Rutgers Basketball HC Steve Pikiell talks offseason, new roster, expectations and more
Rutgers Basketball held an open practice for the media on Tuesday afternoon and for the first time since assembling the new look 2025-26 roster, Head Coach Steve Pikiell spoke to break down the offseason.
Full Steve Pikiell Transcript….
This is year 10 for me, which is the first great thing. Year 10, I can’t believe it. Some said I would only last two here, but I’m thankful I’m here. It’s an exciting time to be here.
We have some new leadership with a great president (William Tate) and Keli has been awesome. She comes by practice and she understands this world. It’s kind of an exciting time.
I like my group and we’ve worked very hard and they’re good. We’re the most physical we’ve been. The guys are in great shape, but one guy wasn’t here today, he’s sick and has the flu. Other than that, they’ve been working.
They are all very coachable. We got some older freshmen, which I’m excited about. They have some great stories. We’ve got a Romanian, a Bosnian, a couple kids from Africa, a California kid who was highly recruited out of California. We’ve got Chris (Nwuli), he’s one of the highest ranked recruits that we’ve ever had. I think he’s number 40 or something on ESPN. He’s from Las Vegas, so Rutgers has gone to some different places and got some really good players, which you need to do in this league.
Obviously, you guys know the league we play in, 18 teams and not 14 anymore. We’re undefeated right now, but we will be challenged. We’ll have the toughest schedule in the Big Ten I’m sure, that’s just how the computer always works.
I got great news, as my daughter was in the portal and is playing women’s lacrosse here. I’m thankful for all you guys. All your NIL deals that you guys sponsored for her to come here. She had a lot of choices and you guys have stepped up big time. So I appreciate that. But I got my own daughter here playing and I got three of my kids with Rutgers degrees and they’re doing great. It saved me an eight-and-a-half-hour commute to North Carolina.
Seven freshmen, what do you think of this group and what did you learn from last year in terms of getting freshmen into your culture?
“Yeah, I’m glad. We got four returning guys and I’m excited. They are the four hardest workers, too. They’re all improved too. I think J. Mike may go down as the last senior in the history of college sports. So hopefully we have him next year or two. I shouldn’t speak too soon, one year at a time, but, yeah some of these guys aren’t freshmen.
I mean Harun has played a lot of basketball, he’s 22 years old so it’s different. Our world is a little bit different now, since they’re not truly freshman, lot of these guys are older.
But yeah, it’s tough to be young in the oldest time in college sports, too. I learned that last year, but the COVID year is getting spit out now pretty soon. I like this group, though. We got a good blend and we’re stronger. Dave Van Dyke has done a fantastic job. Our bodies are good, I challenged him and we got good bodies.
These dudes are built to hit people and they’ve been going at it in practice. You got to be real physical in this league and I think we’ll get back to being that.
What’s been the message you’ve given to Keli (Zinn)?
You know what’s great? There’s no messages. Skip to the NCAA tournament. No themes and none of that. We’re Rutgers basketball, we play in a great league like I said this to our guys in the first meeting, there’s 365 teams and 68 go to the tournament. So, 297 aren’t going to go, but we got to get back to the NCAA tournament.
Keli’s been great. She’s educated me more on things I didn’t know and she’s been awesome, you know. I think she’s understanding some of the challenges here. I think we are just navigating the craziest time in college sports. So, she’s done a great job with that, but no themes and none of that. We’re working to get back to the NCAA tournament and that’s what we need to do.
She’s been very supportive and she’s got a lot of work to do. She’s only been here a few weeks, but she’s already moving us at warp speed, especially in the areas we weren’t cutting edge with.
You mentioned Dorian Jones with the flu, but can you talk about how that came together to land him here?
“It just worked out for us. Like all these guys, it just worked. Harun originally committed to Indiana and then they got a new coach, so it just worked. Dorian’s sick today, but we are glad to have him. We just got him like five minutes ago, but we had a good relationship with him. Some of these are great stories, we had a great relationship with Darren Buchanan, Jr. out of high school. Baye Fall, we had a great relationship with him. They went other places for other reasons, but now you call these guys and you’ve got opportunities for them. They remember you and remember your staff, they followed us and all watched Ace and Dylan last year. So, you know them and they know you, that’s part of it too. We recruited him hard out of high school, maybe recruited him harder than anybody else. So when that opportunity came, he wanted to come here. So, I think it’s good. But it’s all about relationships.
Is he all squared away with eligibility?
No, no one’s squared away right now with eligibility. We’ve got to get everyone squared away, but you know, we’re working on that. He just got here.
