6/9/2020 basketball Edit

Rutgers Hoops HC Steve Pikiell talks virtual recruiting during pandemic

Richie O'Leary • TheKnightReport

Publisher

One of the biggest adjustments that college coaches across the country have had to deal with lately is the adjustment of recruiting virtually compared to recruiting in person.

Just recently the NCAA announced the decision to extend the dead period until late July, removing yet another evaluation period for college basketball coaches, thus making recruiting that much harder.

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The Knight Report spoke to Rutgers basketball head coach Steve Pikiell to get his thoughts on recruiting during the dead period and how he will adjust to the new rules.

“I mean recruiting is changing by the minutes all the time,” Pikiell said in a video call with the media recently. “You keep hearing different rumors on when it is starting up and when it isn’t. I feel real good about our program currently because we have a lot of good young players and I feel real good with a lot of kids that we are involved with right now. But you know it is really different recruiting like this, I’m very much a coach who likes guys to come and see everything, watch us practice, meet the guys in the program because I think what helps sells Rutgers basketball is the people. It’s very hard to get that feel when you are doing virtual recruiting calls and tours. We have the best facility now in the country, it is very hard to get that feel right now, even though we are doing our best through some of the virtual tours. We are also doing very well with player development and it’s really hard for guys to see that too without guys coming to campus. There is just challenges now and when you throw in the transfer portal, the numbers are the highest they’ve ever been in history there and it’s only going to grow. There are just a lot of moving parts.”

Coach Pikiell went on to talk about the job his staff has done so far under the current dead period set by the NCAA and he is hopeful to get out there to check out some kids in person soon.

“I’m very thankful my staff has done a good job so far, I love the young kids that we have brought in and even the older guys we have here,” said Pikiell. “Hopefully some time soon we will get to get back out there and evaluate some kids that we haven’t seen yet. That’s a big part of April, May, June and July. I don’t know when that next evaluation period will open up. Film is great and every highlight film I’ve ever seen never has a miss in it, but it really isn’t the way I want to evaluate. We do the best we can during the times we have right now.”

While recruiting might be at a standstill for the time being, Rutgers Hoops is expected to start welcoming some players back to campus in the coming weeks. Pikiell mentioned that June 22nd is the date the team and the University are currently aiming for to start voluntary workouts.

"The next step is getting them back on campus, tested multiple times and slowly getting them back in basketball shape, get them with coach (David) Van Dyke so we can have another great season like we had last year,” he said. “Luckily for us, we are in a great academic situation, as our kids did great academically, so our kids don't have to be out for academic reasons."

Stay tuned for more on Rutgers Hoops and everything surround Rutgers Athletics right here on The Knight Report!