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BIG TEN CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA DAYS

October 13, 2016

Steve Pikiell

Washington, D.C.

STEVE PIKIELL: First, I'm honored to be here. Today is day 200 for me on the job, but nobody's counting. Honored to be the new head coach at Rutgers and looking forward to the challenge that lies ahead for us. It's a great conference, and the coaches in this league are the best. I'm just honored to be in this conference and be at Rutgers University.

Q. Your team was universally picked to finish last in the Big Ten. I'm wondering, do you shield your players away from that, or do you almost in a weird way embrace the challenge of there is no way to go but up?
STEVE PIKIELL: You know, we've talked a lot about it. I've talked about this from the first day I got the job about embracing the challenge. That's part of it. We have a theme, night and day, we're trying to change things and make that a night and day kind of situation. But we've embraced it. Up in the locker room I want to challenge them. We're trying to change culture. There's been a lot of changes at the university in the last few years. Three league changes in four years. A lot of coaching changes. Obviously, I'm very different in my coaching style than Coach Jordan, who is a Rutgers legend and a great guy. So I do things a lot differently. So for our kids there's been a lot of transition. We're going to embrace that.

I think people are going to see a team, and we've practiced very hard and these kids have really bought in. I'm excited about the changes that have already occurred in our roster and with some of the players in our program. We had 14 players that practiced last year, and last year at this time we had nine healthy players in our practice. So that's a step in the right direction. 14 guys, a roster full of guys, and they all practiced. So I look a lot back at the past and we're trying to change from night and day some of our practices and some of our results and our roster.

Q. I wanted to ask you, being that it's your first 200 days, where's the team now in terms of what you had hoped for at this point based on a conditioning standpoint, but also basketball concepts and kind of understanding the way that you want them to play?
STEVE PIKIELL: You know, it's been a journey. I'm trying to enjoy it. I've been in a lot of programs that have started off exactly where we are now. The grind of getting them to where we all want them to be. In 200 days, at first, whenever you take over a situation, you really need to recruit the kids that are in the program, because there's a lot of turnover. Their thoughts are in a lot of different directions. The coach that recruited them, coach that didn't recruit them, changing styles. So we've spent a lot of time with our kids to really help them through the transition. And they've had a lot of transition too. It's not just been the coaches, it's been a lot of change. I'm really happy where they are.

Shaq Doorson lost 45 pounds in 200 days. He's embraced our strength and conditioning coach, who I think is great. One of the first hires I've made. We've hired a new staff of guys that are built around developing players and have great reputations. We slowly have put the pieces together. We've recruited our players. We've recruited a staff that I think fulfills a lot of the needs that the program has had in the last few years, and now the guys are starting to buy in. We're a very young team. We have one senior, a fifth-year senior. So we have no veterans on this basketball team, and we're looking for leadership in some of those things. But they've really jumped on board. They're working hard. I think if you come to our practices and see us, you'll see night and day.

We practice hard. We practice long. A ton of defensive stuff and a ton of rebounds. We were one of the worst rebounding teams in the country, and we're trying to change that. And it takes time. It takes time for guys to buy into that. And they've bought in as best they can. But I've been through it before. So we have to be patient with them. They're not where I want them to be today, but they're getting a little closer.

Q. Steve, mentioning having been through it before, you built a thing at Stony Brook over like a dozen years. Known as a really good coach at that level, even though you've been from the UConn stable. But you've been at a low major level for a long time except for the GW stint with Carl. Did you think anyone noticed what you were doing there? Because I think sometimes you're not on TV, and low major coaches wonder if anyone even notices.
STEVE PIKIELL: You know, I was hopeful. I really was. I said at one point in time, if I have to win 20 games for ten straight years, someone's going to do their homework and take a chance on me. I'm very confident in my coaching. I've played a lot of teams in this league during the course of my career. We've played Maryland and Iowa and NIT. All great coaches and great programs. But I was hopeful. Tried to do things the right way. Tried to recruit great kids. Develop three players of the year. One three-time Player of the Year who was still on the Dallas Mavericks roster. At a young university. We were new to Division I. We had a ton of challenges there at Stony Brook. And I said as the years went on, an athletic director makes a lot of phone calls and he wants a guy going to do it right and can coach, maybe I'll get a call and maybe I'll have an opportunity. If not, I love coaching. So Stony Brook was a great place. They gave me an opportunity. I was very happy. I like to coach basketball. I'm an in-the-gym kind of a guy. And if you talk to Coach Calhoun, I was always in the gym. So I love basketball. I love the challenge of it. I like teaching.

I think you're going to see my team play with a little swagger, and I think they're going to enjoy playing for me. They don't right now as I'm changing the culture. Practices are a lot longer. Our weight room sessions are a lot longer, our film sessions are a lot longer, so they're kind of learning that.

But I'm very thankful that Pat Hobbs gave me this opportunity. He's a great athletic director. I love the direction our program is going in, and there's been a lot of change in the program. That's hard even for established programs. So I look forward to bringing this program forward and making this a program that people can be proud of.

Q. What's it like for you and your program to have the Big Ten move these tournaments east over the next couple years, D.C. and New York?
STEVE PIKIELL: I love it. I mean, these are exciting areas. I lived down here in the D.C. area for five years. If you're into basketball, it's a great way to spread the great word of what our conference is all about and what great institutions we have and great basketball programs and great coaches. There will be an energy down here, too, in the city, then when we come to New York, there's energy and then some playing in that city.

So I'm excited. I think I'm a product of good timing with that, because these are great places. These are places too, I think, our whole league recruits. So I think that's a real positive, too, on the recruiting side.

Q. Corey Sanders gets a lot of the attention in terms of the players you inherited. But when you took the job, what else stood out to you about this roster?
STEVE PIKIELL: You know, they're great kids, that was the first thing, and they wanted to be coached. They wanted to be better. I was really excited that -- a lot of guys were injured last year, too, so in fairness to the players and the coaches that were here, we had an incomplete roster all year long. So one of my first things was we need to get guys healthy, and what were the reasons why we didn't have players on the court. But we had to solve some of those issues. But I will tell you, Deshawn Freeman has been great. Started off last season as a very good player and got injured. Back healthy. He's a junior. He's a pretty good leader. He's worked very hard. Shaq has lost a ton of weight and shown a new form of dedication. He's healthy now. He's a big body, seven feet. We're very fortunate down the stretch, got a 7'1" player, two from UNC Wilmington, and he's a good player. He can play, he can score in the post. We were able to pick up some recruits, too, which I think will add to our program in a lot of different ways.

Mike Williams has jumped on board. I really believe Nigel Johnson, who sat out from Kansas State, he's a good player. He's a 52 inch vertical. He's athletic. He's eligible in back playing. Ibrahima Diallo is back playing from his injury too. And I think the minutes that Jonathan Laurent and Corey Sanders got last year are invaluable. They'll be better players, too, moving into their sophomore year. They're all working hard. We've added some good pieces and some shooters, which we needed, a couple ball handlers, and trying to get their mindset changed. Because I really think we can be good defensively. And we weren't. And I think Corey can be one of the better defenders in the league. He has those kind of abilities. So I'm excited about new opportunities for them to change the dynamic of who people thought they were. Corey's looked at it as a scorer, and no, he can really defend. So changing the look of the program with some of these guys.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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