Steve Pikiell and Rutgers squeaked past Bryant Thursday night, but Scarlet Knights’ head coach was encouraged by gritty victory and what it could mean in long run. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)
PISCATAWAY, N.J. — The sight of Rutgers media awaiting Steve Pikiell’s emergence from the locker room for his postgame press conference became atypical after about ten minutes, as the affable head coach has become known for his punctuality in discussing his team’s travails. Normally, when a high-major team such as the Scarlet Knights narrowly defeats a mid-major opponent by a mere two points instead of the double-digit margins expected by fans and pundits, one would suspect a coach would take the extra time to rip into his team, highlighting the lack of execution.
Nothing could be further from the truth Thursday night, and Pikiell — as those who cover him frequently can attest — is not your run-of-the-mill program leader.
Rather than play the role of disciplinarian following a 73-71 victory against Bryant that was not sealed until the final seconds, when Adam Grant’s corner three-pointer for the win rimmed out and fell into the hands of Geo Baker, Pikiell took the opportunity to lift his players up, offering encouraging words and underscoring that the first game of this 2019-20 season was merely a teaching moment that can serve his team well as the year wears on.
“I’m glad we gutted out a win,” Pikiell conceded in the face of Rutgers nearly squandering a 16-point lead as Bryant used a flurry of timely shots and hustle plays to nearly upend a Big Ten Conference opponent for the second time in as many seasons under head coach Jared Grasso. “I always give credit to the other team, and they played their brains out. They made threes, they made shots. We didn’t wrap up the game the way I’d like, but we’re young, it’s a learning experience, and we have film to move forward and get better.”
“You guys know I like grinds, and the season is a grind, the whole season. I hope you guys just enjoy it, because that’s college basketball at its best. We had to manage our way through the game, but I like to grind out wins, because that’s what we’ve done. We’ve shown some grit, and we had to do that again today, so I think that’s a step for us and now we have some great tape to go over. We’ll get better. We have a lot of good answers up here.”
Even in the face of a concerning display at the foul line — Rutgers made just 18 of its 32 free throws — there were enough positives to outweigh the negatives, starting with the debut of freshman point guard Paul Mulcahy, whose impact off the bench helped ignite the Scarlet Knights offensively after a start to the game in which the hosts missed all but one of their first ten field goal attempts.
“He has a swagger and a grit to him,” Pikiell said of his newly-baptized rookie. “He’s a winner, and he’s the happiest guy in the locker room after a win. I love that part of him, too.”
“You could tell in practice Paul fits in,” said Ron Harper, Jr. “Paul belongs. He has a great future here at Rutgers, and his debut was nothing short of special. I’m really proud of him.”
In prior regimes, a stretch run like Bryant’s could easily have spelled doom for past Rutgers teams. This group, though, having been through the wars together for the most part, is wired differently, and subsequently carrying itself more strongly as a result.
“I like the way our guys are acting right now,” Geo Baker candidly assessed. “Everyone, as soon as the game ended — Tez (Montez Mathis) saying we gotta be more focused in practice, Ron told me he’s gonna go shoot some free throws — I like our mindset right now. We really have a good mindset right now.”
“We haven’t played in 239 days,” Pikiell observed. “It showed a little bit today, but we’ll keep getting better. We did what we needed to do to win the basketball game, and 1-0 was our goal before this game. We’re 1-0, and that’s what I’m most excited about.”
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