Steve Pikiell is entering his eighth season at Rutgers and has had a busy offseason so far. On Wednesday, The Field of 68 had a panel of national reporters discuss the best coaching hires in college basketball. This included both in the short and long term.
The panel included many of the best college basketball writers in the nation. Aside from Goodman, the panel included Gary Parrish, Matt Norlander, Jeff Borzello and Field of 68 founder Rob Dauster.
In regard to the best coaching hires of the last decade, Jeff Goodman said “How about this one? Steve Pikiell at Rutgers. That’s a hell of a hire. At Rutgers, I mean.”
Norlander agreed, stating “Yes, he’s up there.”
After inheriting arguably the worst high major program in 2016, Rutgers has since ended its 30 year NCAA Tournament drought, won its first March Madness game in 38 years and has become a regular top half Big Ten team under Pikiell. The Scarlet Knights are one of just four teams to win at least ten Big Ten regular seasons games over the last four seasons. RU had won just three conference games in the first two years in the Big Ten before Pikiell’s arrival. It coincides with Rutgers having four consecutive winning seasons for the first time since 1988-1992.
You can watch the clip from The Field Of 68 here:
The consensus among the panel of the best coaching hire in the last decade was Kelvin Sampson at Houston. Other coaches included were Bruce Pearl of Auburn, Danny Hurley at UConn, Dusty May at Florida Atlantic, Mick Cronin at UCLA, Nate Oats at Alabama, Eric Musselman at Arkansas and Chris Beard at Texas Tech.
For the entire episode from the Field of 68 discussing coaching hires, you can watch below.
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Nate Oats? I guess character wasn’t part of the definition of “best”…
I’ll take Pike over Oats any day. He does things the right way. And that still counts – at least in my opinion.
Bruce Pearl could never be a great hire because he will eventually leave the program/get fired for some sort of scandal. On the other end of it, I have a lot of admiration for Kelvin Sampson. What he has done at Houston has been really impressive. I’ll bet that if you ask Coach Pikiell which coaches he admires most that Sampson would be on that list along with the likes of Tom Izzo. Regardless, I’m glad to see that Coach Pikiell is getting recognized. Go RU!
RU Serious
May 3, 2023 at 5:06 pm
Nate Oats? I guess character wasn’t part of the definition of “best”…
I’ll take Pike over Oats any day. He does things the right way. And that still counts – at least in my opinion.
Aaron Breitman
May 3, 2023 at 5:46 pm
The discussion included Oats losing a lot of respect from many people and being a questionable inclusion.
BataliBoli98
May 4, 2023 at 11:48 am
Bruce Pearl could never be a great hire because he will eventually leave the program/get fired for some sort of scandal. On the other end of it, I have a lot of admiration for Kelvin Sampson. What he has done at Houston has been really impressive. I’ll bet that if you ask Coach Pikiell which coaches he admires most that Sampson would be on that list along with the likes of Tom Izzo. Regardless, I’m glad to see that Coach Pikiell is getting recognized. Go RU!