Rutgers Basketball coach Steve Pikiell shares cancer diagnosis
Rutgers Basketball head coach Steve Pikiell announced he was diagnosed with cancer, and will battle it as the season comes near.
Basketball Rutgers Basketball coach Steve Pikiell shares cancer diagnosis
- Thread starter Richie O
- Start date
Oh no..this is terrible. My prayers go out to Coach Pikiell and his family. Wishing a full speedy recovery
Prayers for coach Pike and the needed strength for him and his family to get through this, hopefully only stronger and closer , on the other side
Terrible news. It sounds like he has a great medical team. Having MSKCC is top notch, as many of us know personally.
Best wishes to Coach Pikiell and his family. He's a good man and a great ambassador for Rutgers.
Best wishes to Coach Pikiell and his family. He's a good man and a great ambassador for Rutgers.
Go Coach...best wishes for a quick and complete recovery.
Class acts like Coach Pike and AD Zinn are two of the many reasons I still and always love my school and tell people what a wonderful place Rutgers is...despite what can be viewed as an exasperating personal experience of RU athletics fandom
. There are, and have always been, so many great and caring people here.
Once again life intervenes to remind us about the really important things in life. Coach, follow your own rigorous basketball lessons in setting up the best personal cancer defense ever! Get back to us sooner rather than later!!
Class acts like Coach Pike and AD Zinn are two of the many reasons I still and always love my school and tell people what a wonderful place Rutgers is...despite what can be viewed as an exasperating personal experience of RU athletics fandom
. There are, and have always been, so many great and caring people here.Once again life intervenes to remind us about the really important things in life. Coach, follow your own rigorous basketball lessons in setting up the best personal cancer defense ever! Get back to us sooner rather than later!!
Very sorry to hear this. I'm hoping this is a curable type of cancer and that it was caught early.
Terrible news. Hopefully it was caught early enough and treatment works well. He's truly one of the good guys. All the best to him and his family as they go down this tough road.
Very sad, but thank god it seems it was detected early enough, incredible he still will be able to coach at least in some capacity. Hope recovery goes well.
All my prayers and wishes for a full, speedy recovery to Coach.
Prayers and positive thoughts to Coach Pikiell and his family as he fights through this battle.
As a person, Steve is a terrific and great ambassador for Rutgers. Putting aside my feelings towards him as Rutgers BB coach, this diagnosis puts things in perspective for me because this makes Rutgers BB secondary to Steve Pikiell's primary health concerns.
So, with that said, I wish Pikiell a speedy recovery and nothing but the best health outcomes one can possibly have going forward.
So, with that said, I wish Pikiell a speedy recovery and nothing but the best health outcomes one can possibly have going forward.
This certainly puts the last week or so into perspective. Coach seems like a great man who knows how to pick lovable players. No matter the past 3 years (and whatever happens in the future) he did awesome things here.
I had a pretty bad scare a few years back, One of the things that struck me was that I was lucky to be going through this in NYC with the best doctors in the world delivering the most advanced care and to be going through this now while medicine is making tremendous advances.
God bless Steve and his family. If you think wives come in handy on a normal day, wait to you go through something like this.
God bless Steve and his family. If you think wives come in handy on a normal day, wait to you go through something like this.
My prayers go out to Steve Pikiel and his family. Hopefully the surgery gets all of the cancer and it hasn’t spread. Like many people I’ve seen the fight people have to go through as they battle cancer. I’m glad to see that Rutgers and the fan base are supporting him in this fight!
Hoping Coach Pikiell beats the cancer completely. I wish that he takes as much time as he needs to come back physically and mentally.
Best of Luck,
Mark
Best of Luck,
Mark
Terrible news. Wishing Pike a speedy recovery and hope the team bands together and goes out and kicks some butt out there for him!
It's hard to glean too much from the statement and from the NJ.com story, but I sincerely hope for the best for Pikiell, who appears from every angle to be a terrific guy. Even beyond our hardwood rivalry, there have been coaches at Rutgers I had a strong personal distaste for, but Steve has always seemed like the kind of guy you can be 100 percent behind as the head of your program, and also the kind of guy who can produce envy among fans of other schools (hey, I haven't loved all of ours, either!).
No matter what you think of him as a coach -- and I happen to also think he is a very good one -- he's a solid dude and I hope for the very best outcome, and as soon as possible, too.
No matter what you think of him as a coach -- and I happen to also think he is a very good one -- he's a solid dude and I hope for the very best outcome, and as soon as possible, too.
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Fortunately , a cancer diagnosis is no longer a death sentence even if it's in a later stage. Hopefully, coach Pikiell can recover and survive. As a cancer survivor since 2011, I know the terror you experience when you first find out. But with luck and God's grace, you respond to treatment and get your life back. Coach Pike is in our prayers.
I will repeat what RUMan said :"I wish Pikiell a speedy recovery and nothing but the best health outcomes one can possibly have going forward."
And add a prayer for Pike in his fight against cancer ;
Guide the doctors, nurses, and caregivers, giving them wisdom as they provide care.
Surround Coach Pikiell with love, hope, and a strong support system on his journey back to full health
And add a prayer for Pike in his fight against cancer ;
Guide the doctors, nurses, and caregivers, giving them wisdom as they provide care.
