It has been just over a month since the Rutgers men’s basketball team’s season ended due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

The Scarlet Knights were just about to start its first game in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament. The NCAA Tournament was also on the horizon, but both were shut down in addition to just about all sports around the world.

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Since then, head coach Steve Pikiell has been in constant contact with the school’s athletics department and administration as well as with his staff and the team.

“Most importantly I tell our players every time we do our WebEx seminars with our players on Fridays, the most important thing is to stay safe and healthy,” Pikiell said on a Webinar with the program’s play-by-play announcer and Rutgers alumni on Tuesday. “So let's take care of ourselves right now during this time.”

With the campus closed and everybody ordered to be at home, the players are not allowed to use the new RWJBarnabas Health Athletic Performance Center. Pikiell said he trusts that his team is working out on their own and doing everything they can to get better skills wise as well. He mentioned that strength and conditioning coach David Van Dyke gave the players a plan and equipment to use, too.

“They got to figure out ways. It's the same thing like when we were younger. We had to figure out ways to workout without these gyms and without the tools that they have that they have now. Push ups and sit ups are one of the great things that you can do and I know Dave Van Dyke is on the phone with them daily. We sent them nutritional stuff. We sent them some of the materials that they need and some of the tools that they're going to be able to use while they're at home. They just got to be really creative about that, and I trust that they're all doing it. We talk about it every week when I do my FaceTime calls with our guys and we go over their schedule.”

Rutgers missed out on extra playing together in the two tournaments, but he said it is during this time when teams can either make or break themselves for the 2020-21 season.

“It's unfortunate we can't use our great facility right now because I really think we would have been able to take a huge jump, but everyone's kind of in the same boat,” the coach said. “I say to the guys the teams that take advantage of this time the most are going to be the most successful teams next year. So, how can you take advantage of this time? If other teams are not and we are, we're going to be better for it, and I think we've recruited guys that want to get better so I'm thankful to that. I'm thankful, too, that they've stayed healthy and their families have too which is the number one concern.”

Typically, the incoming freshmen start arriving once the summer class sessions begin after the spring, but it is unknown when they will get on campus being that the university has extended online classes and no-live events and activities until August.

The good thing, though, is that Oskar Palmquist, Mawot Mag, and Dein Reiber have all signed and Rutgers can send them workouts. Palmquist actually spent the spring semester with the team, practiced, and redshirted.

Only Cliff Omoruyi, at the time of the chat with Pikiell, had not signed, though he did so on Wednesday.

"I'm hoping to get all the freshmen here as soon as possible. Freshman year is always the toughest year,” Pikiell said. “Expectations always on freshmen are really high. So the quicker you can get them on campus and get acclimated to basketball, the lifting weights, and school, all that stuff, it really helps them. One of the things I try to do when recruiting is to recruit gym rat kind of guys. Guys that want to be in the gym, and guys have a reputation of being in the gym. And I really think during this period I don't worry at all (about that). I know our guys are finding a gym somewhere. Players are made when nobody's watching. I think that's our group.

“I'm so hopeful that they're going to come back better even though these are the obstacles that we have to face this year. It's always the obstacles that you have to overcome and the obstacles now are you can't get better together, you can't lift weights together. I'm very confident we have in the gym kind of guys and they are veterans. So, they've been around a little bit, which helps us a great deal. But I have a lot of confidence they are going to get better.”

Improvement and development even now will be critical as Pikiell mentioned because Rutgers won’t be surprising anyone. It can still be a feel-good story -- possibly making the NCAA Tournament and breaking the drought after it should have this year if it wasn’t for the virus -- but it will have a target on its back and have significant expectations. Many outlets are pegging Rutgers to be in their own preseason Top 25 rankings or receiving votes including NCAA.com’s Andy Katz, The Stadium’s Jeff Goodman, CBS’ Jon Rothstein, The Athletic’s Seth Davis, ESPN, and USA Today.

“Well, I mean, that's why I think this year's journey will really help us because we went through it this year. There were a ton of expectations especially as we continued to win. Our guys were able to live through those kinds of things. We hadn't had expectations in the past. And so I'm really hopeful” Pikiell said. “I think those things are great, you know, preseason rankings. I've been ranked, but we don't need anything. But I tell you what they do mean and I said this to our staff as we've come a long way with our program that people are preseason ranking us in the Top 25 and I also told our guys this too. We're not sneaking up on anybody so we got a train from day one to play really good basketball.

“This is the first time I can say we're a little bit older, and we have juniors now and we have some seasoned seniors. We're going to be an experienced basketball team. Even this year we were one of the youngest teams in America. So those expectations plus being the veteran team, I say bring it on. I'm excited about having those. I'm looking forward to taking on the challenges that that brings and I got players that will be ready for that. ...We're gonna play the schedule that we're gonna play. We're gonna be ranked and all those things. All the returning guys have got to get better.”

Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisWasky.