PISCATAWAY -- For the last year, Rutgers men's basketball coach Steve Pikiell used the same line on recruits interested in seeing the weight room that athletics director Pat Hobbs used on him during the hiring process.

"I'll show it to you next week," Pikiell said.

It was Rutgers' way of hiding an outdated eyesore that might make a negative impression.

Those days are over now.

Rutgers unveiled during an invitation-only ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday night the new Harriett and Bob Druskin Strength & Conditioning Center -- "worth a million wins," according to Pikiell -- at the Rutgers Athletics Center.

"This is a Big Ten facility," Pikiell said during a tour behind closed doors. "Now we can bring recruits right down here. Before we would walk by it."

Bob Druskin, a 1969 Rutgers graduate, and his wife Harriett, a member of the university's Board of Overseers, have been basketball and football season ticketholders for about a decade and significant donors to the Rutgers University Foundation with an endowed scholarship.

They made their pledge to athletics as a show of faith in the department's leadership and after seeing others like the Towers family, Garutti family, and Brown and Plofker families invest in similar large-scale projects.

"No one wants to invest in something they don't believe in," Bob told NJ Advance Media. "My wife and I talked about it and said, 'This is the right time.' Everyone is seeing each other and saying the same thing: It's a good time to get involved. This just felt really good to us."

While the amount of the Druskins' gift is private, funding a comparable strength and conditioning center at the soon-to-be-built multi-sport training complex is a $2 million project, according to the RFund materials.

The RAC strength and conditioning center -- different from the Hale Center strength and conditioning center -- will be used by the men's and women's basketball, baseball and softball, field hockey, swimming and diving, and the men's and women's track/cross country teams.

"These investments are what's going to bring us to another level of competitiveness," Hobbs said.

Among the new equipment is eight weight weight racks, five pull-downs/rowing machines and a state-of-the-art reverse hyper-extension machine.

"I particularly love the RAC," Bob said. "It's close, it's noisy, it's intense. The strength and conditioning part of it really appealed to us. If you are not in shape, you can't compete.

"All else being equal, the person who is the fittest wins. The old room was in serious need of upgrade, and if Rutgers is going to attract the kind of athletes it needs to be successful in the Big Ten it has to have the right facilities."

Athletes have been using the facility -- located on concourse level of the RAC -- for about a week, but it was the first time that Hall of Fame women's basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer and the Druskins saw the finished product.

"Wow, wow, wow," Stringer said aloud to no one in particular. "This blows my mind."

Pikiell joked that the results already are noticeable.

"Now, when our guys go to the beach and they take their shirts off, no one laughs," Pikiell said to laughter from the crowd of about 75. "That's a big thing for us. We're getting bigger and better."

Men's track and field redshirt senior star Kyle Holder expressed the appreciation of the athlets.

"I'll get my master's degree next week in public policy and that's super exciting, but not as exciting as the new weight room, honestly," Holder said. "You walk in there and you feel a lot of hope, you feel a lot of excitement."

Ryan Dunleavy may be reached at rdunleavy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @rydunleavy. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.