You mentioned, obviously, Bryce Dortch, Dylan Grant, both coming back for their sophomore season. What can you say about the two of them and their role this year?
I mean, the great part is I spent a lot of time with those guys in the offseason. Dylan Grant’s putting the ball on the deck and you can’t really see it all in practice today, but he’s got a chance to be really good, and I’m excited. Bryce does a lot of things for us and he’s just gotten better. They’ve both gotten stronger and bigger, you can tell in the weight room too. They have versatility and they’ve been through it. Defensively, they’re way ahead of everybody right now. Although we’ve got a lot of competition like this.
Gevonte Ware is a moose in the middle. Emmanuel (Ogbole) has gotten bigger. We’re big, physical and these guys are competing every day.
There’s no starters, we have no starters right now, and I like that. Those guys have been competitive, they’re multi-position. Darren Buchanan jumps right in there and he can guard any position.
We’ve got a big-time defender in Buchanan, who we haven’t had. We’ve got a big-time defender in Chris Nwuli, who we haven’t had. We’ve got rebounders. We have Harun, who can shoot the ball, and Denis (Badalau) who has been shooting it at a great level. Tariq (Francis) been our best percentage shooter. Kaden Powers is a good player. He was the second-best player in Washington and we beat out a lot of schools for him, he can play. He’s got good athleticism. Baye has been by far our best shot blocker, like by far. So, we’ve got shot blocker and we got some rebounders. Now, can we gel them all, and can they just keep competing, and are they going to worry about minutes? Are they going to just be together? Like, I think this team has to be a be-together team, but we’ve got pieces.
So, I like that and those two guys are important leadership and high-energy guys, and they’ve been good teammates. So, you know, they’re going to be asked to do a lot of stuff.
Does it give you a greater sense of security to have more of a blue-collar team?
We have 14 guys competing for minutes, which I like. We’ve never really had that, always had nine in the past. We couldn’t have a roster like that in this day and age, but we have 13 / 14 guys.
Now we’ve got 14 guys fighting for minutes and I like that. You know, we had some blue-collar guys too last year. I enjoyed coaching those guys last year, and those guys are awesome, and they’ve did a lot for our program. We’re going to be in Vegas for three more years, and they’re a big reason for that. They’ve helped us in a lot of ways. So, I’ve enjoyed them.
But with this group, no one is getting anything and they’re all fighting for a lot, it’s very competitive. Even today, we didn’t have a player miss practice and it was a real competitive practice. Last year, if a dude or two were out, it changed our practices. We didn’t have that kind of depth and we didn’t have those kind of things. Now we’ve had guys miss practice, and we don’t flinch.
Depth is important for us. It’s a long year too and we’ve got to stay injury-free. But now we can fight through a little bit more.
Steve, like you said, this is year 10 for you. How have you seen this program grow and evolve in your decade here?
Well, the school has grown and evolved. Scott gave me a thing the other day with our recruits. You know, we are the number 14 ranked public university in the country, the most applicants, top facilities. We sell out all our games. But the school keeps doing great things.
I take it one year at a time, I love the place. I got three kids with Rutgers degrees that didn’t even have Rutgers on the radar screen when I first came here.
I love this place, I’m excited about the football game this Friday and we’ve got kids visiting. I’m like, that’s going to be a packed place too, all that’s changed. So, you know, there’s a lot that has changed and the Big Ten has changed too. It was a tough league with 14 teams, but now 18. Like people don’t think 18 makes a big difference and now less teams went to the NCAA tournament. So it’s gotten harder to get to the tournament in our league. So a lot has changed, but a lot of good stuff has happened. I know no one wants to hear about the past. It’s all about this year and getting to the NCAA tournament.
I got it. Like I understand it, but we’re going to continue to do things the right way and continue to build a really good program. I think if you add the two foreign guys, this is a top 25 recruiting class back to back. We got another McDonald’s All-American. We ate at McDonald’s a lot my first year, but we didn’t get a lot of McDonald’s All-Americans. So we’ve gotten three now in the last two years, that just hasn’t happened. And in this day and age, it’s harder to get those guys than ever. There’s the resources, so we’ve continued to do good things.
I know what the world is about now and we’ve got to get back to the NCAA tournament. I’m confident that we can do that.
Steve, you mentioned Jamichael (Davis) a little bit ago. So him being in your system for the third year now and especially being a point guard. How important is he on the court leadership-wise for this year?
Yeah, he’s been awesome and he’s an everyday guy. He’s not missed one practice since we’ve arrived. I mean he’s been awesome. I call out plays and he knows them. He knows our defense and he’s a good leader.
