NJIT Men's Basketball Gameday Center
 

Game 17	USC Upstate (6-11; 0-0 A-Sun) at NJIT (9-7; 0-0 A-Sun)
Date/Time	Saturday, January 9, 2016/ 4 pm
Location/Venue	Newark, NJ/ Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center (1,500)
Live Coverage	ESPN3 streaming telecast (WatchESPN app; www.watchespn.com)  Matt Provence (play-by-play); Dave Calloway (analyst)
Buy tickets online	NJITTIX.COM
Live Stats	In-game statistics (free)
Social Media	@njithighlanders
All-Time Series	First meeting
Game Notes	NJIT notes / USC Upstate notes

 
The game will be shown live on ESPN3 (all remaining men's basketball games--home and away--will be live on ESPN3)
 
Matt Provence, voice of the Highlanders, is on play-by-play and former Monmouth head coach and star player Dave Calloway is on board to provide expert commentary.
 
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.
 
NJIT vs. USC UPSTATE (Saturday, 4 pm)
NJIT plays its first-ever basketball game as a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference against University of South Carolina Upstate (known as USC Upstate) on Saturday as part of a men's-women's doubleheader between the two schools (women's game at 1 pm).
 
NJIT has never faced USC Upstate or any of the other six A-Sun teams in men's basketball, so the 14-game conference schedule will be a new challenge for the Highlanders every night out.
 
There has been one game played in the A-Sun already (defending champ North Florida defeated Stetson), but this is the first full weekend of conference games (in addition to NJIT-Upstate, Lipscomb visits Kennesaw State, North Florida hosts crosstown rival Jacksonville, and Stetson is at Florida Gulf Coast; all conference games are televised on ESPN3).
 
With its new membership in the Atlantic Sun, the Highlanders are playing in an automatic-qualifying conference for the first time in program history (the A-Sun champion goes into the NCAA Tournament in postseason automatically).
 
A LOOK at USC UPSTATE (6-11)
The Spartans make their first trip to Newark having won their last three games after a slow start. Upstate has made 50 percent of its shots during the 3-game winning streak. … The Spartans have struggled on the road so far, going 1-6, but the away victory came at Navy, which is 11-4 in its other games this season.
 
A year ago, USC Upstate finished third in the Atlantic Sun regular season standings (8-6) and made it to the A-Sun Tournament championship game. They also reached the CollegeInsider.com postseason Tournament (CIT) and won a first round game (NJIT won 3 CIT games and reached the semifinals). … Upstate was picked sixth in the 2015-16 A-Sun preseason coaches' poll (NJIT was picked third).
 
The Spartans are guided by Eddie Payne, who is in his 14th season at USC Upstate and his 30th as a college head coach, having led teams at five colleges prior to Upstate. … One of his stops was Oregon State (1995-2000) and he led East Carolina into the 1993 NCAA Tournament. … He has amassed 466 college head coaching wins. … Coach Payne took over at Upstate when the Spartans competed in Division II and led it into Division I, beginning in 2006-07 (the same season in which NJIT played its first DI schedule).
 
Coach Payne uses a lot of players, with nine Spartans having gotten at least one start so far and 10 averaging double-figure minutes per game, but none as many as 28 minutes per game.
 
USC Upstate team stats and leaders:
Scoring (team 72.1 ppg; -3.6 ppg): Deion Holmes (6-3, Fr; 13.8 ppg); Josh Cuthbertson (6-5, Jr; 9.1 ppg); Mike Cunningham (6-1, Fr; 8.9 ppg); Michael Buchanan (6-11, Jr; 8.6 ppg)
Rebounding (team 37.4 rpg; +1.2 rpg): Marvin Smith (6-6, Sr; 5.8 rpg); Buchanan (4.5 rpg).
Assists: Jure Span (6-4, Fr; 57); Cuthbertson (50)
Blocks: Buchanan (14)
Steals: Malik Moore (6-6, Fr; 17)
3-pt FGM: Holmes (36)
 
A LOOK at NJIT (9-7)
The Highlanders will enter conference play with a 9-7 won-lost record, their best mark after 16 games in program history at the Division I level.
 
The most recent game was an 83-65 defeat at Ivy League preseason favorite Yale, which snapped a two-game NJIT winning streak wrapped around the New Year (Dec. 30 and Jan. 2).
 
NJIT did some things well at Yale, such as 22 points from Damon Lynn and 16 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 blocks from Tim Coleman. On top of that, Ky Howard added 10 points and 4 assists, becoming NJIT's Division I career assists leader (331) in the process. But with Yale connecting on 10 3-point shots and committing only 10 turnovers, while notching assists on 22 of 27 baskets, the Highlanders were unable to keep up for the whole 40 minutes.
 
Among NJIT's nine pre-conference victories this season are road wins over St. John's of the BIG EAST, South Florida of the high-major American Athletic Conference, and defending Northeast Conference regular season champion St. Francis Brooklyn, plus a home win over defending Patriot League champion Lafayette.
 
 
NJIT team stats and leaders:
Scoring (team 75.6 ppg; +0.7 ppg): Damon Lynn (5-11 Jr; 17.6 ppg); Tim Coleman (6-5, Jr; 14.1 ppg); Ky Howard (6-4, Sr; 13.1 ppg);
Rebounding (team 35 rpg; -2.4 rpg): Coleman (7.3 rpg); Howard (4.9 rpg);
Assists: Howard (69)
Blocks: Coleman (17)
Steals: Coleman (25); Lynn (24)
3-pt FGM: Lynn (54)
 
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, home and away, 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