Rutgers Basketball HC Steve Pikiell, players talk 2025-26 Big Ten Media Days
The Big Ten Conference held their annual media days event out in Illinois this Wednesday and Thursday, as all the head coaches along with several players from around the conference spoke ahead of the upcoming 2025-26 season.
Check out what Rutgers Basketball Head Coach Steve Pikiell had to say during his press conference.
Full Steve Pikiell Transcript
BTN: Steve Pikiell and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights getting set for the 2025 season, a team that scored more than they have at any point in his now 10 years on the banks last season. But again, everyone knows, got two of the top players in the NBA draft, in Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper, who have both moved on. So it’s gonna be a little bit of a new look team for Steve Peichel on the banks.
And he joins us now. Coach, it was a little bit of a weird year, I think last year, right? But there was a lot of excitement around your team, you had some injury issues, it just felt like it never quite got to where people hoped that it might get. What did you learn about yourself last year about your program that maybe you can apply here going forward?
Pikiell: I mean, we’re doing our work right now and no one’s watching. So this has been a good part of our offseason. But I had a tremendous amount of fun coaching those guys. We were just young at the wrong time in college basketball. And quite honestly, it’s a league with a lot of great players. So you got to have multiple great players. And we never quite put it together with injuries and all the different things that happened in this kind of league, but learned a lot, a lot of sellouts, a lot of excitement. They helped us recruit a great class. I think we got a good fourth rank recruiting class in the league coming in. We’ve gotten back to blue collar, some roots, like we defend right now where physical as can be.
I’m telling you, I’m year 10, I couldn’t be more excited about this group of guys. And we’ve done it with no cameras in the gym and none of that stuff. It’s been back to work in their competitive group. And I’m excited about [it].
BTN: You kind of hinted at it there. And I’m really interested because I’ve seen you say this in the media this offseason about, “Hey, we’re going to get back to our identity.” And the identity for most of your time there, has been defense has been blue-collar. How do you re-instill that? What’s the process of getting from where you were last year – and I know you still want to score, and 77 points a game be great – but but how do you get back to being, hey, this is who we’re going to be?
SP: Well, I tell you, last year we had guys that could score 20 points, 30 points, and they’re going to do great things in the NBA. We didn’t rebound the last two years. It’s been a real issue for us. This group is huge physically. We got seven footers. We got big guys. We got, you know, older guys. We got two international players that are older and that have played professionally overseas that I’m excited about. We have improvements from our returning guys. We have four returning players. But I mean, there’s a lot of excitement.
New athletic director, great new president. They’re both from LSU. Keli [Zinn]’s been a breath of fresh air, you know, in this new era that you got to be competitive to. I’m thankful for rev share, that helped us get a real competitive group here that I’m excited about. And let’s get back to, you know, rebounding and defense.And I think this group can do that.
BTN: I will tell you, after last year – and I texted you a couple of times – you stayed positive. I could always tell in the postgames you’d put your glasses on just to calm down a little bit. You’d act like maybe you were reading the stats and then you would calm down. But I got to give you credit for that because it’s hard. I know losing is hard. It’s tough. And some of the games you went through. But you are a good coach. I know you are. And you just talked about rebounding your background. Coach [Jim] Calhoun, one of the best rebounding coaches of all time. How important is that? People don’t realize little things like that make such a difference.
SP: Huge. And in a league like this.We finished 11th last year, a game out of ninth place or eighth place. Those are at large teams, you know. So we were close.Our expectations were crazy. You know, people thought number one, when you get those kind of players, we were picked ninth. You need to be in that hunt. I want to get back to the NCAA tournament. The last two years haven’t been great years because we haven’t rebounded. And it’s been a theme of ours.
We do have tremendous size this year. But I like my group and I like when people doubt, you know, it’s been that way for 10 years. And, you know, I’m good in those places. And I’m excited about being with this group and with a new AD and a new president. And Rutgers is at a great time in our school history with a lot of great things going on. And we got to get back to the NCAA tournament. And I’m driven to do that this year with a group that right now looks like we got the tools to be able to do that.
BTN: What’s the challenge with so many freshmen? Because that’s hard, especially in this day and age.
SP: I like our international freshmen. They’re a lot older and they played a lot of minutes in a lot of places. But we got a talented group of freshmen. We got some kids that are very athletic. I have two elite defenders. I think I have two of the best defenders in the league. So we get back to having a Caleb McConnell type guy that can guard multiple positions. And we have two of them. So I’m excited about them.
We have a shot blocker in Baye Fall who was a McDonald’s All-American. He blocks shots as well as anybody we’ve had. We got Emmanuel Ogbole, who’s seven-foot and he’s never been healthy for the whole season. He’s healthy right now. He is huge and physical. And Dylan Grant‘s back, who had a really good freshman year. It’s got a lot of tools too. Jamichael Davis is one of our toughest players that we’ve had. We brought in a leading scorer from the America East and Riq Francis, who can really shoot the basketball. So this group’s been very competitive. And they’ve been fun to coach. And I’m looking forward to, you know, us getting back to what we’ve always done a great job of, and that’s defending and rebounding.
BTN: You mentioned a lot of names there. Who’s your leader? Like, it was pretty clear last year who your leaders were. Who’s your leader?
SP: J-Mike. Now, first of all, I’m just thankful. Three years he’s been with the program. Now, hopefully we have him for four years, which will be one of the rare things in college basketball moving forward. But, you know, our freshmen and our returning players, Emmanuel Ogbole, Bryce Dortch is back, who gave us great minutes last year. Dylan Grant is a terrific athlete and really can shoot the basketball and has improved. You know, he played starter minutes last year. And then we got our two international guys that come in with tremendous amount of experience.
