Steve Pikiell punched in Jim Calhoun’s number—his standard routine after receiving any job offer—and waited for a familiar New England inflection to bellow out from the other end.
Pikiell had just been pitched the coaching vacancy at Rutgers, a devastated program with little to offer besides a vision and administrative support. He sought the advice of his usual confidant and mentor of nearly 30 years.
Calhoun comes about as close as you can get to college basketball royalty. His CV includes three NCAA tournament championships, seven Big East titles and nearly 1,000 wins, naturally becoming an oft-tapped well of perspective for Pikiell, who played under Calhoun in the late 1980s.