Surround Coach Pikiell with love, hope, and a strong support system on his journey back to full health
As many of you might know I am very close to Jerry Carino being that we are both SHU alums. Jerry has told me from day one that there is not a more well liked coach in the business than Steve Pikiell.
I don't know Pikiell personally, but if Jerry tells me that I can only say what a shame that it always seems like the good guys suffer the most.
I know I speak for every Seton Hall fan when I say prayers for Steve to fully recover from this cancer and lead the Scarlet Knight's program for many years to come.
I don't know Pikiell personally, but if Jerry tells me that I can only say what a shame that it always seems like the good guys suffer the most.
I know I speak for every Seton Hall fan when I say prayers for Steve to fully recover from this cancer and lead the Scarlet Knight's program for many years to come.
Medicine has come a very long way in treating cancers. But every case is different. I hope it goes well for Steve. He’s a good guy and has a lot to live for.
Get well soon Coach Pikiell 
no one can argue that he is a great man and overall decent person. Hope he has a full and speedy recovery!
no one can argue that he is a great man and overall decent person. Hope he has a full and speedy recovery!
I encourage folks to take a look at X to see the outpouring of support. Coaches, media personalities and regular fans truly respect him as a man. It’s touching to read and is a helpful reminder that we shouldn’t take him for granted
He'll pounds nails as he always does. F Cancer! You got this coach!
Steve, if I could beat cancer I know you can! I'm not even a fraction as tough as you are. You're going to defend against this disease just like your man Caleb MacConnell defended opposing players. Cancer doesn't stand a chance against you!
I know Steve very well and if I have beaten cancer for 12 years and 6 months of chemo I know he can also. I spoke with him today after the practice for a short time and he wants to be back as soon as possible because he loves what he does and he loves RU and this team and his entire staff. He is determined to beat cancer as he has beaten many things throughout his life. He and his wife and his entire family are in my thoughts and prayers. I believe the team will step up and work so hard to make this season to be something special for him. I am glad I did get to speak with him. I have been a very close friend with him since I met him the day he was hired by RU. He is a wonderful representative for RU and is a true gentleman and someone who loves his time at RU. I feel too many fans are too critical of him and should realize how lucky we are to have him as our coach. We never made the NCAA for 29 straight years and he got us into the NCAA two years in a row and it should have been three in a row as the year the NCAA had no tournament we were rated # 28 in the nation at the end of the year, I know we didn't make the NCAA with Harper & Bailey but Harper was the # 3 scorer in the country after about ten games at 23.4 ppg. Than he got the flu and lost 9 pounds in a week. He missed a few games which Indiana on the road was the first loss which was a close game. When he returned he got a high ankle sprain in the first game back. A couple games he only played a few minutes and he was never the same for the rest of the season. He did though average 19.4 ppg at the age of 18 playing against men who were often 24 and 25. We had very little NIL money and the bench was not as strong as we needed. I don't think Coach should be blamed for everything that happened. This year with more NIL money and I think the team will be better. Go RU!!!
I attended a wedding that Coach Pikiell was at. He and his wife were seated behind us. As we were waiting for the ceremony to begin, I hear Coach Pikiell call out, "Hey, Jim." (not my real first name). I wondering what the heck he wanted with me, as we had never met except briefly at a few events, and I don't recall providing my name. I turn around and ask him - "Do you know me?" He looks at me puzzled, and says, "Your name is Jim?" And then his wife chimes in, and says something along the lines of "That's a good guess." The guy sitting right next to me is on staff, and we had the same name. We all had a good laugh over it, but true to the way he comes across in interviews, he is a sincere, kind, down to earth and funny guy. He is also the best basketball coach we have had at Rutgers in a long time. He revived a program that had fallen into total disrepair. Moving forward, now that the program has more NIL, the program can take another step forward.
Coincidentally, I was diagnosed with cancer 12 years, 5 months ago. Fortunately, through the wonderful team and surgeon at MSKCC, I have been cancer free with surgery only. I have elected to get screened every year, even though my margins were extremely good, and I am at a very low risk of recurrence. MSKCC is such a fantastic system and first rate medical facility. From the moment you walk in the door of any of their facilities, every single person treats each patient with kindess, compassion and they are extremely efficient. Coach Pikiell is in good hands, and I can't wait to see him back on the court coaching Rutgers to victory.
As it turns out, I’m glad Pike didn’t end up making any major staffing changes. The continuity will be helpful and allow him to bounce in and out with the team easier based on how he’s feeling.
76 teams make the field this year. Can we find a few more wins than last year to keep the team in the hunt throughout the season for Pike? Would go a long way I bet in helping keep his spirits up as he battles this thing.
76 teams make the field this year. Can we find a few more wins than last year to keep the team in the hunt throughout the season for Pike? Would go a long way I bet in helping keep his spirits up as he battles this thing.
I sincerely appreciate the respect to share that letter with us fans. The only thing that should matter is him is getting better and healing. I wish him and his family nothing but the best. Never a doubt about what a quality human he is and we need more like him around for as long as possible.
Get well soon Coach Pikiell
no one can argue that he is a great man and overall decent person. Hope he has a full and speedy recovery!
The outpouring of support from other schools and their fans has been really touching to see - very clear everyone has a high opinion of Pike the man.
I met him and his wife briefly and they couldn't have been nicer. Hoping for the best here and he's in a great part of the country for cancer treatment. My wife's treatment at Weill-Cornell has been wonderful.
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