NJIT Men's Basketball CollegeInsider.com National Tournament Gameday Center Directions to Columbia's Levien GymnasiumLive coverage available on multiple platformsThe two semifinal games and championship game of the 2016 CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT) are being televised live on the
CBS Sports Network, a digital cable and satellite television network that is owned by the CBS Corporation and branded as "The 24-hour home of CBS Sports".
Dave Popkin will handle play-by-play duties on the telecast with expert commentary from former college and professional player and college coach
Kyle Macy.
Here is a link to the
CBS Sports Network homepage, which includes a channel finder.
All tournament games are also streamed live at
www.2016cit.com.
Further, the
Highlander Sports Network, on
www.njithighlanders.com, will offer free live streaming audio of play-by-play with
Matt Provence, voice of the Highlanders.
NJIT Highlights* NJIT has advanced to the semifinals of the CollegeInsider.com National Postseason Tournament (CIT) for the second consecutive season. Last year, the Highlanders fell at Northern Arizona, 68-61.
* To date, the run to the 2015 CIT semifinals, matched this year, is the deepest national postseason run ever for NJIT basketball at any level of the NCAA. The deepest national run before last year was in 1995, when the Highlanders reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA Division III Tournament.
* NJIT is now 6-1 all-time in national Division I tournaments with wins over opponents from the America East Conference, Horizon League, MAAC, Patriot League, and Sun Belt Conference.
* Columbia leads the all-time series with NJIT, 5-0 (4-0 in Diviison I) -- including a 65-56 home win on Dec. 12, 2015.
* NJIT is 1-14 all-time versus Ivy foes; 0-2 this season with the loss to Columbia and an 83-65 road loss at Yale on Jan. 6. After starting 0-11, NJIT earned a home win over Yale, 78-71, on Jan. 9, 2015.
* NJIT is 7-2 when facing a team for a second time this season, including its Round 2 CIT win over Boston University.
* NJIT has won three consecutive games as well as nine of its last 12 contests overall.
* NJIT has now posted back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time as a D-I program and for the first time since the D-III Highlanders accomplished the feat in 1993-94 and 1994-95.
* At 20-14, NJIT is at a season high-water mark of six games above .500. The program record is 10, when the Highlanders were 21-11 last season prior to their semifinals loss at Northern Arizona.
* NJIT has set a single-season program record of 19 wins against D-I opponents. Previously, the high mark was 17 last season -- when the Highlanders finished 21-12 overall.
* NJIT is the only team from NJ still playing; and one of just 24 D-I teams in the nation still playing.
* With a win tonight, NJIT will advance to the CIT finals and play the winner of UC Irvine (27-9) of the Big West and Coastal Carolina (21-11) of the Big South. That game tips off at 9 p.m. tonight.
The all-time series vs. ColumbiaThe Lions lead, 5-0, with the first meeting won by Columbia, 69-58, on Nov. 18, 1998, when NJIT was an NCAA Division II program. Columbia won the first three Division I games between the teams, but they teams hadn't played since 2009 until NJIT visited Columbia on December 12 earlier this season. Columbia won, 65-56, after leading by 13 at the half and by as many as 20 points near the middle of the second half.
The Highlanders and Lions met once a year for three seasons starting in 2006-07 and
Jim Engles, who got his first college head coaching job when he was named to lead NJIT's program on April 10, 2008, was on the Columbia bench as the top assistant coach for the first two games in the series. The third meeting was the 16th game for Engles as NJIT's head coach.
The Highlanders' struggles in their early years of reclassification to NCAA Division I from Division II are well-documented. However, some may have forgotten that NJIT won its first two Division I games, taking the 2006-07 season opener at
Manhattan, a program that won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular season title the previous season. Next, NJIT scored a convincing 63-52 victory in the first Division I home game against
Rider, whose star center
Jason Thompson, would become the 12th player picked in 2008 NBA draft and who is in eighth season in the league as a member of the champion Golden State Warriors.
It wasn't until the third Division I game that NJIT lost and the opponent was Columbia, which defeated the Highlanders 73-60 in the first round of a tournament hosted by the Lions. The following season in Newark, Columbia won by 12 and the series went on hiatus following a 73-50 victory for the Lions in New York on January 9, 2009.
NJIT-written recap of Columbia's 65-56 win over the Highlanders on December 12, 2015.
A look at Columbia (23-10)Columbia was a solid third-place finisher in the Ivy League, posting a 10-4 mark in the league to finish behind champion Yale (13-1) and Princeton (12-2).
While NJIT is aiming for its deepest-ever run into postseason play, Columbia, with its most successful team in decades, is aiming for its 24th win, a plateau that no Lion team has ever reached (the 1950-51 Columbia team also won 23 games).
In many ways, 2015-16 was set up to be "the year" for Columbia men's basketball, which returned a solid cast of veterans, led by German National Team player and unanimous All-Ivy first-team star
Maodo Lo. In addition, the Lions regained the services of
Alex Rosenberg, a skilled big man who was All-Ivy first-team as a junior in 2013-14, but missed all of 2014-15 due to injury.
Kyle Smith, who became Columbia head coach on May 2, 2010, led the Lions to 20 wins in 2013-14 and 23 wins this season, tying a program record that had stood more than half-century since 1951.
This season, beginning December 6 and including their game with NJIT, the Lions won 11 of 12 through January 30, with the only loss in the run coming at America East champion Stony Brook (69-60). Columbia's four Ivy league defeats came in two losses each vs. Yale and Princeton, the teams ahead of the Lions in the standings.
Columbia team stats and leaders:Scoring (team 76.3 ppg; +7.6 ppg):
Maodo Lo (6-3, Sr; 16.6);
Alex Rosenberg (6-7, Sr; 13.8 ppg);
Grant Mullins (6-3, Sr; 13.1 ppg);
Luke Petrasek (6-10, Jr; 10 ppg)
Rebounding (team 35.3 rpg; +2.3 rpg):
Jeff Coby (6-8, Jr; 4.5 rpg);
Petrasek (4.4 rpg)
Assists: Mullins (110)
Blocks: Petrasek (38)
Steals:
Lo (72)
3-pt FGM: Lo (91)
A LOOK at NJIT (20-14)NJIT reached the 20-win plateau and the semifinals of the CIT for the second year in a row thanks to a hard-fought 63-60 win Thursday at home over UT Arlington, which came into the game with 24 wins.
After trailing for nearly the entire first half, the Highlanders fought to trail 30-26 by halftime and then surged ahead by scoring 12 in the first 3:04 of the second half.
In the end, the Highlanders held UT Arlington, which came in averaging 79.5 points per game, to 60 points total and 30 in each half. The 60 points were a season low for the Mavericks, who had 11 games in the 90s earlier in the season.
Ky Howard led NJIT with 14 points, while
Tim Coleman added 12 points and 8 rebounds, with
Damon Lynn scoring 11 and
Rob Ukawuba netting 10 off the bench.
NJIT team stats and leaders:Scoring (team 75.4 ppg; +1.7 ppg):
Damon Lynn (5-11 Jr; 18.5 ppg);
Tim Coleman (6-5, Jr; 13.9 ppg);
Ky Howard (6-4, Sr; 12.7 ppg);
Rebounding (team 34.9 rpg; -1.5 rpg):
Coleman (7.3 rpg);
Howard (4.7 rpg);
Assists: Howard (148)
Blocks: Coleman (31)
Steals:
Lynn (56)
3-pt FGM: Lynn (110)
