Steve Pikiell, who took over a four-win Stony Brook team and led it into the NCAA Tournament for the first time this season, has been hired as the new Rutgers head basketball coach, a source told NJ Advance Media.

Pikiell will replace Eddie Jordan, the former Rutgers star whose three-year run as head coach ended when the Scarlet Knights won just seven games last season. The Scarlet Knights, who have won just three games in the Big Ten since joining the league, are in bad need of new leadership.

Pikiell had a 190-155 record in 11 seasons at Stony Brook, including a 24-6 mark this season when the Seawolves lost to Kentucky in the first round of the tournament. But his roots are not limited to the America East program that has won at least 22 games in five of the last six seasons.

As a player, Pikiell was a two-year captain for Connecticut from 1987-91. The Huskies won their first Big East title and advanced to the Elite Eight and Sweet 16 during the two years that Pikiell, a point guard, was captain.

He also worked under Hall of Fame coach Jim Calhoun, who was a presence in the stands at his Stony Brook games this March, for two seasons. Calhoun, in an interview with Newsday this week, said that Pikiell "checked all the boxes" as a head coach and had turned down other opportunities.

"He might still be [at Stony Brook] because he loves it there," Calhoun said. "Clearly, he's had a few opportunities before. He's called me about them, but now I would think there will be more opportunities. As a coach and a person, he checks all the boxes."

Pikiell, 48, also coached at Yale, Wesleyan, Central Connecticut and George Washington before taking over at Stony Brook in 2005. The Seawolves had just one winning record in the prior 12 seasons before he took over, but within five years, had won 22 games and reached the NIT.

Then came a string of losses that Kentucky coach John Calipari called "buzzard luck" when the Seawolves had to win just one game to qualify for the NCAA Tournament but lost in heartbreaking fashion. Finally, this month, the team stormed back to beat Vermont and earn its first trip to the Big Dance.

Pikiell is athletic director Patrick Hobbs' second major hire in just four months on the job, and comes after nine-day search that saw several top candidates -- including Rhode Island's Dan Hurley and George Washington's Mike Lonergan -- withdraw their names from consideration.

The question with Pikiell will be a familiar one at Rutgers: Will he be able to recruit the high-level talent that is necessary to win in Piscataway where the program lags behind its rivals in facilities and tradition?

Clearly, he'll be a popular choice in some circles. A headline in the Hartford Courant this week read "There's A Reason Everybody In Connecticut Cheers For Steve Pikiell," tracing his roots from Bristol through the UConn program and to the Long Island college he helped put on the map.

"I was ecstatic for Steve," UConn assistant coach Glen Miller told columnist Jeff Jacobs. "He has done such a great job, but it's so difficult in a one-bid league. All that pressure is on your shoulders. He finally got his team there. It's just awesome."

Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevePoliti. Find NJ.com on Facebook.