Former Pitt assistant Knight accepts job at Rutgers

Former assistant men’s basketball coach Brandin Knight has accepted a position as an assistant coach at Rutgers University.

An assistant coach under Jamie Dixon for eight seasons at Pitt and Dixon’s top assistant this past season, Knight previously declined new head coach Kevin Stallings’s offer to stay at Pitt as an assistant, announcing he would not return to Pitt on Twitter March 31.

In a press release Monday, Rutgers head coach Steve Pikiell expressed his excitement in bringing Knight on as an assistant.

“He is one of the premier young coaches in the country,” Pikiell said. “Brandin [Knight] has developed an excellent reputation as a high-level recruiter and a tremendous teacher of the game. He brings a passion and expertise in developing players that will be infectious to our program.”

A native of East Orange, New Jersey, Knight said in the press release that the idea of coaching close to home attracted him to the job.

“The opportunity to join a Big Ten staff in my home state under the leadership of Coach Pikiell is very exciting,” Knight said. “I can’t wait to help bring winning back to Rutgers.”

In 2003, as a star point guard at Pitt under Ben Howland, Knight led the Panthers to a Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament title as well as two Big East Conference regular season titles and two trips to the Sweet 16 in 2002 and 2003.

Knight spent the past 10 seasons as a member of the Panthers’ staff after a brief professional career. He served as Pitt’s program assistant and video coordinator in 2006-2007 and its director of basketball operations in 2007-2008, before earning a promotion to assistant coach in 2008-2009.