Jay Young, who spent the past 11 seasons as an assistant at Stony Brook, including the last seven as associate head coach, has been named Assistant Men’s Basketball Coach at Rutgers University. He arrives “On the Banks” with 29 years of collegiate coaching experience.
“Jay is one of the finest people that I have had the privilege of working with in my 25 years of coaching,” said Rutgers Head Coach Steve Pikiell. “He was our recruiting and defensive coordinator. Jay was instrumental in the development of our frontcourt players. He brings a wealth of knowledge and recruiting contacts to Rutgers. We are extremely pleased that he has joined our staff.”
“I am grateful to have the opportunity to help build a winning program at Rutgers,” said Young. “Coach Pikiell does things the right way and makes people better. There is so much potential here. Coach Pikiell’s vision, the Northeast recruiting corridor and the Big Ten Conference provide for a very bright future.”
Young has achieved success throughout his career at multiple levels. He helped programs to six NCAA Tournament appearances, comprised of two each at the Division I, II and III levels, as well as a berth in the Junior College Final Four.
This past season, Young was instrumental in the Seawolves achieving a 26-7 (14-2) record that featured the America East Conference regular and post-season titles and an NCAA Tournament berth. While serving as Associate Head Coach in Long Island from 2009-16, Stony Brook posted a 156-75 mark, won four America East regular season championships and earned six postseason bids.
Young was responsible for many aspects of the Stony Brook program, including serving as defensive coordinator and frontcourt developer. His efforts on the defensive end helped the Seawolves rank among the top 20 nationally in rebound margin (17th, 7.7) and scoring defense (20th, 64.1) in 2015-16. In 2014-15, SBU was fourth in the country in rebounding (39.9) and fifth in rebound margin (+8.3). In 2013-14, Stony Brook ranked 19th in rebound margin (+5.6) after placing sixth in the nation in field goal percentage defense (37.8) in 2012-13.
Multiple Seawolves earned All-America East honors in the frontcourt under Young’s mentorship, including Jameel Warney. The New Jersey native was recognized as the league’s Player of the Year on three occasions, while being cited as Defensive Player of the Year twice, after beginning his career as the America East Rookie of the Year. Young was the primary recruiter of Warney, as well as Garden State native’s Bryan Dougher and Carson Puriefoy. The three concluded their SBU careers ranked among the top four scorers in school history.
Prior to Stony Brook, Young served five seasons as the Head Coach at New Haven, where he guided a program into the postseason that had one winning season the prior eight years. Young directed the Chargers to back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances (2002-03, 2003-04) for the first time since 1986-87 and 1987-88, while playing in one of the nation’s strongest conferences.
Young served as an assistant at Northeastern from 1996-00. It marked his second stint with the Huskies after working as a graduate assistant at NU from 1990-92. After finishing his graduate assistantship with the Huskies, Young accepted the position of head coach at Newbury College in Brookline, Mass. where he remained for four seasons before returning to Northeastern.
In his second season at Newbury, the Knights won the Southern New England Athletic Conference and finished second for the Region XXI Division III title. The following season, Newbury captured the conference and regional championships and advanced to the the National Junior College Final Four. He was named the District VI Coach of the Year in 1995 and Region XXI Coach of the Year in 1994 and 1995.
Young began his coaching career at Fitchburg State as an assistant in 1987-88. Following Fitchburg, He joined the staff at Salem State College under and worked two seasons (1988-90) under Jim Todd, a veteran NBA assistant who also served as head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers. The Vikings won consecutive MASCAC titles and made two appearances in the NCAA Division III tournament.
A 1986 graduate of Marist with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, Young lives with his wife, Janet.
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Photo Courtesy Rutgers Athletics