If you ask any of the guys, he’s the guy, and he’s tough as nails. But I love our point guard position, we’ve got guys competing. Tariq’s been great, he’s been an everyday guy and Lino (Mark) is as fast as we’ve ever had at that spot. Lino was highly recruited, we beat a lot of schools for a West Coast kid. I’m excited about where he’s going to be. He’s athletic and he’s tough. Those guys are competitive and June (Darren Buchanan) can handle the ball. We’ve got a lot of guys that can do that, but Jamichael has been a good student too. He’s been a good example and he’s in the gym all the time. I haven’t named anyone captain yet, but like you know, he’s got all the good qualities and he comes to play. He’s gotten better shooting the ball and better at making better decisions too. He’s going to pick you up 94 feet, and he can do that. He’s in great shape and he never stops.
He’s the one who got caught in that rebounding drill, and other people would be like he’s going up against two rhinoceroses at 280lbs and 275lbs, but he jumps right back into that next drill and doesn’t bother him.
We’re in good shape, Dave’s done a good job with these guys. Even the young guys came in, and they’ve learned how to get in shape.
Steve, I wanted to ask about the general manager job. What is your timeline on when you want that job?
It’s the men’s and women’s job, so like three years ago was the timeline. We’re a little bit late, but I’m excited. We’ve got a lot of people interested and I’ve met with a lot of good people. Coquese (Washington) has a lot of people too. We are going to hire the right person.
Hopefully he can really help us and the right person was Keli to be quite honest. So she got that thing turned over in 12 hours when we couldn’t get it turned over before.
So, I’m just thankful for her. We will get a good person in, but a lot of interest from a lot of different places.
It’s a men’s and women’s job, so we’re going through the process. The goal was three years ago, so you know, as soon as possible. But you’ve got to hire the right person. I’m not going to be in a hurry now that she’s got it, you know, two people hiring.
Steve, you talked about adding two Europeans to the roster. How have they adjusted to the college game and do you anticipate going overseas more for recruiting?
I mean, we could never go overseas before because all these kids are playing professionally with agents. So now the rules have changed and I really like the two kids.
Harun has been awesome and he came right away, we had no visa problems.
Denis came a little bit later, but he has been our chief. I think right now shooting 49 percent from three in all of our live action. He’s been great and he’s a hell of a passer too.
They’ve been workers and I think you’ve still got to get the right guys. Jay (Young) did a good job. He went over and saw them and they’re big, too. Like, Harun’s big and athletic, Denis is big. So you know film is great, but you’ve got to get over there and see them. Your two feet have got to get over there and do that.
Revenue Sharing helps you, but you’ve got to have the resources too, because those guys are all getting paid over there.
Coach, how have they adjusted off of the floor?
I mean these kids, they speak a lot of languages. Basketball is an international sport, so they’re great. Their English is good, they are good students and they’ve come in here with a nice package, especially these two guys.
They’ve been around too. Denis played in Italy at the highest level for a long time and Harun is 22 years old, he’s traveled the world.
Like, these kids left home a long time ago. They’re very, very mature.
Can you talk more about Lino (Mark)? Lino and JMike, what is their relationship like? I saw them playing with a lot of confidence here.
They’ve been really good. All three of those guys together have been good. They’re like best of friends off the court. They spend a lot of time in the film room together, all the point guards. I think this freshman class has been good.
Kaden Powers has been really good. Gevonte Ware is whatever star and he comes and works, plus he likes to hit people. He’s big physically, he can make threes too. You hadn’t seen that today, but he can shoot. All those guys have brought energy. Chris (Nwuli) is a huge energy guy. He’s 6-8, 6-8 ½, big and physical. They’ve all really added to the team.
Also the veterans we have have been happy with those guys. So I think that’s important.
I think people might see the quote, get back to the NCAA tournament and say, well, they didn’t do it with Dylan and Ace.I guess what’s your case? What case would you make?
Before I didn’t have Dylan and Ace, but we went to the NCAA tournament. I had Geo Baker, no one recruited him.
So we’ve got to get back to what we do, it’s about chemistry. It’s never two good players. In our league, everyone has two good players. Everyone has two great players and I wish those guys were still here. I think year two would have been awesome with those guys, but they have moved on to greener pastures and I’m happy for those guys.
We went to the tournament with no five stars and no four stars, no three stars and I think a bunch of two stars. So the stars don’t matter, but you’ve got to still have great chemistry. You’ve got to be healthy. You’re in a league that’s a monster and everyone has five-star guys.
