NEWARK, NJ—Jim Engles, who guided NJIT men's basketball to a combined 41 wins the last two seasons, has resigned as head coach at NJIT after serving in the post for eight seasons.
 
He has accepted an offer to become the head coach at Columbia in New York City and will be formally introduced as the new leader of the Lions in a press conference scheduled for Thursday.
 
His introductory press conference at Columbia will come three days short of the eighth anniversary of the press conference announcing that he would lead NJIT's hoops fortunes on April 10, 2008.
 
His record in eight seasons as head coach of the Highlanders was 111-139, highlighted by the last two seasons when the combined record was 41-27, with postseason runs to the semifinals of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT) in both 2015 and 2016 and the program's first win over ranked opponent (72-70 at #17/#16 Michigan on December 6, 2014).

Lenny Kaplan reaction
"We thank Jim Engles for his hard work and effort over the past eight years and we wish him and his family the best as he moves on," said NJIT Assistant Vice President/Director of Athletics Lenny Kaplan. "He came here eight years ago and took on the gargantuan task of building a quality Division I program from the ground up.
 
"The goal was to recruit quality student-athletes, outstanding young men, and to build a highly competitive basketball program. Following that model, his leadership has brought us great recent success. Jim has left us a solid foundation as we continue to increase our rise as a quality mid-major program."
 
Kaplan said the search for a new head coach has begun. Said Kaplan: "We have a great pool of candidates already, and we hope to have it wrapped up within the next 10 days."

Highlanders Went from Struggling Division I Newcomer to Championship Contender Under Engles' Guidance
Engles put in a combined 18 years as an assistant coach with three different Division I programs before he ascended to his first head coaching position with NJIT.
 
He began his career as an assistant at Wagner on his native Staten Island before moving to Rider in Lawrenceville, NJ. From Rider, where his six-year stint included a regular season championship of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, he joined the staff at Columbia as the top assistant to then-head coach Joe Jones. Engles worked at Columbia from 2003 until he moved to NJIT in 2008.
 
The task of turning NJIT into a winner was a daunting one, as he inherited a program that had finished winless in its second year of Division I competition while undergoing the NCAA reclassification process from Division II.
 
In 2007-08, the season before Engles came on board, the Highlanders suffered through a tumultuous 0-29 season. Engles' first year as head coach saw only tiny progress in terms of wins and losses, as his first team posted a 1-30 record. However, that one win halted an infamous 51-game losing streak, lifting a burden from the program's players and coaches.
 
His first full recruiting class helped the Highlanders take their first big step, as the 2009-10 team generated 10 wins. That freshman class became the core of teams that would win 15 games each in their sophomore and junior seasons and then 16 in their senior year, 2012-13. Included was the regular season championship of the now-defunct Great West Conference.
 
Although NJIT had made great strides under Engles, another challenge arose on July 1, 2013, when the Great West Conference ceased operations. NJIT, as the only GWC school located east of Chicago, was not part of the migration to new western conferences, leaving the New Jersey-based Highlanders as the only Independent program among the 351 in Division I.
 
Forced to cobble together a schedule that included teams from numerous different conferences, NJIT remained competitive, but the turning point came early in the second year of Independent play.
 
In early December 2014, the Highlanders became the top story in college basketball when NJIT went to Ann Arbor and stunned #17/#16 Michigan, 72-70.
 
That one event changed the narrative surrounding NJIT men's basketball, indeed NJIT athletics as a whole, turning the Highlanders into "the team that upset Michigan".
 
On the court, NJIT continued to earn respect, following the Michigan win with a home victory over St. Francis Brooklyn, which would go on to win the Northeast Conference regular season championship. Later, the Highlanders beat Yale, which would be co-champion of the Ivy League, and Hampton, which won the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, plus a First Four game in the 2015 NCAA Tournament.
 
Starting on December 30, 2014, NJIT was 13-2 in its last 15 regular season games. That resulted in the program's first-ever berth in a national Division I postseason tournament. And in that tournament, the CIT, NJIT won its first three games, advancing to the semifinals and completing the season with a program-best 21-12 record.
 
Off the court, NJIT announced plans to build a new $100 million Wellness and Events Center on campus. Construction has started and is due for completion in 2017.
 
Then, in June 2015, NJIT's wishes came true, as the Highlanders became the eighth member of the Atlantic Sun Conference, delivering the program from the purgatory that was Independent status.
 
In its first A-Sun men's basketball season, NJIT tied for second place. Upset in the opening round of the A-Sun tourney, NJIT accepted another CIT bid and again won three games, advancing to the semifinal where, coincidentally, it lost at Columbia. The 2015-16 Highlanders finished 20-15, including the team's first-ever win over a BIG EAST opponent (St. John's) in addition to the strong A-Sun debut.

Columbia Wins CIT and its Head Coach, Kyle Smith, Returns to California
Columbia went on to win the CIT championship and shortly thereafter, Kyle Smith, who had spent his coaching career on the West Coast before joining the Lions in 2010, accepted an offer to take over at the University of San Francisco.
 
That led to Engles, who still had many ties from his years as an assistant coach, returning to Columbia as the program's head coach.
 
NJIT is Poised to Contend Again in 2016-17
The next head coach of the Highlanders will step into a excellent situation on and off the court.

In addition to membership in the Atlantic Sun Conference, whose champion gets an automatic spot in the NCAA Tournament, and the impending arrival of a new facility, Engles leaves behind a proverbial full cupboard of playing talent at NJIT, with 12 members of the 20-win 2015-16 team eligible to return next season. Those 12 accounted for 77 percent of the points and 76 percent of the team's rebounds in 2015-16
 
Prominent among them is decorated junior Damon Lynn, who already has 1,720 career points, including 349 career 3-point baskets, to go with 297 assists and 149 steals. Tim Coleman, also a junior this season, has piled up 1,053 career points and 548 career rebounds through his first three seasons. He had a team-leading seven points-rebounds double-doubles, two of which came in the four CIT games.