It is no secret that legendary Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo is a big fan of Rutgers men’s basketball coach Steve Pikiell. Izzo has praised Pikiell’s coaching ability time and time again, and has done so twice this season in his post-game press conferences, despite Michigan State going 2-0 against Rutgers this year. The first instance came after the Scarlet Knights almost knocked off the Spartans in overtime at home, and the second instance happened last night, where Rutgers almost pulled off a miraculous
comeback in the last minute and a half, forcing Michigan State to sweat it out on their senior night.
“I’d like to start off by saying Steve Pikiell is one of my better friends in this league. I have incredible respect for him. I told my team this would be the toughest team we played all year, physically, and it was physically the toughest team we played all year. He went with that small lineup, and it did give us fits in the first half. We didn’t play very well,” Izzo said in his post-game press conference.
After acknowledging how hard Rutgers played and how Pikiell once again used a smaller lineup to push the Spartans to their limit, Izzo reiterated a message that he gave to the Rutgers players after their first game this season, albeit in a different way.
“I told Steve that after the game. Mucho respect for him and how hard his team played – and they’re young. That team, if he keeps them together, if somebody doesn’t tamper with them, they’re gonna be damn good, I promise you. Damn good.”
Izzo communicated a similar message to Rutgers’ players after their first matchup against the Spartans this season.
“If he keeps those four freshmen, they’ll be like Jaxon Kohler and (Carson) Cooper and Jeremy (Fears) and Coen (Carr). That’s what makes great teams. So I’m gonna publicly tell those kids to stay put, you’ve got a good coach, fans were awesome tonight. That team is gonna get better. We had a veteran team, and they had a rookie team, and those rookies played their tail off,” said Izzo after his team pulled off an overtime win against Rutgers in January.
The message from the Michigan State coach to the Rutgers players is very clear: Stay put, you are in good hands under Pikiell.
This message comes not long after Rutgers athletic director Keli Zinn confirmed that Steve Pikiell will return as the men’s basketball coach next season. On top of that, it sounds like the department has reached some of its NIL fundraising goals, according to an interview NJ Advanced Media conducted with Zinn. It will be interesting to see who the Knights can keep around, and grab in the portal, with their improved NIL arsenal.
Rutgers will return home to take on Penn State in the regular season finale on Sunday at noon. The game will be broadcast live on the Big Ten Network.
