to happen, but I guess it was rather sooner than later.’’

Also in attendance was senior guard Carson Puriefoy, another New Jersey product. “He brought us all into the film room and informed us,’’ he said. “He told us how much he loved us, how he needed this move for his family. He was really straight up with all that. That’s all we could ask for. I was really happy for him. We were extremely happy to have had him. He was a great coach and he’s going to do great things at Rutgers.’’

Pikiell, in a way, has graduated, moving from a mid-major to the Big Ten. It may take a master’s degree to turn around Rutgers, which went 3-33 in its first two years in the conference. Pikiell, who replaced Eddie Jordan, said he is up for the task.

“This has always been a dream job for me,’’ he said. “I drove up and down the New Jersey Turnpike for years recruiting at George Washington University, at Yale University, Central Connecticut State, UConn and recently at Stony Brook University. I would drive by that [Rutgers] sign and I’d say, ‘That’s the job I want.’ ”

Pikiell said he did not care about reports that bigger names had apparently turned down Rutgers. “I think I was my wife’s second choice, too,’’ he said of Kate. “She loves me a lot so it didn’t matter.’’

According to The Associated Press, Rutgers’ Board of Governors approved a five-year, $8-million contract for Pikiell on Tuesday. Pikiell will earn $1.4 million in his first season and his salary will then increase $100,000 in each of the next four seasons. Pikiell will get a total of $800,000 for his assistant coaches. Pikiell’s former assistants from Stony Brook attended the news conference. Pikiell said he would name his new assistants at a later date.

Pikiell apparently was on the Rutgers radar even as the Seawolves were about to face Kentucky in Stony Brook’s first appearance in the NCAA Tournament. “I texted [Rutgers athletic director Patrick Hobbs] after the game and said one team we don’t want to schedule next year is Kentucky,’’ Pikiell said of the 85-57 loss.

Pikiell said his phone “blew up’’ with interest from other schools despite the lopsided loss to Kentucky. The impediments at Rutgers — a history of losing, subpar facilities, controversy surrounding its revenue-producing sports of basketball and football — did not deter Pikiell. He said he told Hobbs, “I would walk on the New Jersey Turnpike for an opportunity. And that’s all I’ve ever asked for, is an opportunity and for that I’m very thankful. I told him every job along the way I’ve never let an athletic director down, never let the president down and I’ve never let the student body down, and I’m not going to do it here at Rutgers. I embrace challenge.’’

He has a major one. “If you look up at those [opponents] banners,’’ Pikiell said, eying the rafters in the Rutgers Athletic Center, “that gives me goose bumps. That’s Indiana, that’s Michigan, Michigan State. These are big-time programs with very good players. So we have to get the best talent that we could possibly get here and we have to get guys to overachieve.’’

Hobbs said Pikiell’s attitude and success at Stony Brook — a career record of 192-156 and repeated trips to the conference title game — was paramount to his appointment at Rutgers. “A university called Stony Brook approached him about taking over their program,’’ Hobbs said. “He was told it’s a bad job. They just moved from [D-II] to D-I.’

“They were the doormat of the conference and folks were saying, ‘You’ll get a better job.’ He said, ‘No, that’s where I want to be.’ ”

Pikiell looked back even as he moved forward. Asked about leaving, he said he’ll really miss Stony Brook, especially Warney, his former team’s star. “He could play in any league in the country. And he’s a better person than a player. We took guys that were good players and made them better. Took kids that were good students and made them great students. And took kids that some people couldn’t see the upside.’’

Pikiell intends to do the same at Rutgers.