NEWARK, NJ-- After opening their season Saturday at Temple, the NJIT men's basketball team hits the road again on Wednesday when it travels down the New Jersey Turnpike to take on Rider in non-conference action. Tip-off is slated for 2pm in Lawrenceville and the game will be streamed on ESPN+.
Last Time Out
NJIT opened its season at Temple Saturday and fell to the Owls 72-60 on their home court. Temple scored the first nine points of the game and never looked back, en route to a 42-26 point lead at halftime.
Zach Cooks, a preseason All-America East selection, was a bright spot for NJIT early, leading all scorers with 10 points at the break.
NJIT didn't go down without a fight, however, as the Highlanders scored 11 straight in the second half to cut the lead to single digits, but were never able to get closer than eight. A big reason NJIT was able to get back into the game was newcomer
Dylan O'Hearn, who drained his first five shots of the game and finished with 11 points.
Antwuan Butler was immpresive in his Highlander debut, scoring seven points, dishing out six assists and grabbing five rebounds. The six assists were the most by an NJIT player since March 2019.
Scouting the Highlanders
A new-look NJIT squad fell to Temple over the weekend, but got plenty of positive performances from a mix of veterans and newcomers.
Zach Cooks picked up where he left off last season, scoring a game-high 18 points, while
Dylan O'Hearn chipped in with 11 off the bench in his Highlanders' debut.
Souleymane Diakite and
San Antonio Brinson also project to play a big role again for NJIT this season. Transfer
Antwuan Butler will assist Cooks in the backcourt, while another transfer
Miles Coleman and
Kjell de Graaf will back up Diakite and Brinson down low.
Diego Willis and Da'Mir Faison both started against the Owls and should continue to see plenty of playing time this season.
Brushing Up on Rider
Rider lost 87.6% of its scoring from last season's 18-win squad and were tabbed to finish at the bottom of the 11-team MAAC.
Through six games, Rider has had five different leading scorers with Dwight Murray doing it twice. Murray is the team's leading scorer at 15.2 ppg and is joined in double figures by Rodney Hendreson (12.2 ppg) and Christian Ings (11.2 ppg). Murray is also the team's top rebounder, grabbing 7.2 rpg.
The Broncs' lone victory this season came in MAAC action when they knocked off Manhattan on the road, 82-64. The Jaspers returned the favor the next evening, defeating Rider 87-77.
All-Time Series
The teams played for three-straight seasons fro 2006-08, but have not met up since. NJIT won the first meeting in Newark in 2006, but the Broncs took the other two, which were both played in Lawrenceville. All three previous meetings had margins of at least 11.
Last Three Meetings:
12/20/08: Rider 70, NJIT 49 -- Lawrenceville, NJ
11/28/07: Rider 84, NJIT 58 -- Lawrenceville, NJ
11/14/06: NJIT 63, Rider 52 -- Newark, NJ
A New Home for NJIT
The 2020-21 season will feature NJIT's first season as a member of the America East Conference. The Highlanders, who became the 10th full member of the America East effective July 1, 2020, will play a full basketball double round‐robin schedule of 18 conference games against the other nine schools. The schedule format consists of weekend series (Saturday and Sunday) where a team hosts the same opponent on back‐to‐back days for two games.
NJIT departs the ASUN Conference after five seasons as a member (first season 2015-16), which marked the first time that the Highlanders had been a full member of an automatic qualifying NCAA Division I multisport conference.
2019-20 Quick Rewind:
The Highlanders finished the 2019-20 season with a 9-21 overall record and completed their final season in the ASUN Conference with a 6-10 record to earn the eight seed in the ASUN Tournament.
Highlights from last year's season include:
• A 20-point come-from-behind victory at Cornell that saw senior captain
Shyquan Gibbs hit a game-winning driving layup in the final second. The play was featured at #4 on ESPN's #SCTop10.
•
San Antonio Brinson erupted for a program-record 37 points in an upset win at eventual ASUN Regular Season Champion, North Florida.
•
Zach Cooks led the ASUN in scoring (19.7 ppg), steals (1.9 spg) and minutes played en route to being named Second Team All-ASUN.
• After playing in just 16 games as a freshman,
Souleymane Diakite had a breakout sophomore season, avering 7.8 ppg and 8.5 rpg, while setting a Division I program record with 59 blocked shots.
GEORGIA ON YOUR MIND:
NJIT's two seniors both hail from the state of Georgia and have combined to start 115 games over their first three seniors in Highlander uniforms.
Zach Cooks (19.7 ppg) and
San Antonio Brinson (11.0 ppg) led NJIT in scoring during the 2019-20 season. The duo has combined to score 37+ points nine times in their careers, with the Highlanders winning six of those contests. The most points they've combined for in a game was 57 (35 for Cooks; 22 for Brinson) on November 22, 2019 in a loss to Binghamton. Brinson currently holds the program's single game scoring record after a 37-point performance at North Florida last season, while Cooks' 35-point game against the Bearcats ranks second all-time.
GET YOUR BUDDY A SHOT!:
In its wins last season, NJIT averaged 15.3 apg as opposed to under 10 in its losses. The Highlanders dished out a season-high 22 assists vs. Lipscomb, 17 more vs. Wagner and 16 helpers vs. Kean, UNF and KSU.
Zach Cooks led the team in assists with 65, while junior transfer
Antwuan Butler finished second on his Austin Peay squad with 107.
In the opener at Temple, NJIT tallied 10 assists with Butler's six leading the way. The six assists were more than any Highlander had in a game last season.
MR. DECEMBER!:
In 14 games played over the last three Decembers,
Zach Cooks has averaged 21.2 ppg, 5.4rpg, 2.6apg, and 2.0 steals per game.
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS VOL III:
All three of NJIT's third-year players are international student-athletes: forward
Souleymane Diakite (6'9") is a native of Bamako, Mali; forward
Kjell de Graaf hails from Rotterdam, Netherlands; and guard
Diego Willis is a product of Hermosillo, Mexico. Adding to the international flair, all three played high school basketball in the Canary Islands -- an autonomous community of Spain. De Graaf is a redshirt sophomore this season, while Diakite and Willis are juniors.
PUTTING THE NJ IN NJIT:
Just four seasons ago, NJIT entered the season with the most localized roster in all of Division-I basketball -- as the average player was just 39 miles from hometown to Newark. For the second-straight season, the Highlanders would rank towards the bottom of that list, as Newark native
Adetokunbo Bakare replaces
Shyquan Gibbs as the only NJIT player to hail from the Garden State. Bakare played his high school basketball blockes from NJIT at St. Benedict's Prep.
LOU HENSON AWARD WATCH LIST :
Senior captain
Zach Cooks was named to the Lou Henson Award Preseason Watch List for the second-straight season, it was announced on Tuesday, December 1. The Lou Henson Award is given annually to the nation's top Division I mid-major player. The award honors the late Henson, a former Illinois and New Mexico State coach who won 775 games in 41 seasons. Henson is the winningest coach in Illinois basketball history with 423 victories. During his 21 seasons (1975-1996), Henson led the Fighting Illini to 16 postseason appearances, including 12 NCAA tournaments and a Final Four appearance in 1989. Overall, 50 players were named to the Preseason Watch List. Cooks was one of just two America East players (Obadiah Noel; UMass Lowell) and one of just two from an NJ squad (Jahlil Jenkins; FDU) named to the watch list.
#PROTECTTHEWEC
NJIT enters its fourth campaign in the state-of-the-art Wellness and Events Center (WEC) . In three seasons playing in the WEC, the Highlanders are 26-19 in this three story, 220,000-square-foot building that features a 3,500-seat basketball arena.
