Rutgers Basketball HC Steve Pikiell talks UCLA Postgame
Rutgers Basketball Head Coach Steve Pikiell met with the media following the Scarlet Knights’ loss to UCLA in the Big Ten Tournament inside of the United Center on Thursday night.
Following the game, Steve Pikiell spoke with the media to offer an immediate reaction to his program’s performance and talked about what he saw in the team’s final game of the season.
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Head coach Steve Pikiell and student athlete Jemichael Davis and we’ll start with some opening comments from coach.
Steve Pikiell: Thank you, I always appreciate the Big 10 tournament and how they, you know, run this first class and they do a great job. I always love the environment.
This is one of my favorite parts of the year. Just disappointed, can’t keep playing. I think this team has just gotten better and better over the last month.
I wish we had another month with this group. Unfortunately, we don’t. I just brought my captain up here today in Emmanue, you know, last game and he’s really, first of all, he’s getting his master’s degree.
Proud of him. Came in, you know, with academics and a bad knee and just, you know, kept getting better and, you know, really proud of him. He took, you know, some grief every now and then.
He came in as Cliff’s, you know, backup and he just kept getting better and better and I really appreciate him. He became an everyday work guy and, you know, a great student, a great kid, never an ounce of trouble, never missed a day of practice, never late for anything. So, you know, really, really proud.
He became an every single day could count on him guy and, you know, we’re gonna miss him. We’re gonna miss him. He led us in rebounding, blocked shots and, you know, he’ll continue playing.
A lot of agents have been calling and, you know, he’ll continue playing his basketball career and I think his best days are ahead of him. He’s only been playing for a few years. So, I want to thank him and Rutgers Nation that came out, you know, people were awesome cheerleaders and the band is always great.
My favorite people. We’ll miss the seniors there, too, and all the great things that they do for us and make our environment at home one of the greatest, you know, home court environments going but, you know, give UCLA a lot of credit. I mean, Mick’s one of the great coaches. He really is. I mean, last time, you know, we gave up 98 points to him. So, we tweaked a few things today and not a lot of time to prepare. They just had too much firepower. Their point guard really good. Obviously, elite Bilodeau, elite and, you know, we played hard.
Proud of our guys for the fight but couldn’t get it done. All right, thanks coach. Let’s take questions for Jamichael.
Question here on the right. Jamichael, back and forth start to the game. You guys scored the first four. They score 11. You guys score eight. They score seven. Just what do you think allowed you guys to kind of go back and forth there in the start of the game?
Jamichael Davis: “Yeah, good execution on both ends but we can’t, you know, go back and forth, you know. We got to get stops. Throw them at their rhythm and try to be as physical as we can.
Okay, on the left. Jermichael is the captain and one of the, you know, veterans on this team. What have you seen from this full season of, you know, the freshman nucleus here? A lot of growth.
They’re hard work. Them just willing to want to get better and just learn. You know, they’re young.
Still got a lot of time and I’m very proud of them. Okay, any further questions for Jermichael? All right, here on the right.
What has being the captain this year at RU meant to you?
Jamichael Davis: It meant a lot. You know, Coach wanted to challenge me with that and I was willing to step up. You know, I’m not excited, not happy this season we had but I’m proud of our guys and the way we fought, the way we’ve gotten better throughout these months and I couldn’t be more proud of them. All right, in the middle.
JMike, of course you guys had a phenomenal game yesterday. You come out today. What do you most attribute to where you guys fell flat? Pardon me? What would you think that you, what part of the game did you think made you guys fall short?
Jamichael Davis:I feel like they got a little momentum. I don’t think we did a good job of throwing them off their rhythm. They were physical with us. You know, they was hitting shots.
We didn’t really make it tough for them but I’m proud of the guys we fought. I think Lino, he had great minutes. I think everybody who checked in gave us good minutes and I’m proud of him. Super proud of E. You know, a senior, last go-round and yeah, I’m just proud of him. All right, thanks Jermichael. You can head back to the locker room.
Coach, Lino as a freshman led Rutgers with 17 points tonight. What stood out to you in his performance and what excites you most about his growth and future?
Steve Pikiell: You know, what I’m most excited about is his progress. Like, you know, from the start of the year to the end. I mean, he learned how to practice hard, became a film guy. He understood, you know, what practice meant. Wasn’t a great practice player early on.
Didn’t realize how that carried over to the games. I mean, I think J. Mike’s been a really good mentor to him too. Kind of taught him how to become an everyday guy. Get into the training room early. You know, just the things that you need to do to play college basketball in the Big Ten. And you just saw his confidence soar early in the year.
He couldn’t finish at the rim. Really struggled from three-point land. And then, you know, he just continued to grow, but he put the work in. And, you know, again, it’s a hard journey for freshmen. It’s the oldest time in college basketball too. So, you know, guys are 24, 25 years old. He’s 18 years old. You know, so you got to learn, you know, through the obstacles the season brings. And, you know, he really did an unbelievable job.
Like I said, I wish we had another month because it was like having a new player at the end. And I’m looking forward to him improving. He’s got to continue to, you know, get stronger and just get better. But, you know, he proved that he could be a really good player in this league.
Steve, obviously you want to keep as many of these guys that developed as possible. What’s going to be your pitch to them this offseason when you are recruiting?
Steve Pikiell: I mean, we have a lot of great things at Rutgers. I don’t know if it’s a pitch. Thank God, you know, Keli’s here and she’s done an unbelievable job of helping us. But, you know, I think these guys like Rutgers.
