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Changes are coming to the Rutgers basketball program.
That’s the vow head coach Steve Pikiell made to reporters Thursday, after a colossally disappointing 15-17 season with NBA-bound phenoms Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey.
Pikiell said he embraces adding a general manager and feels confident that his impending portion of the revenue share (which he estimates will be in the $3 million range) plus additional funds will help him build a roster in his defense-first image. He’s also remaking his non-conference schedule strategy.
“We have a chance now to do this right,” he said. “We got off to a bad start in the NIL era.”
Pikiell seems confident that freshmen forwards Dylan Grant and Bryce Dortch, junior center Manny Ogbole and junior guard Jamichael Davis will return next season. He's lost three players the transfer portal already in center Lathan Sommerville and guards Jeremiah Williams and Jordan Derkack.
“I’ve got to get a wing scorer, I’ve got to get a big guy, I’ve got to get a combo guard,” he said. “That’s what we’re focused in on right now.”
Rutgers has four freshmen coming in for 2025-26: point guard Lino Mark, shooting guard Kaden Powers, power forward Chris Nwuli and forward/center Gevonte Ware. Mark and Nwuli should compete for major roles right away.
“We’re going to try to get guys that really fit what we want to do,” Pikiell said. “I want to get back to defending like crazy. I want to play full court. The athleticism that we’re going to bring back and hopefully find in the portal will get us to play at a different pace in his league. We ran a lot this year, but we didn’t defend full-court as much as I’d like.”
Pikiell said “we have an analytics team going through things” for fit and value in the transfer portal and “I had six zooms yesterday” with transfer prospects.
“I need two-way players,” he said. “They had to be able to play defense. Huge priorities: toughness, defense, athleticism.”
He noted that while having a rim-protecting center is a top priority, “it’s also the hardest position right now to get” in the portal, in terms of cost.
“We have to do a great job of evaluating and we have to develop these guys,” he said.
Although St. John’s coach Rick Pitino famously said he’s stopped recruiting high school players, Pikiell said he’d like to have a mix of older and younger guys. College basketball was older than it’s over been this past season, hindering the ability for freshmen to make an impact, but the cycling out of fifth-year, “Covid year” guys will make the median age younger next season and potentially level the playing field more for freshmen.
Plus, at a time when most of the recruiting emphasis is on the transfer portal, freshmen are much more affordable and perhaps worth taking a flyer on, value-wise for programs without the most robust payrolls.
Rutgers has begun the process of hiring a general manager for basketball, but that person likely will come on board too late to help right now, which is a peak period for free agency.
“I’m into the GM role; I know I need that,” Pikiell said. “There’s a lot involved (with managing a program now) with legal, salary caps, payment plans. We’re in the process of hopefully finding one soon. Most places have done that…so we’re behind in that area.”
Pikiell envisions the general manager as having a legal and financial background, with an firm grasp of the changing NCAA landscape, an ability to draft contracts for players, and chops in fundraising, sponsorship cultivation and revenue-stream creation.
“I think that will help me a great deal,” he said. “We need to be creative in our ideas to raise more funds – that’s where college athletics is headed right now. I probably spend 70 percent of my time on these issues. I used to do 70 percent basketball and 30 percent (fundraising and administrative). It’s probably flipped now.”
Pikiell said the scouting of players will remain the coaching staff’s purview.
“I don’t think I need them to evaluate players,” he said of the GM.
That said, it doesn’t mean whoever is hired won’t have a basketball background. That’s still a possibility; but it won’t be an emphasis.
“I love my staff,” he said. “I think we have to figure out the new landscape of college basketball. They’re basketball guys. They’ve done it (developing winning teams), but now we have to figure out how to do in a shorter period of time because we’re not blessed with guys for four years.”
Developing a core over three and four years is how Pikiell lifted the program from the ashes.
“I think about the Geo Bakers and the Myles Johnsons, and I don’t know what that team would command on the market now,” he said. “I don’t know how you’d keep all these guys.”
Rutgers will return to the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas in November, a high-profile showcase with a $1 million appearance fee plus additional prize money, but don’t expect the Scarlet Knights to do much else away from home out of conference besides the continuing home-and-home series with Seton Hall. And don’t expect a return to Madison Square Garden.
“I hope to play more games at home,” Pikiell said. “I had to take the team on the road a lot this year, especially when we were figuring out our team early on. I’ve had to compromise my schedule and not do things I want to do for my team because of the NIL part.”
Pikiell said revenue sharing and a general manager should negate the need to hunt revenue through scheduling.
“I’m hopeful I’m out of that business,” he said.
Asked for his message to fans after such a demoralizing season, Pikiell said, “We’re going to be new, it will be a little different next year, we’ll bring back defense and grit like Rutgers was built on.”
He pointed to quick-rebuild success stories like Missouri and Maryland and said, “you’ve got a chance” to turn the page quickly with so much roster turnover, “so there’s some excitement to that.”
Rutgers is late to the table in terms of NIL infrastructure, but “in fairness to everybody, they (the NCAA and courts) keep moving the goalposts while we’re trying to kick a field goal down the middle,” he said. “But we have to figure that out.”
His Big Ten opponents, he said, “are figuring out ways and we have to, too”
Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Rutgers basketball: Steve Pikiell on roster-building, a GM, scheduling
Continue reading...
