 "Photo: Will Schneekloth/ Associate Photography Editor")
NEW YORK - With Fred Hill Jr. and Bobby Gonzalez now taking over New Jersey's two top basketball coaching jobs, Louisville head coach Rick Pitino's job became harder.
At yesterday's Big East Men's Basketball Media Day at Madison Square Garden, Pitino reflected on what used to be an easier recruiting task before Hill took over Rutgers and Gonzalez, Seton Hall.
"It would be very easy in the past for Louisville to come in and get players out of New Jersey," Pitino said. "But those days are over for us with Gonzo and Freddie Hill."
Villanova senior guard Mike Nardi, a former player under Hill, feels that both of the new coaches fit the area perfectly, especially in the recruiting aspect of college basketball.
"I think it fits well because both of those guys want to succeed," Nardi said. "I think those programs are going to be at the top of the Big East in a couple of years. So, it's going to be harder for teams to get players."
Though Rutgers is picked to finish 14th in the preseason Big East Poll and Seton Hall is predicted to finish 15th, both coaches leave a good impression on Pitino for different reasons.
"As basketball is the sport we coach, recruiting is a second sport to them," said Pitino, who was inducted into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame last month. They get what recruiting is all about.
"When I think of Freddie, I think of recruiting. I think everyone looks at him as of having great recruiting connections. With Gonzo I think of intensity. He gets his team ready to play."
The competition of the Big East teams in the tri-state area is also intensifying.
Now, coaches in the area not only have to worry trying to keep recruits from teams like Duke, but also tri-state area rivals.
"One of the challenges is trying to keep the players home in the state," Gonzalez said. "Home against not only the Big East schools, but also the Kentuckys, the Dukes, the North Carolinas. So, it's even harder then usual in that regard."
In seven years at Manhattan, Gonzalez led the Jaspers to two NCAA tournament berths and an impressive record of 129-77.
Gonzalez kicks off his first season at the Hall against his former team in the first round of the Preseason NIT.
"Competition is healthy, it's why we do what we do," the two-time MAC coach of the year said. "I'm looking forward to the challenge.
"It is going to be heated and it's going to be intense. It already is. Freddie's going to do a good job at Rutgers, Norm's doing a good job at St. John's, look at Jay Wright. It's going to be competitive."
It's not only Hill's recruiting reputation that Villanova head coach Jay Wright saw when Hill was an assistant under him from 2001-03.
Wright notes Hill's ability to manage an offense in addition to always hitting the recruiting trail.
"On the floor for us, Freddie was really a mastermind offensively," Wright said. "Recruiting, I think he's probably the most organized and analytical recruiter I've ever seen. He knows everything, I think he's one of the best in the business."
Since Hill has taken over the reigns of head coach at RU, he's tried to accomplish even more than just recruiting.
In fact, yesterday he told a story about a time this fall, where he single-handedly tried to get the word out about Rutgers basketball.
Hill was walking down the Jersey Shore at Lavalette Boardwalk when he noticed Notre Dame, Syracuse and Florida shirts, but no Rutgers shirts.
"I told one of my guys, "Go get a hundred T-shirts." When I go walking in the morning, as I walk people and I say hello, I flip them a T-shirt," Hill said. "They don't know who I am, they probably think I'm this crazy guy walking up and down the Lavalette boardwalk."
But Hill is beginning to see those shirts around campus with the help of football, and says he thinks people will start to jump on the Rutgers bandwagon.
Just another way to heighten the in-state rivalry with Seton Hall.
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