ANN ARBOR, MI—NJIT men's basketball plays a milestone game in program history when the Highlanders visit tradition-rich Michigan for a noon game on Saturday to be televised nationally by the Big 10 Network.
One of the nation's premier universities, Michigan is synonymous with excellence in athletics in a broad range of sports. Say "Wolverines" to anyone who follows college sports and the connection to Michigan is immediate.
On the basketball court, Michigan has played in 25 different NCAA Tournaments, reaching the championship game 25 times, winning the whole thing in 1989. Just last season, the Wolverines won 28 games and advanced to Elite Eight round a year after playing in the National Championship game, which they lost by 6 points.
In the final 2013-14 poll, Michigan ranked seventh in the nation and this season the Wolverines are off to a 6-1 start to rank 17th in the Associated Press national poll and 16th in the USA Today coaches poll.
Coach
John Beilein, with 707 career wins early in his 37th coaching season, is widely recognized as one of the college game's greatest coaches. However, he spent nearly two decades coaching outside of the spotlight, leading programs in upstate New York at the junior college, NCAA Division III and NCAA Division II levels before landing his first Division I job at Canisius College in Buffalo.
A program that aims to go deep into the NCAA Tournament every season, this year's edition of the Wolverines features three double-figure scorers—6-foot-6 sophomore
Zak Irvin (17.7 points per game); 6-6 junior
Caris LeVert (16.7 ppg), and 6-foot-1 sophomore
Derrick Walton, Jr (12 ppg). LeVert leads Michigan in rebounds per game (5.6)
The Highlanders, who are in a stretch that finds them playing nine out of 10 games away from home, will look for continued strong performances from leading scorer
Damon Lynn (18.6 ppg), who has combined for 51 points in the last two games, and top rebounder
Ky Howard, who is pulling down 7.3 rebounds per game and averaging 12 points per contest. Lynn and Howard are the teams assists leaders, with 25 and 21, respectively.
Winfield Willis (9.4 ppg),
Tim Coleman (6.7 ppg), and
Daquan Holiday (6.6 ppg) round out the regular starters for coach
Jim Engles. Holiday and
Odera Nweke, the team's two seniors, have been giving NJIT solid work in the post.
For NJIT, the game represents a chance to go up against an elite opponent. On this particular day, NJIT will face a ranked men's basketball opponent for the first time since the Highlanders began facing Division I competition in 2006-07.
The game will be shown live on the Big 10 Network, which is available on most cable systems nationwide, as well as on most satellite providers and fiber-optic communications networks.
Here is a link to the Big 10 Network website, which includes a channel finder and other methods of accessing show content:
http://btn.com/shows/