That’s the vow head coach Steve Pikiell made to reporters Thursday, after a colossally disappointing 15-17 season with NBA-bound phenoms Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey.
Pikiell said he embraces adding a general manager and feels confident that his impending portion of the revenue share (which he estimates will be in the $3 million range) plus additional funds will help him build a roster in his defense-first image. He’s also remaking his non-conference schedule strategy.
“We have a chance now to do this right,” he said. “We got off to a bad start in the NIL era.”
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Roster-building
Pikiell seems confident that freshmen forwards Dylan Grant and Bryce Dortch, junior center Manny Ogbole and junior guard Jamichael Davis will return next season. He's lost three players the transfer portal already in center Lathan Sommerville and guards Jeremiah Williams and Jordan Derkack.
“I’ve got to get a wing scorer, I’ve got to get a big guy, I’ve got to get a combo guard,” he said. “That’s what we’re focused in on right now.”
Rutgers has four freshmen coming in for 2025-26: point guard Lino Mark, shooting guard Kaden Powers, power forward Chris Nwuli and forward/center Gevonte Ware. Mark and Nwuli should compete for major roles right away.
“We’re going to try to get guys that really fit what we want to do,” Pikiell said. “I want to get back to defending like crazy. I want to play full court. The athleticism that we’re going to bring back and hopefully find in the portal will get us to play at a different pace in his league. We ran a lot this year, but we didn’t defend full-court as much as I’d like.”
Pikiell said “we have an analytics team going through things” for fit and value in the transfer portal and “I had six zooms yesterday” with transfer prospects.
“I need two-way players,” he said. “They had to be able to play defense. Huge priorities: toughness, defense, athleticism.”
He noted that while having a rim-protecting center is a top priority, “it’s also the hardest position right now to get” in the portal, in terms of cost.
“We have to do a great job of evaluating and we have to develop these guys,” he said.
Although St. John’s coach Rick Pitino famously said he’s stopped recruiting high school players, Pikiell said he’d like to have a mix of older and younger guys. College basketball was older than it’s over been this past season, hindering the ability for freshmen to make an impact, but the cycling out of fifth-year, “Covid year” guys will make the median age younger next season and potentially level the playing field more for freshmen.
Plus, at a time when most of the recruiting emphasis is on the transfer portal, freshmen are much more affordable and perhaps worth taking a flyer on, value-wise for programs without the most robust payrolls.
General manager
Rutgers has begun the process of hiring a general manager for basketball, but that person likely will come on board too late to help right now, which is a peak period for free agency.
“I’m into the GM role; I know I need that,” Pikiell said. “There’s a lot involved (with managing a program now) with legal, salary caps, payment plans. We’re in the process of hopefully finding one soon. Most places have done that…so we’re behind in that area.”
Pikiell envisions the general manager as having a legal and financial background, with an firm grasp of the changing NCAA landscape, an ability to draft contracts for players, and chops in fundraising, sponsorship cultivation and revenue-stream creation.
“I think that will help me a great deal,” he said. “We need to be creative in our ideas to raise more funds – that’s where college athletics is headed right now. I probably spend 70 percent of my time on these issues. I used to do 70 percent basketball and 30 percent (fundraising and administrative). It’s probably flipped now.”
Pikiell said the scouting of players will remain the coaching staff’s purview.
“I don’t think I need them to evaluate players,” he said of the GM.
That said, it doesn’t mean whoever is hired won’t have a basketball background. That’s still a possibility; but it won’t be an emphasis.
“I love my staff,” he said. “I think we have to figure out the new landscape of college basketball. They’re basketball guys. They’ve done it (developing winning teams), but now we have to figure out how to do in a shorter period of time because we’re not blessed with guys for four years.”
Developing a core over three and four years is how Pikiell lifted the program from the ashes.
“I think about the Geo Bakers and the Myles Johnsons, and I don’t know what that team would command on the market now,” he said. “I don’t know how you’d keep all these guys.”
Scheduling approach
Rutgers will return to the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas in November, a high-profile showcase with a $1 million appearance fee plus additional prize money, but don’t expect the Scarlet Knights to do much else away from home out of conference besides the continuing home-and-home series with Seton Hall. And don’t expect a return to Madison Square Garden.
“I hope to play more games at home,” Pikiell said. “I had to take the team on the road a lot this year, especially when we were figuring out our team early on. I’ve had to compromise my schedule and not do things I want to do for my team because of the NIL part.”
Pikiell said revenue sharing and a general manager should negate the need to hunt revenue through scheduling.
“I’m hopeful I’m out of that business,” he said.
Message to fans
Asked for his message to fans after such a demoralizing season, Pikiell said, “We’re going to be new, it will be a little different next year, we’ll bring back defense and grit like Rutgers was built on.”
He pointed to quick-rebuild success stories like Missouri and Maryland and said, “you’ve got a chance” to turn the page quickly with so much roster turnover, “so there’s some excitement to that.”
Rutgers is late to the table in terms of NIL infrastructure, but “in fairness to everybody, they (the NCAA and courts) keep moving the goalposts while we’re trying to kick a field goal down the middle,” he said. “But we have to figure that out.”
His Big Ten opponents, he said, “are figuring out ways and we have to, too”
Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Rutgers basketball: Steve Pikiell on roster-building, a GM, scheduling
Continue reading...
