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email John Stansberry |
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AROUND THE NATION
March 9, 2010
Building a Winner!
 Stony
Brook's Steve Pikiell is a guy who leaves things in
much better shape than when he finds them.
When he was recruited to play at UConn in the 80's,
the school was a Big East also ran. By the time he
left in 1990 the program had turned into a perennial
power.
Upon arriving at Central Connecticut State in 1997
he was an assistant coach at a program that had
never had a winning record on the Division I level.
When he left in 2001 the school had notched a 25-win
season and an NCAA Tournament appearance.
After joining the George Washington staff in 2001 he
helped orchestrate a turnaround that saw the program
notch its first ever Atlantic 10 tournament
championship.
So he was a solid choice back in 2005 to take over a
Stony Brook program that had only been 41-74 in the
previous four seasons before his arrival.
As is often the case with struggling programs, the
first season of a new head coach's regime doesn't
show any immediate improvement. In this case, that's
an understatement.
His first Stony Brook team finished with a brutal
4-24 record that included nine straight losses to
start the season as well as nine straight losses to
conclude the season.
That's when the knowledge he had gained in past
apprenticeships started kicking in.
"Those previous stops and having worked for good
people taught me how to go from worst to first,"
said Pikiell.
The next two seasons only yielded 16 combined
victories, but progress was slowly being made. It
was with the 2008-09 squad that Pikiell's recruiting
efforts started paying off.
"Last year we took a big step with our first winning
season since joining Division I," he said. "That was
with three freshmen in the starting lineup and a
fourth playing a lot."
Those freshman starters - guards Tommy Brenton and
Bryan Dougher along with forward Dallis Joyner - are
now sophomores who form the core of a team that won
the America East regular season title. All three
players improved statistically over the previous
season.
"They all spent a lot of time over the summer
getting stronger," said Pikiell. "They spent two
summer sessions here in school and got in the gym.
They helped us get mature as a program and I take a
lot of pride in our players getting better."
Despite a disappointing loss to Boston University in
the America East tournament that prevented the
Seawolves from hosting the championship game, they
still get a nice consolation prize: the league's
regular season champion automatically gets a bid to
the NIT.
The championship that's already been won and the bid
that will be extended this coming weekend mark two
big milestones for Stony Brook. And with increased
success comes the formation of an actual basketball
culture at the Long Island school.
"It's become a neat thing to see the improvement of
the school spirit," said Pikiell. "Four years ago
they started a band to play at games and it was only
17 members and now it's over a hundred members. It's
a young university figuring out how to be fans."
These neophyte hoops fans can thank Pikiell for
giving them something to cheer about. He's an expert
at taking programs to places they've never been
before.
John Stansberry is in his thirteenth season as
a senior writer for collegeinsider.com. Check out
John's blog
LonelyTailgater.com.
EMAIL JOHN |
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