Did Steve Pikiell Deserve a No. 15 Ranking Among Big Ten Coaches?

Pikiell Lands at No. 15

Steve Pikiell Ranked No. 15 Among Big Ten Basketball Coaches for 2026-27. The College Basketball Report has released its rankings of all 15 Big Ten basketball coaches for the 2026-27 season. Rutgers head coach Steve Pikiell was ranked No. 15. The veteran coach is entering his 11th season as head coach of the Rutgers men’s basketball team. The last couple of years have seen the Scarlet Knights losing more games than they have won.

Rutgers University Athletics

Recent Results Shape Perception

Pikiell received a vastly different ranking from the College Basketball Report from when he was first at Rutgers compared to his current ranking. After rebuilding the program from the ground up during his tenure as coach at Stony Brook University, he led the team to its first NCAA Tournament berth. Later at Rutgers University, he would take the program to its first NCAA Tournament in 30 years. Pikiell led the program back-to-back NCAA Tournaments in 2021 and 2022 while competing in the Big Ten Conference. For his efforts, he received the 2020 Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year Award.

After building Rutgers into an NCAA Tournament team in his early years at Rutgers, Pikiell has struggled to maintain that level of success over the last couple of years. The Scarlet Knights went 15-17 in the 2024-25 season with a young roster that included future NBA lottery picks Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey. Last year, Rutgers went 14-20 overall and 6-14 in Big Ten play.

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Rutgers Continues to Back Pikiell

Zinn stated that Rutgers had met their NIL fundraising goals for men’s basketball for the 2026-27 cycle. This will be an area in which Rutgers has fewer NIL resources than a program like Ohio State. However, the Rutgers administration’s investment in men’s basketball will be a boost to Pikiell and his staff as they rebuild the roster for the upcoming season.

Rutgers is meeting their NIL fundraising goals for men’s basketball as reported by NJ Advance Media. In addition to…

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Publish date : 2026-07-01 23:00:00

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