Tough task for Steve Pikiell at Rutgers, but he should be himself
Steve Pikiell is seen behind a basketball during a news conference announcing him as the new head coach of the Rutgers University men's college basketball team, Tuesday, March 22, 2016, in Piscataway, N.J. Credit: AP / Julio Cortez
LOUISVILLE, KY.
Once, in a Broadway musical, there was a song titled “Nobody Ever Died for Dear Old Rutgers.” That statement is technically true, of course, but there sure have been many coaching careers that did not make it out alive.
Enter Steve Pikiell, who left Stony Brook right after its first NCAA Tournament appearance so he could become the next to attempt a basketball revival On the Banks of the Old Raritan (to quote the official school anthem). He will try to win at a university that has not been to The Big Dance in 25 years or to the Final Four in 40. And that is not even his greatest leap of faith. Pikiell is making the colossal jump from mid-major to the biggest of big times. Lots of luck.
The good news is, people who have successfully crossed that ocean say Pikiell should not be daunted. He just needs to start by being himself.
“Steve has a lot of success and a lot of experience as a head coach. Whatever formula he used to build the Stony Brook program, I’m sure he will use to build the Rutgers program,” said Jim Larranaga, who brought a revitalized Miami team here for the Sweet 16, having made a name for himself by coaching mid-major George Mason to the 2006 Final Four. “But in college coaching, what really builds the program is recruiting. You’ve got to get the recruits to fit your system. It doesn’t mean you have to get all guys who are McDonald’s All-Americans or are one-and-dones. It means you have to have guys good enough to compete.”
P.J. Carlesimo is doing analysis here for Westwood One radio after a career in which he went from coaching Wagner to taking Seton Hall within an inch of the 1989 NCAA championship. Of Pikiell, he said: “He’s not going to lose any of his contacts, but he’s going to be recruiting on another level. The truth is, a lot of the guys he coached against early in their careers, he’s going to end up coaching against here also. So he will have no problem there. I think having played at UConn is going to be a huge plus for him because he knows what it’s like at that level.”
Pikiell inherits little talent and the double burden of playing in the Big Ten and recruiting on intensely competitive turf. That’s just the way it goes.
It reminds me of the time one of Al Arbour’s former Islanders assistant coaches was interviewing to be general manager in another city. The candidate was uneasy because the franchise was in shambles. He took the job after Arbour reminded him, “If it were a good situation, they wouldn’t need you.”
Rutgers needs a guy who worked his backside off to reach March Madness from a no-margin-for-error, one-bid mid-major conference.
“I’ve told our staff . . . you have no idea what that pressure is and how much you appreciate going,” said Villanova coach Jay Wright, who cherishes every big moment, such as facing Kansas in the South Regional final here Saturday night, because he remembers how hard it was to get to the tournament even once from a Long Island school. “I always look at it as if I was still at Hofstra: Don’t ever take this for granted.
“As for Steve Pikiell, I think that’s going to be a real value for him, coaching at Rutgers. To have that feeling of the pressure [of winning the America East title]. There’s no game you play at the high level that’s the same pressure as that game.”
No one can offer better perspective than Pikiell’s peers just did, but here are a couple of footnote suggestions from this scribbler (and, yes, Rutgers alumnus):
Be genuine. Pikiell quipped that being the Scarlet Knights’ third choice was no big deal because he wasn’t his wife’s first choice either. Very funny. Except that was the line John Calipari used when he was named Nets coach 20 years ago.
Never let “serious” morph into “uptight.” No one expects miracles. Roll with it. If this doesn’t work out, Pikiell will know that he gave it his best, he will be $8 million richer and he can always find another job. He should go in realizing that nothing he does can make the world stop spinning.
As Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn wrote in their show tune: “You can get a little black and blue/But nobody ever died for Rutgers U.”
