Rutgers head men’s basketball coach Steve Pikiell was on the radio midway through last week, a one-time appearance to preview the 2018-19 season. He went through every scholarship player on the roster, speaking on each of their skills, deficiencies and how they can help the Scarlet Knights this year.

Towards the end of the program, Pikiell recalled one player who slipped his mind.

“There’s one other player I didn’t mention. I wanted to make sure I did — Jacob Young,” he said.

It’s symbolic of Young’s role this season with Rutgers. A transfer from Texas, the junior guard will sit out this year due to NCAA transfer rules, leaving him in the backdrop of Pikiell’s third season on the Banks.

But just because he won’t get on the court during gameday does not mean Young takes any days off over the next 365 days.

“The way I see it, you just got to stay positive,” Young said of his redshirt year. “I talked to people who’ve done a redshirt season. I talked to my brother (Joe Young), he did a redshirt season. My teammate Peter Kiss, he did a redshirt season . He basically said you got to stick with it and think of it as a year of getting better and not a year of punishment. That’s the way I’m approaching it. I’m going to get better as a player and get to know my teammates more. So next year it’ll click quick.”

A score-first guard, Young averaged 4.9 points, 1.3 rebounds, 0.8 assists and 17 minutes per game in 63 appearances for his former school. While he won’t be able to put those stats in the books this year, he’ll provide help to his new team in a different way.

Young does so by bringing his attitude and skill to practice every day, where he provides a quality sparring partner for starting point guard Geo Baker. Whenever the Scarlet Knights prepare to face a speedy guard on the other side — which, looking at their schedule, will happen plenty — Young is the perfect guy to run the scout team.

“It’s going to be real tough for him,” Pikiell said of Young’s redshirt year. “He loves basketball. He’s done an unbelievable job. He’s another guy, we’ve got great kids and they’re all-in and he’s one of them. ... Even though he’s not playing this year, he’s a big part of our team. He’s challenging our guys every day. Very important we’ve got a big-time guard guarding Geo every day. This kid had to guard some of the best players at Texas, so really good for our game prep.”

Like he did with all his other players, Pikiell said he “loved” Young. That is the precise reason why Young left his home state of Texas — he was born and raised in Houston, where his father starred alongside Hakeem Olajuwon in the ‘Phi Slama Jama’ teams at the local university in the early 1980’s — to come to New Jersey.

While planning which schools he wanted to check out after deciding to transfer from Texas, Young’s father received a call from Rutgers’ assistant coach Karl Hobbs indicating interest from the Scarlet Knights. He took his first official visit to Piscataway and it sealed the deal.

“You love who loves you and coach Pikiell, they showed that on my visit,” he said. “It didn’t take me 48 hours to make my mind up where I wanted to go because I know what’s real and what’s just for show. When I got here, from there on to when I left, it was all love and it seemed real. You can just feel the vibe, just great vibes. I said ‘let me not even go on these other visits, let me just call coach Pike and get this done.’ I cancelled all other visits.”

With that decision, Young is now in New Jersey — where he is still adjusting to the autumn cold — and working at the Rutgers Athletic Center on a daily basis. He’s developing chemistry with his future back-court mates, refining his skills and learning Pikiell’s style of play on both sides of the court. That, of course, is a philosophy which starts and ends on the defense with an emphasis on collecting rebounds on both boards. And while his mind is usually focused on scoring, Young is not scared to get his hands dirty on defense.

“It really wasn’t an adjustment. That’s really what I am, a tough, gritty guy,” Young said of his fit in Pikiell’s system. “Whatever coach wants, I give it to him. He wants me to get defensive rebounds, I’ll do it. If he wants me to dive on the floor every play, I’ll do it. It’s whatever it takes for the team to be successful and us as a program to be successful, I’ll do it.”

All of those steps are taken with a purpose in mind. For the next year or so, Young is in the background, at the end of the bench cheering his teammates anxiously awaiting his debut under the lights at the RAC, where he can emerge from the shadow of a redshirt season and shine as a member of the Scarlet Knights.

“I feel like nobody (in the Rutgers fanbase) really knows me yet,” Young said. “I’m waiting to be out there and … hopefully show everybody what they haven’t seen yet.”