MSU president designee Samuel L. Stanley Jr. speaks inside the MSU Union ballroom May 30, 2019.
—ROSEMONT, Ill. — When Samuel L. Stanley was named president at Michigan State University, Steve Pikiell, the Rutgers men's basketball coach, made sure to send him a congratulatory text.
"I sent him, 'The Big Ten got better when you add a President of this caliber,' so I'm excited," Pikiell said during Wednesday's Big Ten Basketball Media Day. "Michigan State people should be very excited."
Pikiell and Stanley's relationship goes back a decade to a relatively small school in New York. In May of 2009, Stanley was named the fifth president in Stony Brook University's history.
At that same time, Pikiell had just finished up his fourth season as the Seawolves' head coach.
The two grew a strong partnership through 2016, when Pikiell was hired at Rutgers. But all these years later, he couldn't be more happy for Stanley and expects nothing but success during his tenure at Michigan State.
“Sam Stanley is brilliant, first of all. He’s very intelligent, he's a great president," he said. "He ran Stony Brook. (He ran) a big university ... with a major hospital on campus. A lot of obstacles he faced when he took the job, the budgets were bad. He grew that university a lot of ways. ... He’ll do a really good job. He’s a really good guy.”
Stanley took over the presidential role at MSU following the resignations of former President Lou Anna K. Simon and former interim President John Engler.
Former interim President Satish Udpa held the position until Stanley took over.
“First of all, he’s a very smart guy," Pikiell said. "He’ll surround himself with great people. He encountered a lot of obstacles at Stony Brook, too. ... He’s really an intelligent guy.
"He’ll do a great job. Whatever obstacles are there, he’s experienced, he’s smart and he’ll do a great job.”
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