As it turned out, Steve Pikiell didn’t need to go outside the Rutgers men’s basketball program to fill out his coaching staff after all.

Nearly two months after Jay Young left to take the Fairfield head-coaching job, Pikiell replaced him by promoting Steve Hayn to an assistant-coaching position, a person familiar with the decision told NJ Advance Media on Friday.

A Long Island, N.Y., native, Hayn has spent the past three seasons as a senior advisor to Pikiell, but in his new role will be allowed to be more hands-on with the players in coaching practice and can go out on the road to recruit. He had spent the past two months filling Young’s assistant spot on an interim basis.

Hayn boasts more than 25 years of collegiate experience, including 17 seasons as a head coach. Before landing at Rutgers, he was the head coach at the United States Merchant Marine Academy for two seasons from 2014-16.

As a senior advisor, Hayn was involved in alumni-relations development, community outreach, and life-skills development. Pikiell and Hayn have a long history of working together, spending time as assistants at Central Connecticut State in the late 1990s.

A 1991 graduate of Stony Brook, Hayn also served as a collegiate head coach at Dowling College, Stevens Institute of Technology, SUNY-Fredonia and his high school alma mater in Port Jefferson, N.Y.

He joins a Rutgers staff that includes associate head coach Karl Hobbs and assistant coach Brandin Knight.

Rutgers will return 90 percent of its scoring and 84 percent of its rebounding from a team that finished 14-17 overall and avoided the basement of the Big Ten standings for the first time with a 7-13 conference record.

Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KSargeantNJ. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.