Big Ten Basketball: Ranking all 14 head coaches for 2019-20 season

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EAST LANSING, MI – JANUARY 10: Head coach Steve Pikiell of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights looks on during a game against the Michigan State Spartans at Breslin Center on January 10, 2018 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images) /

14. Steve Pikiell (Rutgers)

Since joining the Big Ten in 2014, Rutgers hasn’t exactly been competing in the flagship sports. Despite this, it’s easy to see that the hiring of Pikiell in 2016 has brought some level of progress for the Scarlet Knights. Despite this, it’s still hard to argue that Pikiell has asserted himself higher than any of the other coaches in a very talented league.

Prior to his hiring, Pikiell had spent the last 11 years as head coach at Stony Brook, though he turned just one of those seasons into an NCAA Tournament bid. It’s easy to be disappointed when you win the regular-season title four times but only finish the job once in the America East Tournament. The team he inherited back in 2005 was bottom of the barrel and he did manage to transform them into regular competitors in a decade’s work.

This transformation was enough for Rutgers to hire the former UConn guard and Pikiell is slowly trying to do the same at a much higher stage. After a pair of last-place finishes, year three ended with 7 Big Ten victories. This program is still years away from competing for the NCAA Tournament, but Pikiell and a staff full of Connecticut roots has them trending in a positive direction.

Fresh off a 26-win season and an NCAA Tournament in 2016, it’s not hard to see the promise that Rutgers saw in Pikiell, and he’s certainly fared better than Eddie Jordan in his three seasons. Expectations will remain low for the Scarlet Knights moving forward, but if this team can take another step forward then maybe Pikiell really is the hero that leads them out of the Big Ten basement.

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