Big Ten Basketball: Ranking all 14 head coaches heading into 2023-24 season
By Caleb Hall
No. 6: Steve Pikiell, Rutgers Scarlet Knights
After being in college basketball as a player and coach for the last 30 years Steve Pikiell is making a name for Rutgers basketball. Pikiell was a player for UCONN from 1987 to 1991 and has been an assistant head coach for many teams since then. He took the Stony Brook head coaching job in 2005 and after 11 years there he eventually took them to the NCAA Tournament and that was good enough to get him a power 6 job at Rutgers.
Pikiell has a 117-106 overall record at Rutgers and after 3 years of a sub .500 record he has led Rutgers to 4 winning seasons. He even led them to the round of 32 in 2021, and has had them close to making the tourney in the past 2 years.
Rutgers is not a big job in the world of college basketball, but Pikiell has built them up quite a bit since they have been there. He has led them to upset No. 1 Purdue twice in his tenure there, and he is getting them to top 6 finishes in the Big Ten conference. That is huge for Rutgers, and shows how good of a basketball coach he really is.
It is Rutgers however, and there is only so high Pikiell can go, at least for now.