Over the past few weeks, Stony Brook associate head coach Jay Young’s name has surfaced as a candidate for the head coaching opening at Marist.

Head coach Steve Pikiell confirmed Young’s interest and said having assistants being considered for jobs says a lot about the turnaround over the last eight seasons that has taken place at Stony Brook.

“You can’t effect the rumor mill, what is said and what is not said, but it means our program has come a long way,” Pikiell said. “When I first got here, Jay Young is involved in the Marist job, and when I first took the job I don’t know if I could’ve got involved with the Marist job.”

“It’s nice to have your assistants who do a great job being mentioned for different jobs. It’s a credit to how hard they’ve worked and the program that we’ve built and I like that.”

When asked if he had been contacted by Marist about Young, Pikiell said he has talked to people at the school on behalf of his top assistant coach. Young graduated Marist in 1986 with a degree in Political Science before beginning his coaching career at Fitchburg State.

“I think the job he’s done here, he has done a good job and we’ve done it over a bunch of years here so this hasn’t just been a one-year deal,” Pikiell said. “This has been consistently building a program that develops players and kids graduate. I think when you do those things other people take notice and it’s great when your assistants get noticed.”

Pikiell is 120-126 in eight seasons at Stony Brook and 84-45 over the last four seasons. When asked what he says when people at other programs notice the work he’s done he said he says thanks, but no thanks.

“I got great situation really here and I’m very fortunate. I work for a great president and I work for a great athletic director,” Pikiell said. “My first year here, when we were on probation and we were struggling as a program, we won four games. I got a contract extension so it’s been a great place for me and we’ve got more work to do here with what I’m trying to build.”

“It’s great when people mention your name and it’s great when people reach out to you and that kind of thing, but I’m I’m  in a great situation. I’m very proud that I’m the head coach here at Stony Brook and I love the team we’ve built and I look forward to continuing to build this and make this like a really, really good program for a long time so I’m very happy.”

Ryan Restivo covers Stony Brook, Hofstra and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference for Big Apple Buckets. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ryanarestivo.