NEWARK, NJ -- The NJIT men's basketball team looks for its first win of the new season when the Highlanders (0-1) take on the Bulls (0-1) of University of South Florida (0-1) on Monday at the Sun Dome in Tampa. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.

The Highlanders dropped their opener on Saturday to the No. 2 University of Kentucky Wildcats (2-0) at legendary Rupp Arena. Junior G Damon Lynn scored a team-high 19 points -- burying four three-pointers -- while junior F Tim Coleman scored 10 points with four rebounds along with a team-high four steals and one block.

Meanwhile, USF dropped its opener to the Troy Trojans, 82-77, at the Sun Dome on Friday.

This is the first ever meeting between NJIT and USF, which competes in the American Athletic Conference. The Highlanders has never faced an American Athletic Conference opponent, though they are 0-3 against current members: UCF (0-2) and Tulane (0-1).

The game can be viewed on ESPN 3 and WatchESPN, with Drew Fellios and Jerod Ward on the call.

The Highlanders broadcast, handled by Matt Provence, can be accessed for free at www.njithighlanders.com.

NJIT Men's Basketball Gameday Information
 

Game 2	NJIT (0-1; 21-12 in 2014-15) at South Florida (0-1; 9-23 in 2014-15)
Date/Time	Monday, November 16, 2015/7 pm
Location/Arena	Tampa, FL/Sun Dome (10,411)
Live Video/Audio	Highlander Sports Network (Matt Provence, free audio pbp )  ESPN3, live streaming telecast (WatchESPN app, www.watchespn.com)
Live Stats	In-game statistics (free)
Social Media	@njithighlanders
All-Time Series	First meeting
Game Notes	NJIT game notes / USF game notes

 

How to watch the game
The game is being shown live worldwide, exclusively on ESPN3.
 
ESPN3 will be the live platform for at least 23 NJIT men's basketball games, starting with this contest at USF.
 
In addition, NJIT and ESPN3 will offer live telecasts of every men's basketball non-conference home game vs. Division I opponents.
 
Later, ESPN3 will be the home of every NJIT game played in the Atlantic Sun Conference, home and away, throughout every regular season game and into the A-Sun postseason tournament. .
 
ESPN3 is ESPN's live multi-screen sports network.  It is accessible online at WatchESPN.com, on smartphones and tablets via the WatchESPN app and streamed on televisions through Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. 
 
The network is currently available to more than 99 million homes at no additional cost to fans who receive their high-speed Internet connection or video subscription from an affiliated service provider. 
 
ESPN3 is also available at no cost to approximately 21 million U.S. college students and U.S.-based military personnel via computers, smartphones and tablets connected to on-campus educational and on-base military broadband and Wi-Fi networks.This means devices connected to NJIT's on-campus computer network can link directly to ESPN3.
 
Others can access ESPN3 through WatchESPN if they receive ESPN programming from an affiliated service provider. Those users will need to provide the username and password they use in online communication with their regular service provider (can usually be found on regular billing material from the service provider).
 
Here is a link to Frequently Asked Questions about WatchESPN.   
 
Game Preview

TAMPA, FL—--NJIT continues its season-opening two-game away trip with a game Monday night at the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa.
 
The game is part of the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame Classic, a multi-team affair that will last until late December, with group play taking place at on-campus sites of participating teams. The Highlanders began play in the Classic at #2/#1 (tie) Kentucky over the weekend on Saturday night in Lexington's Rupp Arena. NJIT's home opener on Thursday at 7:30 pm vs. Boston University is part of the Classic, as is the November 27 game at UAlbany.
 
NJIT started strong and never trailed through the first 10 minutes, with Kentucky grabbing its first lead, 22-21, midway through the half. The Wildcats, who are likely to again contend for the National Championship, took a 36-28 lead over the Highlanders at halftime and pulled away after the break for an 87-57 victory.
 
Now, they'll face first time opponent USF, which plays as a member of the American Athletic Conference. Nicknamed "The American", the conference came into being a few years ago, when the old Big East Conference split. The institutions playing Bowl-level football formed the American and the others, most of which were known more for their basketball reputations, retained the Big East name.
 
USF, 9-23 overall last season, including 3-16 against teams from the American and 6-7 in non-conference games, began the new season with an 82-77 home loss to Troy last Friday night.
 
As it happens, the rebuilding Bulls have a strong tie on the bench to NJIT's previous opponent, Kentucky.
 
USF head coach Orlando Antigua, who is beginning his second season with the Bulls, was an assistant coach working under Hall of Fame Kentucky head coach John Calipari.
 
Antigua, who was a star player at St. Raymond's High School in the Bronx and then in college at Pitt, first joined Calipari's staff as an assistant at Memphis. Moving with the head coach to Kentucky, Antigua spent five years with UK, during which Kentucky reached the NCAA Final Four three times.
 
Prior to his work under Calipari, Antigua, who is known as one of college basketball's top recruiters, was an assistant at his alma mater, Pitt, working under Jamie Dixon.
 
The Bulls were picked to finish 10th out of 11 teams in the American coaches preseason poll. They return seven veteran players, who represent 74 percent of the rebounding and 89 percent of the shot blocking from USF's 2014-15 team.
 
A touted newcomer for the Bulls is 6-foot-4 sophomore guard Roddy Peters, a transfer from Maryland. Peters, ranked among the top 19 seniors and top three point guards nationally by one service when he was at Suitland High School in Maryland near Washington, DC, played in 32 games with 10 starts as a freshman at Maryland in 2013-14 before sitting out last year at USF.
 
Four starters put up big numbers for USF in its season-opening loss vs. Troy. They were:
Chris Perry  (6-8, Jr) 13 points, 17 rebounds
Angel Nunez (6-8, Sr) 18 points, 9 rebounds, 4 blocks
Jahmal McMurray (6-0, Fr) 21 points
Nehemias Morillo (6-5, Sr) 12 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists
Peters came off the bench to deliver 7 points and 4 assists
 
NJIT Outlook
The Highlanders return the top five scorers and six of the top seven scorers from last season, which was the program's best ever, with a record 21 wins that included the victory at #17/#16 Michigan and a run to the semifinals of the CollegeInsider.com national postseason tournament (CIT).
 
Playing as the only Independent program in Division I college basketball, the Highlanders defeated teams from nine different conferences, including three wins over teams that ended as conference champions.
 
NJIT team stats and leaders (stats from 2014-15):
Scoring (team 71.8 ppg; +4.3 ppg): Damon Lynn (17.5 ppg; 19 pts at Kentucky); Winfield Willis (12.2 ppg); Tim Coleman (11.5 ppg; 10 pts at Kentucky); Ky Howard (10.9 ppg; 13 pts at Kentucky)
Rebounding (team 33.6 rpg; -0.6 rpg): Howard (5.7 rpg); Coleman (5.1 rpg); Daquan Holiday (4.6 rpg-graduated); Terrence Smith, out injured in 2014-15, led NJIT rebounders at Kentucky (5)
Assists: Lynn (123); Willis led NJIT at Kentucky (3)
Blocks: Holiday (49); Coleman (42)
Steals: Lynn (58); Coleman led NJIT at Kentucky (4)
3-pt FGM: Lynn (126; 2nd in the nation); Willis (59); Lynn shot 4-for-9 on 3s at Kentucky
 
Matt Provence will provide play-by-play here on www.njjthighlanders.com. Programming is scheduled to begin at least 15 minutes before tipoff.    Link