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ROSEMONT, Ill. – Steve Pikiell had been the men’s basketball coach at Stony Brook for four years when Dr. Samuel Stanley Jr. took over as president in 2009.That season, the Seawolves made the National Invitation Tournament for the first time in program history. Seven years and six 20-win seasons later, they made their NCAA tournament debut.And it began a record growth – both in other sports and with new facilities – for a university that was created in 1957 and an athletic program that had been in Division I for 25 years.Pikiell, now the basketball coach at Rutgers, called Michigan State’s hiring of his old boss “a home run.” And for more than sports.“We had a lot of firsts when he was there in athletics, and he was very supportive,” Pikiell said Wednesday at Big Ten media day. “But he did a great job for the whole university and the campus. He built new buildings. A visionary. Really a great guy, very smart and a great family guy. Just all the characteristics you want in a president.”Hundreds of millions of dollars in donations poured in to Stony Brook – a 26,000-student university on Long Island in New York – for everything from new dorms to a computer science building to a $194 million cancer center that opened in January.Pikiell called Stanley, who began at MSU on Aug. 1, an intelligent family man who “loves sports, loves student-athletes.”“He would come to all the games – basketball, football, lacrosse, tennis, baseball. I mean, he’s a home run,” Pikiell said. “He’s a sports guy, likes all sports. … He’s a really good hire and he’s gonna help make the Big Ten even better.”
And just like that in three years he's out.....https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2022/10/13/michigan-state-university-president-samuel-stanley-resigns-loss-of-confidence-board-of-trustees/69560712007/ https://www.cbsnews.com/detroit/video/michigan-state-university-president-samuel-stanley-announces-resignation/#x Not exactly sure what was happening behind the scenes that could have drove him our or what have you, but MSU was always going to be a tough job with everything he was walking into from the get go.
Another athletics related embarrassment for Michigan State this past saturday. Geez.