As the most widely anticipated Rutgers basketball season in modern times approaches, head coach Steve Pikiell is making a crucial midsummer addition: Former right-hand man Jay Young is returning to the Scarlet Knights as an assistant coach.
“I’m excited to be back – I’m hungry to be back in the gym,” Young said via phone, expressing thanks to Pikiell and Rutgers’ administration for arranging his return. “Just like anything else, when you take some time away from it, you realize how much you miss a lot of it, and I certainly did.”
Last year, the NCAA expanded the number of assistant coaches a basketball program may carry to five – the traditional three "recruiting" assistants, plus two non-recruiting coaches whose focus is instructional. Young's designation will be the latter.
Young was a valuable assistant under Pikiell for 14 seasons – the first 11 at Stony Brook, where they built a nascent Division I program into an America East power, and the last three at Rutgers, where Young helped lay the foundation for the program’s dramatic turnaround. He coordinated the Scarlet Knights’ defense, which quickly became their signature, and coached their big men. He also recruited key players such as Myles Johnson, Caleb McConnell and Paul Mulcahy.
“We are thrilled to welcome Jay Young back home to Rutgers,” Pikiell said. “Jay is one of the best workers I have been around in my 30-plus years of coaching. Jay helped build winning programs from the ground up at Stony Brook and Rutgers. He brings an outstanding wealth of knowledge to help in all areas.”
Central Connecticut State head coach Pat Sellers, who has coached alongside both men, put it this way in 2022: “Jay and Pikes are like brothers."
Young, who is 59, left Rutgers in 2019 to take the helm at Fairfield. He guided the Stags to a record of 50-73 over four seasons, including an appearance in the 2021 MAAC Tournament final. He resigned last October, on the verge of a breakout season, for undisclosed reasons. Assistant coach Chris Casey was elevated to head coach and Fairfield finished 24-13 overall and second in the MAAC.
Over the past nine months, Young volunteered weekly at the Bridgeport Rescue Mission, a nonprofit that serves coastal Connecticut’s at-risk population.
“I’m going to miss that,” he said.
He also visited various programs’ practices and games to stay sharp.
“You can only walk the dog so many times,” he said.
Jay Young’s challenge
The timing of Young’s arrival on the banks is fortuitous. His history of big-man development is impressive. It includes Plainfield native and Roselle Catholic grad Jameel Warney, who became an honorable mention All-American at Stony Brook and later excelled in the G League before embarking on a lucrative career in South Korea. Then there was Johnson, a three-star recruit who would earn All-Big Ten recognition as the defensive lynchpin of Rutgers’ 2021 NCAA Tournament team. More recent was Supreme Cook, an All-MAAC forward/center at Fairfield who started at Georgetown last winter and is playing his postgrad season at Oregon.
Rutgers is brimming with ability at guard and wing, but the post position is an unknown. Largely untested 6-foot-10 center Emmanuel Ogbole and 6-10 freshman Lathan Sommerville project to share duties underneath, with an assist from 6-8 Princeton transfer Zach Martini, who is more of a power forward.
“The talent you can see is there,” Young said. “I know there’s a level of excitement that probably hasn’t been around the program for a long time. I haven’t had a ton of time watching practice, but I’m looking forward to getting there and helping any way I can.”
Mud in the blood
He’ll find the program in a far different place from his first go-around. Back then, Rutgers’ summer workouts sometimes got moved to the sweltering College Avenue Gym (known as “the Barn”) because another team was using the RAC. Now there are no conflicts thanks to a state-of-the-art practice facility.
“Thinking about those first workouts, in the RAC, Barn, wherever we could find time to work out, it really speaks to the commitment Rutgers has made to all of their athletic programs and men’s basketball,” Young said.
It should be noted: Young seemed to enjoy the Barn’s spartan conditions and the toughness that wrought.
“You’ve got to have mud in your blood,” is one of his favorite sayings.
Warney has described Young as a master of instilling loyalty in his charges.
"He's one of the great guys in college basketball," Warney said in 2019. "He's always been there for me— forget basketball, as a human being."
Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. He is an Associated Press Top 25 voter. Contact him atjcarino@gannettnj.com.
