Rutgers AD Keli Zinn Confirms Men's Basketball Coach Steve Pikiell Will Return Next Season

Despite all of the changes that have hit the Rutgers basketball program as of late, Rutgers Athletic Director Keli Zinn announced in an exclusive interview with NJ Advanced Media that men's basketball coach Steve Pikiell will return next season, despite the team heading for its third losing season in a row.

According to Brian Fonseca of NJ Advanced Media, Zinn is not surprised about the results of the current men's basketball season because Rutgers has one of the lowest invested in rosters in the Big Ten. It is for that same reason Pikiell will return for another year. It is believed that the Scarlet Knights have invested somewhere around the 4 million dollar mark in its current roster, about half of what it should be this year, according to Zinn.

Zinn acknowledged the issues that have plagued the men's roster and has been working to fix them ever since she arrived at Rutgers. While she has openly stated that the program is not where they want it to be in terms of wins and losses, she also believes that Pikiell deserves a chance with a NIL war-chest that is at least on par with his peers. While not revealing the exact numerical value they have achieved, Zinn said their NIL fundraising goal for men's basketball has been met and that it will put Pikiell and his staff in a position where we can see what they are really capable of.

Pikiell has proven in the past that he can build a program when he is on the same competitive level as his peers. In the pre-NIL era, Pikiell built a two-gonetime NCAA tournament squad that would have gone three times if COVID never happened. Due to that success, Pikiell has earned a chance to prove himself in the NIL era when he has a competitive amount of support around him. On top of that, despite the team's poor record this season, Pikiell has been able to coach them to five Big Ten wins, when most expected them to win two or three conference games at most.

Pikiell's situation is a little different from the women's basketball side because former women's basketball head coach Coquese Washington, who was fired earlier this week, had not done enough to earn any good favor. In her four seasons at Rutgers, Washington never had a winning record, and the program showed no signs of improvement throughout her tenure. Washington had the same NIL-related struggles as Pikiell, but she hasn't shown that this was the only thing holding her back.

Another major reason why Pikiell might have earned another year is the sheer size of his contract. Pikiell is signed with Rutgers through the 2030-31 season, with his contract indicating he would be owed 16.4 million dollars if he were fired following the 2026-27 campaign. That would easily be the biggest buyout owed in school history. To fork over this kind of money, and then find the money to hire a new coach, is not something the university can reasonably afford, especially if they haven't given him a chance to compete with competitive resources.

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