NJIT Men's Basketball Gameday Center
 

Game 20	Jacksonville (10-10; 2-1 A-Sun) at NJIT (10-9; 1-2 A-Sun)
Date/Time	Thursday, January 21, 2016/ 7 pm
Location/Venue	Newark, NJ/ Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center (1,500)
Live Coverage	ESPN3 streaming telecast (WatchESPN app; www.watchespn.com)  Matt Harmon (play-by-play); Dave Calloway (analyst)
Live Stats	In-game statistics (free)
Buy Tickets Onlne	NJITTIX.com
Social Media	@njithighlanders
All-Time Series	First meeting
Game Notes	NJIT notes / Jacksonville notes

 
The game will be shown live on ESPN3 (all remaining NJIT basketball games--home and away--will be live on ESPN3)
  
A simple way to find ESPN3 is on NJIT's official athletics website, www.njithighlanders.com. Near the middle of the home page NJIT TV section, click Upcoming Events for a list of scheduled NJIT contests. After finding the event, click the camera icon to the right of the event listing. That brings you to an ESPN3 portal where you can access the desired program.
 
For more details on how to watch NJIT on ESPN3, go to the section at the bottom of this page.
 
Matt Harmon, multiple New Jersey Sportscaster of the Year award winner, is on play-by-play, with former Monmouth head coach and star player Dave Calloway on board for expert commentary.
 
Atlantic Sun Conference Game: Jacksonville at NJIT (Thursday, 7 pm)
Fresh off the first-ever Atlantic Sun Conference road trip, which included the first-ever A-Sun win for the Highlanders in their most recent game (71-59 at Stetson over the weekend), NJIT comes back home looking to even its conference record at 2-2, while gaining its first conference home win (NJIT lost to USC Upstate at home, 80-78, on January 9).
 
The Highlanders will entertain first-time opponent Jacksonville to start a three-game conference home stand. North Florida, also based in Jacksonville and the defending Atlantic Sun champion, is slated to come in on Saturday afternoon (4 pm), and Lipscomb will come to Newark on January 27.
 
College basketball fans of a certain age may recall the 1969-70 Jacksonville team that went all the way to the 1970 National Championship Game, where it lost to UCLA (the third in a string of seven straight NCAA titles for UCLA).
 
JU became the smallest school (in enrollment) ever to play for the national championship. Those Dolphins, who finished 27-2, averaged better than 100 points per game in an era that predated the shot clock and the 3-point shot.
 
The star player was 7-foot-2 center Artis Gilmore, who played 17 seasons in the old ABA and NBA and was an 11-time all-star. Gilmore, whose career 22.7 rebounds per game is an NCAA record, was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011. He remains active in the Jacksonville community and provides color commentary on radio broadcasts of JU basketball.
 
A LOOK at JACKSONVILLE (10-10; 2-1 A-Sun)
Picked to finish fifth out of eight teams in the A-Sun coaches' preseason poll, Jacksonville is off to a solid start in conference play. The Dolphins opened league play with a loss to crosstown rival North Florida, but have since beaten Kennesaw State (83-70) and Lipscomb (76-73), both at home. JU has won two in a row and five of its last seven.
 
The head coach of the Dolphins is Tony Jasick, who is in his second season. Prior to Jacksonville, he headed the program at IPFW, where he was 2014 Mid-Major Coach of the Year.
 
Senior guard Kori Babineaux was the Atlantic Sun Newcomer of the Year in 2014-15 after playing two seasons of junior college ball in his native California. He was a unanimous pick by the A-Sun coaches for the preseason all-conference team.
 
Jacksonville team stats and leaders:
Scoring (team 75.2 ppg; +1.3 ppg): Kori Babineaux (6-4, Sr; 18.6 ppg); Marcel White (6-6, Jr; 16 ppg); Darius Dawkins (6-7, R-Jr; 13.9 ppg)
Rebounding (team 38.1 rpg; +0.5 rpg): White (5.7 rpg); Babineaux (4.6 rpg); Antwon Clayton (6-6, So; 4.6 rpg)
Assists: Babineaux (67); Darien Fernandez (5-8, Jr; 55)
Blocks: White (15); Clayton (14)
Steals: Fernandez (35)
3-pt FGM: Dawkins (70)
 
A LOOK at NJIT (10-9; 1-2 A-Sun)
After losing their first two A-Sun games in razor-thin decisions (80-78 vs. USC Upstate on a tip-in in the last second and 82-78 in OT at FGCU), the Highlanders posted a wire-to-wire win at Stetson, coming out on top 71-59 on January 16.
 
Tim Coleman led all scorers (21 pts) and grabbed 8 rebounds, while Damon Lynn notched his first career double-double (15 pts, 10 rebs). Chris Jenkins scored 14 off the NJIT bench.
 
The last couple of years, a strength for the Highlanders has been their ability to score from 3-point distance. In Jacksonville, they face a team with similar stats from downtown.
 
Jacksonville has made 181 and attempted 453 3-pointers in 20 games, led by Darius Dawkins, who has made 70 threes, with an exceptional accuracy rate of 50 percent. NJIT has made 172 threes and tried 478 in 19 games, led individually by Damon Lynn (69 threes). The junior has 302 career 3-pointers, tied for first among active players in Division I nationwide.
 
NJIT team stats and leaders:
Scoring (team 75.6 ppg; +0.9 ppg): Damon Lynn (5-11 Jr; 17.9 ppg); Tim Coleman (6-5, Jr; 14.6 ppg); Ky Howard (6-4, Sr; 13.4 ppg);
Rebounding (team 34.8 rpg; -3.0 rpg): Coleman (7.1 rpg); Howard (4.7 rpg);
Assists: Howard (81)
Blocks: Coleman (19)
Steals: Lynn (29); Coleman (28)
3-pt FGM: Lynn (69)
 
How to watch NJIT sports programming on ESPN3
ESPN3 is the live platform for at least 23 NJIT men's basketball games this season. Every NJIT game in the Atlantic Sun Conference throughout the regular season and into the A-Sun postseason tournament will be covered on ESPN3. 
 
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. That means devices served by 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 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.