QUEENS, NY—The 2014-15 season tips off Friday night for NJIT men's basketball when the Highlanders challenge St. John's at 7 pm in Carnesecca Arena on the St. John's campus.
 
The game, which will be televised live on the YES Network, is the season opener for both teams. NJIT is coming off a 2103-14 season that saw it post a 13-16 final won-lost record. The Red Storn, meanwhile, were 20-13 a season ago, including a 14-5 record in home games.
 
A program that has qualified for the NCAA Division I postseason tournament 28 times, St. John's achieved its 30th bid into the National Invitation Tournament following last season. Having begun intercollegiate basketball in 1907-08, St. John's has registered 1,774 wins all-time, making it the standard-setting basketball team in the region historically.
 
St. John's was picked third in the BIG EAST preseason poll.
 
Coach Steve Lavin is entering his fifth season attempting to restore St. John's to the national prominence it held for decades under the great long-time coach Lou Carnesecca. Lavin is 60-41 in four seasons at the Red Storm helm.
 
Senior D'Angelo Harrison is a big player to watch for the Red Storm. An All-Big East Conference first-team choice last season and winner of the Haggerty Award as the Metropolitan area's top player, he enters the year with 1,601 career points and a program-record 198 career 3-pointers.
 
Harrison led all scorers with 21 points when St. John's hosted NJIT on December 1, 2012. He is one of four key seniors on the St. John's roster.
 
A junior who made a big impression on NJIT two seasons ago when the teams last played, is 6-foot-9 center Chris Obepka. The school record-holder for blocked shots in a career (227), season (133), and game (11), he had led the BIG EAST in each of his first two seasons and led the nation as a freshman with 4.03 rejections a game. That year, in a 57-49 win over the Highlanders, he blocked 5 shots, leading his team, which swatted a total of 12 Highlander tries.
 
NJIT returns every player but two from last year's 13-16 club that had no seniors and only two juniors on the active roster.
 
Guard Damon Lynn, who averaged a program Division I-record 17.2 points per game is back following a record-setting freshman season in 2013-14. Lynn made a school-record 107 3-pointers, ranking fourth in the nation in 3-pointers per game. On top of that, his 107 threes made were the fourth-highest total by a Division I freshman nationwide in the 28 seasons the 3-point shot has existed.
 
Joining all the returnees are Vlad Shustov, a skillful 6-foot-10 center who redshirted a season ago. Shustov, who was born in Russia and learned the game there, attended high school in New Jersey before becoming a Highlander.
 
Also new to the roster is strong wing player Osa Isevbuwa, who spent last season at Williston State in North Dakota, where he averaged 8.7 points. Before that, he was a high school star on Staten Island, piling up 1,653 points, the second-highest total ever for a Staten Island public high school player. He averaged 25.5 points as a senior.
 
 
 
Other outlets for the game, aside from the YES Network, are: MASN2, FOX Sports Midwest, FOX Sports Wisconsin, Prime Ticket and SportSouth. The game is produced by FOX Sports Networks.
 
This season, www.njithighlanders.com will have live audio streaming of every men's basketball game, with Matt Provence, voice of the Highlanders, on the call.