From a personal standpoint Pikiell absolutely had a much better year. He is in the top 4 of the hottest coaches in the country! Boals did fine, but SBU had its worst season in six years. As far as expectations - that was a coaches vote and the new guy always gets the shaft. That vote is all politics.
The new guy may get slighted in that kind of poll, but do you think it could also be because, you know, we lost our top four scorers and a three-time conference player of the year? I realize Pikiell took over a brutal program but he won nine conference games in his first three years
combined and then, to his credit, the program vaulted into a stratosphere we didn't know existed. He left when he knew it wasn't going to get any better. Boals and Co. did much better than "fine." Who saw 12-4 coming? I thought maybe 4-12! Hammer predicted eight wins for the year! A much better year? No.
The hottest coach thing just isn't true. Rutgers had a very good year by their standards and checked off a lot of firsts, but few are talking about Rutgers outside of the northeast.