Jim Engles Preview (Video)


NJIT Men's Basketball Gameday Center
 

Game 23	NJIT (11-11; 2-4 A-Sun) at Kennesaw State (6-16; 2-4 A-Sun)
Date/Time	Saturday, January 30, 2016/ 4:30 pm
Location/Venue	Kennesaw, GA/ KSU Convention Center (4,600)
Live Coverage	ESPN3 streaming telecast (WatchESPN app; www.watchespn.com)  Live audio: www.njithighlanders.com Matt Provence (play-by-play)
Live Stats	In-game statistics (free)
Social Media	@njithighlanders
All-Time Series	First meeting
Game Notes	NJIT notes / Kennesaw State 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 Provence, voice of the Highlanders, will have the audio call of the game live on the Highlander Sports Network, which can be found on www.njithighlanders.com (no charge). Access the audio feed by clicking the speaker icon on the NJIT TV Upcoming Events listing for the Kennesaw State game.
 
Atlantic Sun Conference Game: NJIT at Kennesaw State (Saturday, 4:30 pm)
NJIT men's basketball will complete its first run through the Atlantic Sun Conference with this game on Saturday afternoon (preceded at 1 pm by NJIT vs. Kennesaw State in women's basketball).
 
As the newest member of the A-Sun, the Highlanders hit the midpoint of the regular season conference schedule holding a 2-4 record, which finds them in a three-way tie with Kennesaw State and Stetson for fifth place in the eight-team league.
 
NJIT, which will play at Lipscomb on Monday night in Nashville before returning home, will try to put the brakes on a two-game slide (lost at home to A-Sun-leading North Florida on January 24 in a game delayed a day by record-setting Winter Storm Jonas and then at home vs. Lipscomb three days later).
 
A LOOK at KENNESAW STATE (6-16; 2-4 A-Sun)
Located in Kennesaw, GA, about 25 miles north of Atlanta, KSU has turned to Al Skinner to lead its men's basketball program. Coach Skinner brought a thick resume to the job, having won 385 games in a 22-year career as head coach at Rhode Island and then Boston College, where he is the winningest coach in school history.
 
A member of the UMass Hall of Fame for his accomplishments as a player that continued into a successful stint in the old ABA and NBA, he is also in the Hall of Fame at URI for his coaching tenure that included two NCAA berths, two NIT berths and three 20-win seasons.
 
At Boston College, he led the Eagles to six NCAA Tournaments in one seven-year stretch. He won multiple national Coach of the Year awards when BC finished 2000-01 with a 27-5 record and he was twice voted Coach of the Year in the BIG EAST Conference. Four of his Boston College teams finished in the AP National Top 25, with the 2001 and 2007 squads ending at #7.
 
Kennesaw State team stats and leaders:
Scoring (team 70.7 ppg; -8.4 ppg): Kendrick Ray (6-1, R-Jr; 18.6 ppg); Yonel Brown (5-9, Sr; 18.2 ppg)
Rebounding (team 33.2 rpg; -5.9 rpg): Aubrey Williams (6-6, R-Jr; 6.5 rpg); Ray (5.1 rpg)
Assists: Ray (61)
Blocks: Bernard Morena (6-8, R-Sr; 17)
Steals: Ray (35)
3-pt FGM: Brown (56)
 
A LOOK at NJIT (11-11; 2-4 A-Sun)
Picked third in the Atlantic Sun coaches' preseason poll, NJIT immediately found itself behind the 8-ball, opening A-Sun play with two razor-thin losses (80-78 on a last-second tip-in by USC Upstate; 82-78 in overtime at FGCU).
 
Things got better with back-to-back convincing wins (at Stetson, home vs. Jacksonville). But then it was two steps back with home losses to UNF (94-80) and Lipscomb (81-72).
 
The two recent home losses put the overall record at 11-11, once again threatening a drop below .500, a rare position for the Highlanders in the last year-plus. On January 19, 2015, NJIT beat Maine for an 11-10 record and they took off from there, finishing 21-12 and reaching the semifinal of the 2015 CollegeInsider.com Tournament.
 
The Highlanders opened this season with an expected loss at then-#2 Kentucky, but they won the next three, which positioned them above .500 until they hit 9-9 with the loss at FGCU on January 14. Wins in the next two games followed, but now NJIT is 11-11.
 
A key issue for the Highlanders will be in their ability to contain KSU's offense.
 
In 6 A-Sun games, NJIT's own offense has been fairly reliable, with 78, 78, 71, 83, 80, and 72 points scored (77 ppg). On defense, NJIT has allowed 80, 82, 94, and 81 (84.3 ppg) in its A-Sun defeats and 59 and 63 (61 ppg) in its two conference wins.
 
By comparison, last season's Highlanders held their opponents to 67.5 points per game en route to a program-record 21 wins.
 
NJIT team stats and leaders:
Scoring (team 76 ppg; +0.6 ppg): Damon Lynn (5-11 Jr; 17.5 ppg); Tim Coleman (6-5, Jr; 14.4 ppg); Ky Howard (6-4, Sr; 13.6 ppg);
Rebounding (team 35.5 rpg; -1.5 rpg): Coleman (7.2 rpg); Howard (4.7 rpg); Terrence Smith (6-6, Jr; 4.4 rpg)
Assists: Howard (94)
Blocks: Coleman (19)
Steals: Lynn (35); Coleman (33)
3-pt FGM: Lynn (77)
 
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.