By Zack Cziryak
As a beat writer for both the Seton Hall and Rutgers programs, what has been your opinion of both school's coaches and their approach to building their programs?
First of all, they both inherited bad situations. That’s one thing they have in common. If truth be told I think both of them probably didn’t realize how dire or negative the image was of the program that they took over until they actually got to their respective schools and started trying to sell that name. So there’s a lot of bridges that had to be repaired or rebuilt.
In Kevin’s case it was inter-personal relationships, people who disliked Seton Hall because of the way they were treated by the prior regime.
With Steve it was a confidence factor that Rutgers would ever be anything more than a laughing stock in basketball because people didn’t dislike Eddie Jordan, but the results were so bad from that standpoint his job was far more difficult that he ever imagined.
They both came to realize how bad things were when they actually started to turn their programs around. It's near impossible for an outsider to know the obstacles they had to overcome.
With Steve he had the benefit of good institutional support right from the start to pay the money to give him a strong coaching staff. Rutgers also was in the process of an immediate facility upgrade. That was two strong factors in aiding the cause.
It took Kevin a couple of years to get that because Seton Hall AD Pat Lyons wasn't at the Hall when he was hired. Kevin sort of entered a very chaotic organizational situation whereas Steve had Pat Hobbs, a basketball guy, a smart institutional guy who had his back from the start. So I do think that Steve had a little edge in that sense. It took Kevin a while to get the full support of the institution behind him whereas Steve kind of had that from day one with Pat Hobbs.
Aside from that I think that what those guys found was that they had to get a little creative in the recruiting at first. Kevin needed to get some transfers and coach up some under the radar guys, which is kind of what Pikiell did in his first year as well. Sometimes you have to get a little creative to build a foundation before you can really strengthen the brand enough to hit a stride, so I see a lot of similarities there.
Steve’s older, he’s been around more so I think he knows his system and what he wants a little better than Kevin did when he first started, even though they both came from a mid-major background. Maybe Steve was a little more set in his ways as a coach whereas Kevin was learning more as he went along because he was younger. I think there was a similar curve. Kevin’s been at this a lot longer now and he’s established a really good brand; Steve is working on that but he obviously is in the initial stages of building the brand in the way that Kevin’s built his, But if you're a Rutgers fan the bottom line is you need patience. You need patience from that fan base and from the administration as well. Kevin benefited from that and I'm sure Steve’s going to as well.
What are your thoughts on the out of conference schedules for both programs?
There’s a big difference. Kevin's of course was pretty weak for a long time, but never as bad as what Rutgers has put together. Seton Hall didn’t have a marquee out of conference home game until Wichita State came to the Rock a couple of years back. That was a work in progress. It took Kevin a couple of years to get the schedule where it should have been and now the schedule is appealing to fans and is in line with the strength of the team.
Kevin’s got it exactly right now. He’s got a terrific team that’s playing a terrific schedule. That’s what he should be doing. Steve’s playing an especially bad schedule and I think his team is better than that. Last year, year one, sure he took over a wreck so he wanted to make it as easy as possible and it worked for them. It gave his roster the confidence and the momentum they needed to be more competitive in the Big 10, but their schedule is worse this year and I think his team’s a little better and really to me your schedule should get better as your team gets better.
In short I don’t like it. I’d like to see Rutgers play one road or neutral game and not play a division II team. We’ll see if he’ll schedule up when the program gets better. I don’t know the answer to that.
His out of conference schedule was a mixed bag at Stony Brook, although you could make the case that they were a mid-major that nobody wanted to play them when they got good. The same issue that Princeton and Monmouth face now as well, so you can’t really draw a parallel and say look what he did at Stony Brook because we really don’t know. I hope Steve will schedule better as his team gets better. To me it makes a lot of sense.
In my opinion what Kevin has done schedule wise is the blueprint for what you should do. You schedule better when your team gets better, so hopefully we’ll eventually see that at Rutgers.
To me the schedule is perfect. You have the proper combination of home, neutral, and road games. You don’t want a ton of road games, but they have a big time road test in Louisville so that is a favorable sign at the end of the season as far as their strength of schedule goes. You have glamour opponents. Even though Indiana is down, that’s a big name coming in and people will be interested in that. VCU is rebuilding but that’s a strong mid-major brand that’s coming in. Rhode Island is a great neutral court game, it’s a shame it’s on Thanksgiving, but Kevin can’t control that. That’ s a fantastic game. They’ll also be a preseason top 25 team in addition to Seton Hall. And then of course the second game in the NIT will also help Seton Hall's power ranking.
