TKR TV: Rutgers HC Steve Pikiell discussed being left out of NCAA Tourney
Rutgers men's basketball head coach Steve Pikiell met with the media after the NCAA Tournament Selection Show on Sunday night.
Rutgers did not make the tournament.
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See what he had to say below. Stay tuned for more.
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Opening Statement:
“Obviously it’s a tough day, our goal was to go to the NCAA Tournament, and I felt like we did enough. It’s a tough job that the selection committee has and unfortunately, they felt like it wasn’t good enough. We will wait for the NIT selection show tonight and I'm proud of this team. They've been great all year and I thought we had a resume that stacked up with a lot of teams. Obviously (the selection committee) didn't, but they have a very tough job. We will do what we do here at Rutgers. We will bounce back, and we'll get excited about postseason play and we'll try to make the most of our opportunities in a great tournament”.
On the committee placing value on Mawot Mag’s injury:
“They felt like we weren't good enough. Our resume wasn’t good enough. It did change our team a bit (when Mawot got hurt), but I think we did a lot of good things this year. They were supposed to take into account our entire schedule and our whole body of work, but again they have a tough job. I don’t envy their work, but I guess we didn't do enough when I thought we were right there with everybody else”.
On accepting an NIT bid:
“Yes, we're going to try to play those games. I want Caleb (McConnell) and Paul (Mulcahy) to play as many games as they can. I obviously don't want this season to end. This group has done a lot of great things for us and to have an opportunity to play a home game for those guys would be very important. I would love for them to take advantage of postseason play. I’m not apologizing for postseason play here at Rutgers, but obviously our goal in the beginning of the year was the NCAA tournament, but we will have to shift quickly.
On players reaction:
“They were very disappointed; I know that a lot of brackets had them in. I’m sure they were seeing that on their phones. We set a goal on June 3rd. That was our first practice. To be in the NCAA tournament (was our goal), so obviously disappointing news. Now we will just have to take advantage of the NIT Tournament. This has been a great group. They are very disappointed right now”.
On non-conference schedule outlook:
“We were short of a game probably. We had some tough breaks too. I think if we stayed healthy all year and we would have continued our nice roll, but you guys can debate those things. We were one point away in some games, and a tip in away in others. The Ohio State game, there were a lot of things that could have impacted this. We did not have Caleb and Paul for a few games at the beginning of the year. So you can look at a lot of things and I feel our resume matched up with a lot of teams. We were just unlucky, so we will look at everything like we do every year. You guys can nitpick those kinds of things. We came up short and the selection committee has a tough job”.
On the message to the team after finding out they didn’t make the tournament:
“After you get news like that there aren't a lot of things you can say. The guys know what we have worked for all year and our goal for the year. You just tell him to pick your head up and we are going to have another opportunity to play and that is a good thing. A lot of teams are putting their uniforms away and a lot of teams are done. We still have an opportunity. This has been a great group and I have loved coaching this group. I want to coach them for as long as I can, so I am thankful that we will be able to continue to play.”
On how the committee considered the Ohio State loss:
“I don’t get any information on how they make decisions or anything like that. I couldn’t tell you one way or another. You guys just told me about the Mawot Mag thing. I couldn’t give you any information on that.”
Coach on his opinion on the reason the team was left out of the tournament:
“I don’t have any insight guys. I wish I did, but they just felt like our resume wasn’t worthy for whatever reason. You can go to a million different things that you guys can speculate. I have no idea. I wasn’t sitting in those rooms and again they have tough decisions to make. I understand that.”
Coach on non-conference strength of schedule going forward:
“We will figure out our schedule at another time. I don’t think that had anything to do with today. Our numbers were as high as they have ever been and much higher than last year. You have to win enough games to get in, whether it's in conference or out of conference and obviously they felt like we didn’t.”
On bigger picture how he views the season:
“This is our third-straight postseason bid. Anytime you can get a postseason bid, I’m not going to apologize for that. We had 19 wins and hopefully with some more to come this year. This group has been great. But every year our goal is to go to the NCAA tournament and compete for a national championship. That is what our goal is, but we didn’t achieve that this year. But we did a lot of really good things and this team continues on. 19 wins is more than last year and we did some really good things. Now we have a chance in the postseason here to continue playing.”
How to get the team ready to play in the NIT Tournament:
“It is like any game. You have to be ready to get your team off the mat. I want them to know I played in the NIT myself as a player and we had an unbelievable run when I was at the University of Connecticut in 1988. It was one of the great experiences that I had in basketball. Today they don’t want to hear those things, but tomorrow we will get them in a room and try to make sure they understand that a lot of teams have hung up their uniforms and we have a chance to keep playing as a group. This group has fought through a lot the last four years and fought through a lot of obstacles. I expect them to do the same here and we will be honored if we get an opportunity to keep playing.”
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisNalwasky.
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