NEWARK, NJ-- The NJIT men's basketball team opens up America East Conference action on Sunday and Monday when it travels to north to take on Vermont. NJIT and Vermont will open the two-day series on Sunday at 3pm, before tipping off at 2pm on Monday.
Last Time Out
The NJIT men's basketball team shot 50.0% from the field and recorded the same mark from behind the three-point line en route to their first victory of the season, an 81-66 win over host Rider on Wedesday at Alumni Gymnasium on the Broncs' campus in Mercer County.
Dylan O'Hearn came off the bench to score 19 points on 6-of-8 shooting, while
Zach Cooks followed up his 19-point performance in Saturday's season opening with an efficient 17 points on 10 shots Wednesday. In addition to O'Hearn and Cooks, four more Highlanders scored at least eight points as the squad evened its record at 1-1. Rider fell to 1-6 on the season with the loss.
Brushing Up on Vermont
Vermont was selected atop the America East Preseason Coaches poll for the fifth-straight season and is led by Preseason All-America East guard Stef Smith.
Through two games, Smith is averaging 14.0 ppg and is joined in double figures by Justin Mazzula and Ben Shungu, who are both averaging 12.5 rpg.
Vermont dropped its first game of the season at UMass Lowell, but bounced back to take game two.
All-Time Series
This will be the fifth all-time meeting between NJIT and Vermont, with the Catamounts sweeping the first four.
The teams have not played since the 2010-11 season.
Previous Meetings:
11/27/10: Vermont 69, NJIT 50 -- Burlington, VT
12/5/09: Vermont 88, NJIT 49 -- Newark, NJ
1/3/09: Vermont 73, NJIT 47 -- Burlington, VT
11/20/07: Vermont 91, NJIT 71 -- 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.
NJIT dished out 10 assists in both games so far this season. Butler has nine (six at Temple) to go along with just two turnovers.
MR. DECEMBER!:
In 15 games played over the last three Decembers,
Zach Cooks has averaged 20.7 ppg, 5.6rpg, 2.5apg, 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.
