Now, more than three months removed from the victory over then No. 17 Michigan that thrust NJIT into the national consciousness, head coach Jim Engles and the Highlanders are working towards a different goal.
After beating NAIA school Fisher (MA) 96-70 on Saturday, the Highlanders are now 15-10 overall and 13-10 against Division I competition. With two more Division I (Albany, at Howard) and two non-Division I games remaining, NJIT looks to be in line for a potential postseason berth, perhaps in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.
“I’m hoping,” Engles said about playing more basketball after their regular season finale at Howard on March 4. “I think it’s a possibility. It’s something we’ve focused on, not being in a conference tournament it’s motivation for me and our guys to finish out the season strong.”
The CIT is the best available option for the Highlanders’ first ever postseason appearance. The tournament caters to mid-majors and has welcomed competitive Division I teams of all types in the past.
While CollegeInsider.com‘s Angelo Lento isn’t on the selection committee for the CIT, she had this to say about a potential bid for for the Highlanders. “NJIT has guaranteed themselves of a winning record, which makes them eligible for the CIT. Wins over Michigan and Yale highlight a fantastic season to date. … While I am not directly involved in the CIT selection process, I do know that four letters have been talked about a lot in the past few weeks — NJIT.”
Just a few seasons ago, the Highlanders fell one game short of earning an automatic bid to the CIT in March of 2012, losing to North Dakota in the Great West finals. This team though has more talent than last NJIT iteration with postseason aspirations, or the 2013 team that finished 16-13 overall. If NJIT were in any number of mid-major conferences, Engles would be preparing for the end of conference play and then a conference tournament. One which NJIT – which is ranked 176th in KenPom – might be a favorite to earn an automatic bid the NCAA tournament. The Highlanders will play Albany on Friday and while the Great Danes are a perfect 9-0 in America East play, NJIT is a 2-point favorite at home according to Pomeroy’s projections. NJIT is ranked higher in KenPom than all but a few of America East (3), MEAC (2) and NEC (1) schools.
But the current realities of college basketball mean that instead of prepping for one of those tournaments, NJIT is enjoying a six-game home stand and has won 10 of its last 11 games overall.
The Highlanders have persevered through the normal things college teams do, such as injuries, even if they went about it a slightly different way. Engles has had to work around losing star point guard Ky Howard, who was averaging 11.8 ppg and 4.1 apg before he went down against Yale with a stress fracture.
“When he got hurt I was very concerned because he’s been such a big contributor,” Engles said about losing Howard. “The positive thing that happened is that we started this season playing an 11-man rotation so it wasn’t like players hadn’t played.”
The team has kept going thanks to that depth. At the beginning of the season Engles played as many as 11 different players in his rotation. Now the Highlanders only have nine healthy bodies, but every single player can contribute.
“With nine guys you’re going to play,” Engles said. “You’re not worried about coach yanking you because there is nowhere else to go.”
The pressure being off has allowed some players to blossom. During the winning streak sophomore guard Rob Ukawuba has stepped up, scoring in double figures in five of the seven games since Howard went down with his injury after scoring no more than eight points in any game beforehand. It was Ukawuba playing Robin to standout sophomore Damon Lynn’s Batman on Saturday as the two combined for 50 points in the victory.
Still, it’d all be so much easier if NJIT could find a conference home and compete for a tournament title. Right now things are quiet on that front, but last week the board of trustees did approve a new $100 million multipurpose arena that will put NJIT’s facilities on par or better than most of its presumed future competitors. The school certainly hopes that the arena, coupled with the introduction of lacrosse and a competitive basketball team will lead to a conference affiliation.
For now though a berth in the CIT would be great. Engles doesn’t think playing basketball past the first week in March is necessary to put NJIT on the map or help the team’s recognition. They’ve already done that by putting a competitive program on the court and beating Michigan, Duquesne, St. Francis Brooklyn and Yale among others. Rather it would just be the perfect ending for the season of hard work by a young team — there are just two seniors on NJIT’s roster.
“The validation comes from everything we’ve gone through over the past seven years,” Engles said about whether a postseason berth would change the perception of NJIT basketball. “It would just complete the story of the year. It would be the cherry on top of a great season.”
NYC Buckets Archive 
I like the direction of the NJIT program and the job Engles is doing over there. However, despite having a number of notable wins early on, don’t think that NJIT has enough Div I wins to merit consideration for post-season play. That’s unfortunate, but a fact of life. There are probably just as many programs with similar records to NJIT where those W-L records has been compiled against an all Division I opponent schedule. You can massage as many numbers as you like to justify a case for NJIT. The fact remains that NJIT has to get into a conference to improve the quality of its scheduling and remove all the what-ifs. The most logical choices for the Highlanders are the MAAC or the NEC. The MAAC has natural NJ rivals St. Peter’s, Monmouth and Rider. The NEC has FDU and Wagner possibly playing those close-by rival roles. And that doesn’t count all the other nearby MAAC or NEC opponents that would certainly help to control the travel dollar for the NJIT program. Don’t think that it makes as much sense for the NEC to take in an 11th member, as it does for the MAAC to take in a 12th. Certainly, the Highlander program’s improved credibility should make them a more attractive league addition.
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I (obviously) entirely disagree. If you just look at NJIT’s current RPI – 174 – and the RPI of participants in last season’s CIT, which you can see here: http://www.bracketmatrix.com/nit.html, it’s pretty obvious that the Highlanders will merit inclusion, non-DI games on the schedule or not.
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Even though NJIT had a couple of undeniably nice victories this season, they’re now 15-10. Even if they run the table and take their next four, they’ll only be 19-10 and it appears that four of those wins will be non-Division I victories. If you considering only RPI, yes, then they’ll be considered, but generally 15 wins probably won’t be able to get you to post-season play unless you’re from one of the more high profile conferences. However, since the CIT opened up March play for a lot of schools, there’ s always a shot for NJIT. College basketball history is littered with programs that probably should have been considered for post-season play and were left on the outside looking for one reason or another. It’ a shame that NJIT isn’t in a league that would help cure that scheduling issue. Their situation is tough at this point.
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Hope that eventually NJIT joins the NEC. They look like a solid up-and-coming program and would be a great addition to the NYC-centric league.
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NJIT has had an awful schedule, they were rarely at home for most of the season. A 14-11 Div I record is very good considering most of those games were on the road.
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Maybe Wagner College will get the message and build a 21st Century arena for basketball like NJIT is planning. Even the renovated gym is a glorified high school gym with no chair back seating. Look at Monmouth and Quninipiac. They both built modern basketball facilities and joined the MAAC which is a more prestigious conference in basketball.
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