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NEW ORLEANS—The NJIT men's basketball team will open the 2013-14 campaign with a game at first-time opponent Tulane Friday at 8 pm (CST). Matt Provence is back as voice of the Highlanders to provide live audio coverage on njithighlanders.com.

The new-look Highlanders, have four players returning from last year's squad, which finished first in the Great West Conference and finished with 16 wins, the highest total for NJIT since the program began NCAA Division I competition in 2006-07.

Likewise, Tulane, one of six NJIT opponents to win at least 20 games in 2012-13, has a revamped roster. The Green Wave, who were in the 2013 CollegeInsider.com postseason tourney and finished 20-15, have 8 freshmen, 2 sophomores, 2 juniors, and 3 seniors.

The Highlanders graduated three starters who were all-conference a year ago—Chris Flores, the GWC Player of the Year and honorable mention All-America, who is now playing professionally in Germany; Ryan Woods, the second-leading scorer after Flores and school record-setting 3-point shooter (84 made in 28 games); and, PJ Miller, a four-year starter who had a team-leading 102 assists to go with a 10.1 points per game average. Sean McCarthy also graduated after starting in 27 games at center a season ago.

A preseason knee injury to the 2013-14 team's only senior, Quentin Bastian, leaves the roster with juniors Daquan Holiday (5.4 ppg, 4.9 rebounds per game, 44 blocked shots) and Odera Nweke (4.3 ppg, 4.4 rpg, finalist for Great West Defensive Player of the Year), plus a bunch of sophomores (5) and freshmen (6).

Holiday and Nweke, each of whom has already made significant progress in college, will be counted on to continue their growth as they take on more prominent roles.

After the two juniors, even the experience of the three of the sophomores comes with a proverbial asterisk. Terrence Smith, who last season was one of NJIT's exciting freshmen in years, started the first 10 games and averaged a team-best 6.4 rebounds per game. He even had a double-double at St. John's.

However, Smith sustained an injury that kept him out from after the 10th game on December 13 all the way until March 5, when he played 5 minutes in a conference tournament game. He's back in form, but he doesn't not have full season under his belt.

Two other sophomores, guard Winfield Willis and wing player Emmanuel Tselentakis, have not played for the Highlanders until now. Both were transfers who practiced last year, but couldn't play under NCAA rules.

Willis came from Clarion (PA), where he was a star in a rugged Division II conference, scoring 446 points and averaging almost 16 ppg as a freshman. Tselentakis, born in New Jersey (grandfather, Richard Mitchell, is an NCE alum), but raised in Greece, transferred from Saint Louis University, a perennial Top 50 DI program.

The other sophs, Ky Howard and Nigel Sydnor, were contributors on last year's 16-win Highlander. Howard is the top returning scorer (7.2 ppg) and averaged 4.6 rebounds, an excellent total for a guard. Two independent websites named him Rookie of the Year in the GWC and he was on the official All-Newcomer team and a finalist for the official Newcomer of the Year and 6th-Man of the Year. Sydnor played in all 29 games, averaging 4.6 points.

The six freshmen have excellent resumes from their pre-college days. Two, guard Damon Lynn and wing player Rob Ukawuba, were tabbed by The Star-Ledger as being among the top 15 high school players in New Jersey for 2012-13. Lynn was in the Star-Ledger's Top 10 after averaging better than 24 ppg at Union Catholic HS. Ukawuba, an exceptional pure athlete, was 3rd team in the Star-Ledger's all-state team for all groups combined. He led East Brunswick to a 26-4 record his senior year.

Tim Coleman comes from St. Anthony HS in Jersey City, which won 93 of the last 95 games in his career under Hall of Fame coach Bob Hurley.

Point guard Montana Mayfield was ranked among the top 20 players in the Philadelphia area by two websites, while shooting guard Jake Duncan scored over 2,000 points in high school and twice was all-state among Virginia private schools. Vlad Shustov, a skilled 6-foot-10 native of Siberia in Russia rounds out the freshman class. Shustov graduated from Absegami HS in the Atlantic City area.