Rutgers Basketball HC Steve Pikiell talks Lehigh Postgame
Rutgers Basketball Head Coach Steve Pikiell met with the media following the Scarlet Knights’ win over Lehigh on Friday night inside of Jersey Mike’s Arena.
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 third game of the season.
Full Press Conference Transcript
Appreciate it. Improved in some areas, got a lot of work to do, but proud of these guys. I mean, these two guys came back better, and you saw that today.
The work that they did this summer, you know, and E, awesome job. 16 points, 10 rebounds, two assists, blocked shot. I know people talk about him at times, and I’m telling you, the guy just works.
He just works, and I love it about him. He’s great in screen coverage. He had to fight through 100 screens again tonight.
No one ever talks about that, but today, post moves, dunks, the whole thing was great. It was great to have Chris. He came in and gave us, how about those first two points of his career? Not bad.
And then what can I say? You know, DG’s been rebounding. He’s been getting to the rim. 28 points.
We needed all of them. You know, it’s a good Lehigh team. They played Houston.
I watched the second half of the Houston tape. I obviously watched the whole game of the West Virginia tape, and they outplayed those two teams, second half, both games. I was nervous.
They got good offensive players, obviously. They have 11 returning players, second most in the country, and Brett does an awesome job. So, you know, good win, great crowd.
Appreciate them being here. It was live in there. And, yeah, on to questions.
Steve, when Big E is playing like that on both ends, how much of a difference does it make for the whole team?
STEVE PIKIELL: “I mean, huge difference now. He’s got 25 rebounds in three games now too, and that’s huge. You know, he works. He works. And he’s a presence around the basket. He challenges other shots at times. Starting to blend in with his teammates. But, you know, I love the fact you guys don’t see him every day.
Like, he brings it, and, you know, he’s getting better and better. He’s new to basketball too, but, like, he’s getting better and better, and we need him to be like that. And then Bryce came in and gave great minutes too, off the bench. Bryce, seven points. And, you know, so happy, really happy for him.”
Dylan’s first half, 18 points, scoring a lot of different ways. Is that what you’re kind of hoping to see out of him during the rest of the season?
STEVE PIKIELL: “Well, I mean, he’s been all year long. He’s been great. You see the improvement, guys that come back and get better.
He handles the ball now. He scores in a lot of different ways. But, you know, I like the first day, it was Reek’s day, and then the next game was Dennis’ day, and now it’s DG’s and E’s day. Like, this is this kind of team. It’s going to take us all. Everyone’s got to be ready.
Our bench gave us some really good minutes today, so we need to keep, you know, improving, you know, in that department. But, yeah, I mean, Dylan, you know, he’s one of those guys. He’s getting better and better. He’s kind of unique. He shoots threes. He can put it down.
We can post him, and he’s getting a little bit better, right, in the defensive end. I don’t know. Coach Young may debate that, right? So, proud of him.
Coach, obviously Lehigh hung in there. It was a close game for most of the night. Just talk about how you guys were able to get over the line and get the win and the character of your team that you saw tonight.
STEVE PIKIELL: “Yeah, like I told you, I mean, they went to Houston, and Houston’s I think number one or number two, whatever they rank them. And, you know, you just watched the second half of that game. Houston, probably the team I respect a ton. And then you go into West Virginia and play them. I think they were 68 to outscored teams in the second half. And I’m always worried about teams with 11 returning players.
Like, they were running plays from last year that, you know, we’re still figuring out what we’re doing with 10 new players. So, happy to be 3-0, you know, good environment tonight. I think we took another step.
We out-rebounded the team. I think we’re plus 20 or something like that on the backboard. So, you know, we’re starting to get the message about the backboards too.”
It came out to seem like you guys were really aggressive offensively and clicking and, you know, a lot of dishes going to the hole. Is that a product of these guys gelling through the three games? Or what have you seen from them on that side of the ball?
STEVE PIKIELL: “You know, I still think we’re like a work in progress still. But, like, when you have different guys can get you 20, which I think we have a lot of guys that can.
And, you know, J. Mike is, you know, he logs a ton of minutes. And he’s a plus 18. He does a lot of things for us. And his offense has improved a ton too. So, you know, put up a lot of points. Again, you know, we wanted to keep that team in the 60s.
I thought that was a reasonable goal for us. So, we didn’t do what we need to do on that end. But we made free throws. Did some, you know, we’re improving in some areas. And we got to come together too, you know, with the rotations and what have you. But, you know, first three games.”
So, you’re going to be working through a lot of things in the first three games. Steve, when you say your team’s a work in progress, is a night like tonight one of those things where mid-Big Ten season you’re going to look at the way the points are scored by Grant and EG tonight as part of that work in progress? And it’s going to have you successful in conference play?
STEVE PIKIELL: “Yeah. You know, we got ten new guys. So, you know, you want to gel right from day one. But I even think, you know, the freshmen have it tough. First couple games, you know, get those freshmen jitters.
And he didn’t look like he was jittery tonight. Chris was good and ready to go. Hits a huge three for us. Gets a couple assists, blocks a shot, you know. So, some of those guys got to work through the newness. And they got to be patient as we continue to evolve our rotation. But we got a chance. I mean, we didn’t shoot the ball well. And we’ve been shooting the ball very well in our two scrimmages and our first two games.
So, to get that number and not having shot the ball well from three-point land is a good sign. We win different ways. But we got to, you know, we just got to keep getting better.”
Yeah, Steve, you mentioned the rebounding a bunch over these first few games. Plus 19 tonight. You double them up on the offensive glass. Dig a little deeper on that. What did you think of how your team rebounded?
STEVE PIKIELL: “I mean, one thing they know, right, guys? We talk about it all the time. I mean, the backboards are huge.
And we haven’t been a good rebounding team the last couple years. So, we started in June. You know, now when he got a double-double last game and he’s now got two 10-rebound games, you know, that’s a huge part of it.
Chris will be one of our best rebounders, too, moving forward. He can really go up and get them. We got to be a good rebounding team. And we shot the ball well, too. So, there weren’t as many rebounds, you know, off the offensive end when you’re shooting 50%, 54%. But, you know, happy.
And I think, you know, our guards stick their nose in, too. I think Reid got six. What do you have? He had six rebounds, J. Mike. So, we got 10 out of our backcourt. That’s always a really good sign.”
Coach, 42 points in the paint. What was it about the combination tonight and the rotation of guys that was so effective?
STEVE PIKIELL: “Yeah, I mean, we were getting downhill. I think we did a really good job. I didn’t want to settle for threes. We got the ball into E on a few post plays, and he finished down low. And, obviously, Dylan’s a matchup problem. We’re playing him at the three spot.
You know, smaller guys are guarding him. So, we got to keep utilizing his advantages that he gives us. But, you know, we got into the lane. We made some plays. And, you know, when you get extra ones off the backboard, that helps your percentages, too.”
Whitlock had a very good game, number one for them. And you switched Chris on to him late in the second half, and that block stopped a lot of his momentum. What did you see that made you go with that matchup?
STEVE PIKIELL: “I mean, the one thing, you know, Chris and June can sit down and guard any position. And, you know, sometimes you just want some length on those guys that were getting in the lane and causing some havoc.
He was averaging seven points, so he had a heck of a night for him, you know, coming into this. But, you know, I think we can go with our size on guards because they really can stay in front of guys. His lateral quickness, June’s lateral quickness, is as good as any player on our team.
So I’d like to continue doing that, too. Mix it up a little bit. When they get comfortable with those matchups, then you got to put some size on them. Chris did a good job for us on that. Thank you, guys. Thanks so much for coming. Appreciate you guys.”
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