And, you know, I’m excited about our new president. I’m excited about our new athletic director. I’m excited that I have Rob Sullivan, a GM that I never had.
I’m excited about all the people that we’ve hired and how we’ve kind of moved in that direction that, you know, is college basketball right now, college athletics. So, you know, Kelly got me excited, you know, about the future. And these young guys too are part of this.
But they have a lot of choices and that’s what happens in today’s day and age. And, you know, we’ll just see who wants to be part of Rutgers basketball. And it’s a really good brand.
It’s sold out every game. It’s a great fan base and a great league and it’s great opportunities for them. And it’s a great education. Top 15 public university in the country. It’s excellent academic school. You know, my daughter goes there, three graduates, my own family.
So, you know, I can attest to that. It’s a great place. So there’s a lot to sell. And we’ve developed guys. We got guys in the pros. I was watching Ron Harper play his brother the other day. It was one of the awesome days I had. And Ace Bailey scored a bunch of points. And, you know, I was watching Cam Spencer do his thing too.
So it’s been really exciting. That was never the case at Rutgers. So we got a lot to sell and looking forward to, you know, sitting down with these guys and seeing where they’re at.
You mentioned the last month of the season. That must be a lot of improvement for you guys, especially from the freshmen. So how important is it to keep that freshman nucleus that you guys have so they can continue to grow and develop like you saw in the last month?
Steve Pikiell: It’s important to add some, you know, pieces too. And it’s very important to, you know, keep the guys. But I want guys that want to be at Rutgers too.
So, you know, that’s a big part of this too. It’s got to be a two-way street, not a one-way street. And, you know, so we’ll see, you know.
But I’m excited about the future and I’m excited about, you know, the opportunities that we have to make our program better.
As much as this sport has turned into a professional product, it also, with the travel, you kind of almost have to treat it that way with as much as you guys are kind of going on the road, especially having a younger team like you do. How did you see them grow from that kind of professional mindset taking it in every aspect, whether it’s towards academics, it’s towards travel, it’s becoming a full-fledged, almost a professional mindset into basketball? And how much did they grow in that area this year?
Steve Pikiell: That’s really the fun part too of coaching. You know, it’s still, you say it’s a professional world, but, you know, they’re 19-year-old kids, 18-year-old kids that have issues and have problems. And, you know, as a coach, you want to see them grow and you want to see them get better and you want to see them, you know, enjoy their time too in college. So, you know, you see it a lot.
I had seven freshmen this year, a couple of them from overseas too, so, you know, you really got to help them, you know, mentorship through that. They’re not adults yet and they don’t have experience, you know, playing in the Big Ten and traveling and doing all those things. But I will tell you, this group, you know, they became, you know, pros in how to prepare.
They take care of business academically, they get in the training room early, you know, they really grew in that area. And, you know, proud of them. They watch film and, you know, they didn’t when it first started, they didn’t realize the importance of it, but still enjoy that journey with them too.
And even my sophomore class, and J. Mike up here today, you know, is going to graduate, one of the first ones in his family to get a degree. Like, that means a lot to me and I know it means a lot to our president too. Like, those things are still important.
They get overlooked sometimes through all this. Every one of my guys is graduating, he’s getting a master’s degree. Like, you know, I still enjoy that part of it too and I think that’s an important part.
I don’t want to miss out on that and I think, you know, playing basketball is awesome and the experiences that they have here are awesome, but there’s some great experiences too at Rutgers. And our freshman class started to, you know, understand that.
Coach, you know, you have a history of training up these young guys, getting them developed, but you talked about how old college basketball is now and with the new NIL initiatives, does that change your approach to roster construction this offseason?
Steve Pikiell: I mean, it’s a different world. Yeah, I’d like to get older, that’s for sure. And that means keeping some of our older guys too, but you know, the portal is old. You know, that’s what it is. Usually kids are experienced and have played a little bit and stuff, but you know, we’re gonna see there’s a lot of fun opportunities that are gonna come up and let’s see if we can, you know, get kids A that want to be at Rutgers and want to, you know, be a part of something that I think is gonna be really, you know, really good.
So I’m excited about, you know, those opportunities. But yeah, to get older, it’s probably a good thing. Okay, time for two more questions here on the left.
Coach, Tariq was held to six points tonight. What do you think UCLA did defensively to limit his offensive production?
Steve Pikiell: Yeah, they did a, you know, a great job. They sent bodies at him, they put size on him. You know, I think when you watch this play, especially the night before when you see 29 points, you know, Mick is a great coach and he’s a really good defensive coach and, you know, he was well prepared. He really was and, you know, Reek’s got to fight through that. That’s what’s gonna happen to you.
When you start scoring the points that he scored this year, you’re gonna have days like that. But he could do a lot more than score, you know, and that was my one, you know, conversation with him in the huddles. Like, you can pass the ball, you could rebound your facilitator.
He got really a lot better as the year went on at facilitating and making assists and doing a really good job, you know, with that. And, you know, but UCLA did a really good job. They did it in the first game too.
Steve, you spoke with some finality with about Emmanuel, this being his last game. He had said he was gonna apply for a waiver for next year. Do you have any update on that?
Steve Pikiell: Yeah, I mean, those are all, everyone applies for a waiver. So, yeah, I don’t have anything on that. If he did get one and got another year, would you want him to be back? You know, there’s some, you know, there’s so much out there.
I have no idea. You know, he has to go through all kinds of steps and he’s not the only one in the country. There’s gonna be a million kids figuring that stuff out.
But, you know, he had a great career for us. I appreciate him. Thank you, Coach.
Thank you guys for being here. Thank you.
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