What I really like about the schedule is there’s not really a whole lot of cupcakes. Seton Hall's playing Jersey teams which is nice, a local flavor. But some of the team’s he’s playing like St. Peter’s, that’s a competitive, pain-in-the-neck program. If you go down the list and look at the games – Monmouth, yeah they lost Justin Robinson, but they bring back some talent so they’re far from terrible. They’re probably the second best team in the MAAC, so that’s good.
Really, there’s not going to be a whole lot of dead weight on the schedule that drains the RPI. So for me the schedule checks all the boxes. Does it make the team better by sharpening their edge playing in various environments against good teams? Yes. Does it pump up your seed RPI wise? Absolutely.
Additionally, is it good for your fans and your paying customers? No doubt. The fans can see all these games, except Louisville, in person. You have a couple of brand names, glamour names, coming in to the Rock. And you don’t have any patsies or DII teams coming in. To me it’s a perfect schedule. I think it’s a home run and I’ve been critical of the team’s schedule in the past. This year I think they’ve done a terrific job.
Talk about last year's recruiting haul which included Myles Cale, Sandro Mamukelashvili and Jordan Walker.
It’s a good recruiting haul. I think it’s the type of recruiting haul that you have to have to keep pace in the Big East. Did it replicate the blockbuster class of four years ago with the guys who are now seniors, no< But did they keep pace? Yes, and they addressed some needs.
A versatile big in Sandro who can really spell any of the front court guys. That’s a big help to give them depth there.
Then you have a guard, a pure point guard. Even though Jordan Walker won’t start, you have a guy with pure point guard instincts who ought to at least fill in as he's being groomed to eventually take over the reins of the team. That’s a need, that was a must.
And finally you brought in Myles Cale, a guy who can score. Anybody that can put the ball in the basket that’s a plus. I think there’s three guys right there that can help and help immediately. They’ll be in the rotation. I think they will help this year’s team and it is a nice class to build on for the future.
Kevin definitely got the job done recruiting wise for this particular cycle.
Continued
As a beat writer for both the Seton Hall and Rutgers programs, what has been your opinion of both school's coaches and their approach to building their programs?
First of all, they both inherited bad situations. That’s one thing they have in common. If truth be told I think both of them probably didn’t realize how dire or negative the image was of the program that they took over until they actually got to their respective schools and started trying to sell that name. So there’s a lot of bridges that had to be repaired or rebuilt.
In Kevin’s case it was inter-personal relationships, people who disliked Seton Hall because of the way they were treated by the prior regime.
With Steve it was a confidence factor that Rutgers would ever be anything more than a laughing stock in basketball because people didn’t dislike Eddie Jordan, but the results were so bad from that standpoint his job was far more difficult that he ever imagined.
They both came to realize how bad things were when they actually started to turn their programs around. It's near impossible for an outsider to know the obstacles they had to overcome.
With Steve he had the benefit of good institutional support right from the start to pay the money to give him a strong coaching staff. Rutgers also was in the process of an immediate facility upgrade. That was two strong factors in aiding the cause.
It took Kevin a couple of years to get that because Seton Hall AD Pat Lyons wasn't at the Hall when he was hired. Kevin sort of entered a very chaotic organizational situation whereas Steve had Pat Hobbs, a basketball guy, a smart institutional guy who had his back from the start. So I do think that Steve had a little edge in that sense. It took Kevin a while to get the full support of the institution behind him whereas Steve kind of had that from day one with Pat Hobbs.
Aside from that I think that what those guys found was that they had to get a little creative in the recruiting at first. Kevin needed to get some transfers and coach up some under the radar guys, which is kind of what Pikiell did in his first year as well. Sometimes you have to get a little creative to build a foundation before you can really strengthen the brand enough to hit a stride, so I see a lot of similarities there.
Steve’s older, he’s been around more so I think he knows his system and what he wants a little better than Kevin did when he first started, even though they both came from a mid-major background. Maybe Steve was a little more set in his ways as a coach whereas Kevin was learning more as he went along because he was younger. I think there was a similar curve. Kevin’s been at this a lot longer now and he’s established a really good brand; Steve is working on that but he obviously is in the initial stages of building the brand in the way that Kevin’s built his, But if you're a Rutgers fan the bottom line is you need patience. You need patience from that fan base and from the administration as well. Kevin benefited from that and I'm sure Steve’s going to as well.
