Rutgers men's basketball coach Steve Pikiell

The Rutgers men's basketball team is finding success and winning. When have you heard that lately?

It has been 11 years since the 2005-06 season when the Scarlet Knights last posted a winning season (19-14, losing in the First Round of the NIT under Gary Waters). Right now, Rutgers and head coach Steve Pikiell are off to a 9-1 start, the best start in the program's first 10 games since the undefeated regular season of the 1975-76 squad that went onto the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament.

Rutgers has dominated all but one game in the rebounding categories. They are second in the Big Ten grabbing 44.1 rebounds per came, third with a plus-12 rebounding margin, first with 15.6 offensive board per contest, and forward Deshawn Freeman is third with 8.8 rebounds per came, and has five double-doubles so far. As a team, the Scarlet Knights are also block 5.7 shots per came and lead the conference in scoring defense giving up 60.9 points per game.

This past Saturday, Rutgers traveled to Pikiell's old stomping grounds, Stony Brook, and gutted out a 71-66 victory in a raucous environment. Rutgers used a 15-0 run in the second half to take the lead and iced the game with 10 straight free throws in the game's final six minutes to preserve the win.

But even with the team having fun and having gaudy statistics right now, a key matchup with in-state rival Seton Hall is on tap soon as well as Big Ten Conference play. It is why Pikiell knows that his team hasn't won much in a long time and hasn't been to the NCAA Tournament since 1990, needs to get better in all areas, and be prepared.

"We have a long way to go," following the road win over the Seawolves. "I just need to keep these guys level headed. We have a lot of improvements to make. We have to put in some new defenses. It's good to go on the road. The program hasn't won a lot of road games over the past few years. I told them this would be as tough of an environment that we play in. It's good to get a little success on the road. We beat DePaul on the road, that was our first road win in almost two and a half years. It's been a long drought, so to get another one was a big thing."

In the Big Ten Men's Hoops Coaches Teleconference on Monday, Rutgers247 asked Pikiell about those improvements and how he plans to keep his guys humbled and focused.

It starts in practice.

"We are a work in progress. Practice is really important to me," Pikiell said. "I'm trying to get it to be really important to our guys and the program. You know, things you do everyday are things you do in games. We really have to improve a lot on the defensive end, be where we have to be, our rotations, blocking out on a daily basis. They haven't been good at all and we got to add some defenses too. We gotta perfect what we're trying to do.

"And on the offensive end, obviously we have to shoot the ball better and I really want to get the guys at the right spots at the right time. I'm a detail guy. This team really needs some time off and time on the practice floor but we have game after game after game coming up here.

"But, they're working, they really are. They're a whole group of new players together for the first time so we'll have a little patience with them. I want to give them a little confidence, but I certainly know what is ahead in the Big Ten and the teams we are going to playing which are obviously terrific so we have to improve."

Rutgers is last in three-point field goal percentage at 28 percent.

After the win last week over Central Connecticut State University at the Rutgers Athletic Center where the Scarlet Knights had 24 assists on 35 made field goals, star guard Corey Sanders, who had three assists, discussed the importance of trust in his teammates and finding good looks on the court, and using passing as a vital element to get wins especially in the rigorous battles of Big Ten play.

He is aware that while they are beating up on lesser teams right now (ranked 349th out of 351 teams in the D-1 in terms of strength of schedule by the KenPom rankings), the Big Ten is no joke and will be tough.

"That's good. It shows we have great team chemistry and we trust each other," the sophomore said. "That's something that we need to keep doing. It is going to get rough in conference games. This is just something we're going to have to keep doing."

Rutgers hosts Fairleigh Dickinson on Wednesday night at the RAC at 7 p.m., then goes to Madison Square Garden on Sunday to play Fordham, and finally travels to Newark to take on in-state rival Seton Hall to round out non-conference play.

"We got a long way to go, but I think we're headed in the right direction," Pikiell said.