But we’re really competitive from one to 13, one to 14. We have some guys. So I’m excited. We’ve done it with the doors closed, with not a lot of fanfare. But this group is exciting to me. And I think Rutgers fans are going to really like this version of Rutgers basketball.
BTN: Is there one guy that, maybe, is a surprise that hasn’t got quite the exposure or publicity? There’s always, you know, we always talk about John Tonje, obviously, for Wisconsin, that was off the charts, you know, but I’m looking at the stats from him. Is there somebody that’s going to surprise people out there?
SP: I think our whole roster is going to surprise people, because you never heard of Dennis Badalau from Romania. Last time you heard Romania was Nadia Comaneci, you know. And he’s a really good player. And I think people are going to be excited about him. Darren Buchanan Jr. was the leading scorer at GW a couple of years ago, can guard anybody. He’s built like Lawrence Taylor and can do some things.
Our freshman class is very athletic. It’s a very athletic class with some great length. So we have a lot of guys that can do a lot of different things. The chemistry has got to be right. And my staff, we got to do a great job of because we got shooters. We got some shot blockers, which we haven’t had. We’re big physically at every position. And I like that. And we may foul out every game, but this group is willing to hit people. He’ll get some tackles. That’s how I like it.
BTN: We got linebackers. We got gymnasts. I mean, we’ve had a lot of high-level athletes referenced in this brief conversation. Very good. Steve Pikiell, it’s a pleasure. Great to see you, coach. Thanks.
Full Jamichael Davis & Dylan Grant Transcript
BTN: Jamichael Davis and Dylan Grant back with Rutgers. You couldn’t hear your head coach, but Steve Pikiell is referencing your leadership, your returning potential contributions. We know we have a new roster, not a lot of headline names. We’re waiting for those to occur. Take us inside that practice court.
What have you seen to give optimism to those Scarlet Knight fans that this team is going to return to the Rutgers of old?
JD: It’s been great. The guys have been great.I think for the most part, everybody’s coming in and wanting to get better. I think that’s a good part to have, good trait to have. We all coming in and competing at a high level and just trying to make sure we stack days and get better every day. So summer has been kind of, you know, putting in work and just trying to get to know each other and get connected as fast as we can.
DG: I’d say we got a lot of workers, a lot of energy guys. You know, practice is always a dogfight. So, we got a lot of pieces this year that come together, you know, hopeful for a great season.
BTN: Coach said just a couple of minutes ago, you guys are back to your blue collar ways. What does that mean to you all? What do you guys talk about in the locker room? Because coach could say anything he wants.Coach could be on the podium. He could coach his speed. But at the end of the day, the players got to go out there and they got to play.
What have you guys been talking to each other about in the locker room, and what has been that message, and what does blue collar basketball like look like to you guys?
JD: Definitely just trusting the work and not being afraid of the work. I think staying here showed that we’re not, you know, selfish and we want to stay in tune and to get better as a group and try to do it together as much as we can. But just blue collar, just trying to stay, you know, level headed. We know what the work that we got to do. And I’m not shy. We’re not shy from it. We’re willing to take that step and put in some work if need.
DG: We work every day to be everyday guys. You know, we got a bunch of dogs on our team and just out there just working hard to practice, you know, every day is just a dogfight.
BTN: Last year, scoring was not a problem with Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper. Two years ago, there were a lot of droughts offensively. Now let’s assume you’re back to being a defensive rebounding team.Where is the scoring going to come from?
JD: Scoring definitely will come up. I think we got a lot of guys who can do a lot of things. I think our floor and our offense, I feel like everybody’s going to be able to get touches. Everybody will be able to get shots. We’re going to be able to make shots and stuff like that. And like I said, we just got a lot of guys who do a lot of things. So just trying to play together as much as we can. Just share a moment with each other, you know, compete together.
DG: A lot of times our defense leads our offense. You know, we got a lot of athleticism as well. So, you know, that’s going to help us a lot this season.
BTN: And Dylan, speaking about the athleticism, speaking about the versatility of you guys, the squad, you came on in the conference season last year. It felt like you couldn’t get off the bench in a non-conference. But once January hit, I mean, it was a whole different Dylan Grant out there.
What led into that change? What clicked for you halfway through the season? I mean, you finished conference play with three or four games above 15 points. What worked out for you at the end of the year?
DG: I would say just going to practice every day, and just working hard, you know, whatever you put in in the practice and off the actual court, that’ll lead into the end game. So that’s all I did, you know, just working hard every day and just waiting for my number to be called. And eventually it was called, and I just went out there and put my best foot forward.
BTN: Jamichael, Jersey Mike’s Arena, affectionately known as The RAC, when that place is popping, it’s arguably one of the best home courts in the country, not just in the Big Ten. What will it take to get that home-court advantage back?
JD: I honestly think, you know, we got to win. Win as much as we can at that stage, as much as we can. I feel like the fans, they’re always going to show up and show out. And I’m just like building off that energy that they give us, you know, trying to get wins as much as we can.
BTN: Is the bus fixed? The bus that I was driving?
JD: Now I wanted to ask you, are you still on the Rutgers bus?
BTN: Well, I was booted off the bus at times last season. I was driving it. Lost my license driving the bus. It went into a ditch. Then it came out. Listen, if you’ll have me back on the bus, I’ll drive it again.
BTN: Don’t let him drive the bus! He got off the bus. And then when it went in that ditch, I started driving that bus. And now I’m the driver of the bus. We don’t need passengers. When anybody start to answer and they say, well, that means they don’t want to be on that bus anymore. Yeah, I’m on the bus with y’all.
JD: That’s what I like to hear.
BTN: You’re not going to let me on the bus, Dylan?
DG: No, you’re always welcome. Always welcome.
BTN: All right. Come on. Open those doors! I’m coming on the bus! We’re driving it again up I-95!
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