What are your thoughts on the out of conference schedules for both programs?
There’s a big difference. Kevin's of course was pretty weak for a long time, but never as bad as what Rutgers has put together. Seton Hall didn’t have a marquee out of conference home game until Wichita State came to the Rock a couple of years back. That was a work in progress. It took Kevin a couple of years to get the schedule where it should have been and now the schedule is appealing to fans and is in line with the strength of the team.
Kevin’s got it exactly right now. He’s got a terrific team that’s playing a terrific schedule. That’s what he should be doing. Steve’s playing an especially bad schedule and I think his team is better than that. Last year, year one, sure he took over a wreck so he wanted to make it as easy as possible and it worked for them. It gave his roster the confidence and the momentum they needed to be more competitive in the Big 10, but their schedule is worse this year and I think his team’s a little better and really to me your schedule should get better as your team gets better.
In short I don’t like it. I’d like to see Rutgers play one road or neutral game and not play a division II team. We’ll see if he’ll schedule up when the program gets better. I don’t know the answer to that.
His out of conference schedule was a mixed bag at Stony Brook, although you could make the case that they were a mid-major that nobody wanted to play them when they got good. The same issue that Princeton and Monmouth face now as well, so you can’t really draw a parallel and say look what he did at Stony Brook because we really don’t know. I hope Steve will schedule better as his team gets better. To me it makes a lot of sense.
In my opinion what Kevin has done schedule wise is the blueprint for what you should do. You schedule better when your team gets better, so hopefully we’ll eventually see that at Rutgers.
To me the schedule is perfect. You have the proper combination of home, neutral, and road games. You don’t want a ton of road games, but they have a big time road test in Louisville so that is a favorable sign at the end of the season as far as their strength of schedule goes. You have glamour opponents. Even though Indiana is down, that’s a big name coming in and people will be interested in that. VCU is rebuilding but that’s a strong mid-major brand that’s coming in. Rhode Island is a great neutral court game, it’s a shame it’s on Thanksgiving, but Kevin can’t control that. That’ s a fantastic game. They’ll also be a preseason top 25 team in addition to Seton Hall. And then of course the second game in the NIT will also help Seton Hall's power ranking.
What I really like about the schedule is there’s not really a whole lot of cupcakes. Seton Hall's playing Jersey teams which is nice, a local flavor. But some of the team’s he’s playing like St. Peter’s, that’s a competitive, pain-in-the-neck program. If you go down the list and look at the games – Monmouth, yeah they lost Justin Robinson, but they bring back some talent so they’re far from terrible. They’re probably the second best team in the MAAC, so that’s good.
Really, there’s not going to be a whole lot of dead weight on the schedule that drains the RPI. So for me the schedule checks all the boxes. Does it make the team better by sharpening their edge playing in various environments against good teams? Yes. Does it pump up your seed RPI wise? Absolutely.
Additionally, is it good for your fans and your paying customers? No doubt. The fans can see all these games, except Louisville, in person. You have a couple of brand names, glamour names, coming in to the Rock. And you don’t have any patsies or DII teams coming in. To me it’s a perfect schedule. I think it’s a home run and I’ve been critical of the team’s schedule in the past. This year I think they’ve done a terrific job.
Talk about last year's recruiting haul which included Myles Cale, Sandro Mamukelashvili and Jordan Walker.
It’s a good recruiting haul. I think it’s the type of recruiting haul that you have to have to keep pace in the Big East. Did it replicate the blockbuster class of four years ago with the guys who are now seniors, no< But did they keep pace? Yes, and they addressed some needs.
A versatile big in Sandro who can really spell any of the front court guys. That’s a big help to give them depth there.
Then you have a guard, a pure point guard. Even though Jordan Walker won’t start, you have a guy with pure point guard instincts who ought to at least fill in as he's being groomed to eventually take over the reins of the team. That’s a need, that was a must.
And finally you brought in Myles Cale, a guy who can score. Anybody that can put the ball in the basket that’s a plus. I think there’s three guys right there that can help and help immediately. They’ll be in the rotation. I think they will help this year’s team and it is a nice class to build on for the future.
Kevin definitely got the job done recruiting wise for this particular cycle.
Continued
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