Here at Rutgers we’re not used to that kind of thing. I talked to the coach from Oregon and he’s like, I get them every year. So no one talks about it, but, you know I really miss those guys. I do. Those nine months went quick, but I’m very confident. We did it before after a 40-year drought and we’ve got to get back. I’m confident even in this landscape, which has completely changed. I mean, you guys know it. You don’t write about it. It’s as different as it’s ever been and it’s bizarre in a lot of ways.
I think I don’t know how many. What was the last count in the portal, Scott? How many kids in the portal? 2,700 basketball players. I think when I played and I talked to Coach Calhoun about this, there would be like 20 kids that transferred and sat out a year.
Now 2,700. So the good part is you can get good in a hurry, too, because everyone’s trying to figure out what they have. No one knows.
Steve, you talk about building chemistry. How do you think you build chemistry with a team where there is so much roster turnover every year?
Yeah, I mean, it’s challenging. Obviously, keeping four guys that are hard workers and I think that was the first step of this thing. Also they want to be here too and we were smart about who we added.
We recruited these kids out of high school. Darren Buchanan, I watched him play a lot in high school and he went to Virginia Tech. He’s a good player and I’ve seen Tariq play a lot, and he can score. And Baye, I was probably was at the most by his games out of high school. We were close to getting him as a McDonald’s All-American out of high school. So I know what kind of kids they were, too and that helps.
Sometimes in the portal you get two weeks and it’s speed dating. You’re trying to make decisions and this was a little bit different. Then the high school kids we recruited, we got those kids early and we recruited them hard.
We knew they’d be good fits for us. So, you hope now you hope you stay healthy and you get that great chemistry all year. They have great chemistry now, but I haven’t picked a starting lineup. I have all the obstacles that go into it, how they are on the phone tells them if they’re good or not. How are they going to handle the phone, how they’re going to handle social media. Like there’s a lot that goes into kids being good.
So you’ve got to figure that out and you’ve got to go through it, too. All these kids in high school, everyone loves them because the 18 people following them were all their friends, cousins, and now it’s no one else now. You know, like they’ve got to handle that wave of that.
Then they’ve got to handle the wave of our schedule, playing Tennessee and playing who we’re going to up against in our league. So you’ve got a lot of challenges and you hope you help prepare them for that, but they’ve got to fight through them, too.
How have you had to adjust your coaching style, knowing that it’s not even a given that you have guys for two years, let alone three or four like in the past?
I still try to coach these guys the right way. We’ve got great relationships and even with the guys that have left have come back.
We’re blessed to have them for what time frame you have them for and I really appreciate if you get them for one year, you’ve got to just appreciate them. Try to get the most out of them. It’s different and hopefully it goes back a little bit and maybe it is heading that way.
You’ve got to be good and we’ve got to be better right now. We rebound and we’ve got dudes that rebound. We’ve got to get back to doing that. That was an area we weren’t good at in the past. Just having these guys and the size they bring, these guys are strong and, you know we’re enjoying hitting people.
Now if we played like we did today, we would’ve had 20 fouls. So we’ve got to make sure we are better, but I like them going after each other and they’ve got back to competing.
I don’t know who’s starting and that’s a great thing. I think we can start a lot of guys, you know. So I think we’re in a much better competitive place.
I think having 14 guys fighting for minutes is probably where I try to be every year now, especially if the roster and NIL. I think that’s how you want to kind of go about this.
Coach, speaking on JMike coming back for another year, he’s kind of like a veteran on the team now. What can you say about him and his role?
I love him. He’s always been a great teammate and he’s going to have a big role. He’s our best and we’ve got three guys that can really defend right now. Chris Nwiuli has done a fantastic job on screen coverage and rebounding. He’s gotten better and Emmanuel, you saw his hands and saw him finish around the rim today. So those guys are very important.
J. Mike, he’s a leader on and off the court. He runs things and he picks up full court. He’s going to be very important for us moving forward and it is very important to have him. He’s been in those games and he’s played against everybody. He’s played against Illinois and against ranked teams. So it’s important to have veterans like that to tell the young guys what’s going on.
Just to clarify on Dorian, the season’s two months away.
We’ve got to figure that out. He just got here. So we’ve got to get some stuff clarified through the NCAA and stuff. We’ve got 13 really good players, but I’m excited, Dorian.
We just got him at the last minute and we’re trying to figure out a lot with him. He’s been sick, but he’s been in class for the first time. He’s doing a really good job, but as soon as anything changes on that, we’ll let you guys know. I’m happy about the 13 we got right now.
If we can get him in the Fall, that would be awesome, but he’s got a ways to go. He’s missed the whole summer. It’s very hard when all the freshmen had all summer and you have had zero summer, zero in the weight room and zero in practice.
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