Jesse Agel, a coach at the Division I level since 1988 and head coach at Brown University from 2008 to 2012, joined the NJIT men's basketball coaching staff in July 2013.
Agel, who graduated from Stuyvesant High School in New York City and later from the University of Vermont in 1984, brought a thick resume of accomplishment with him to NJIT.
"This is a great situation for us because he is a veteran coach who has experienced a lot of success at the Division I level," said Engles, who has led NJIT since 2008 and was a Division I assistant himself from 1991 until taking over the Highlanders. "He knows how to build programs, as a head coach and as an assistant, and he will be able to help us in every aspect."
Entering the coaching ranks in Vermont, Agel led Harwood Union High School, coincidentally nicknamed the Highlanders, to a state championship and 21-2 record one season. He joined the UVM staff in 1988 as an assistant coach and was promoted to associate head coach of the Catamounts in 1996.
During that time he played an integral part in Vermont's rise to become arguably the best mid-major Division I program in the East for a four-year period in the early 2000s.
Each year from 2001-02 to 2004-05, captured an America East Conference championship, winning the regular season in 2001-02, three straight America East tournaments from 2003 to 2005 and a regular season title in 2004-05 for a regular season/postseason double in 2004-05.
During that run, Vermont had the America East Conference Player of the Year for four consecutive seasons. The Catamounts qualified for three consecutive NCAA Division I Tournament appearances, going to the Big Dance in 2003, 2004 and 2005, highlighted by a first-round upset win in 2005 against Syracuse, 60-57 in overtime. Sports Illustrated named that win over Syracuse, two years removed from winning the 2003 National Championship, as the sixth-greatest college basketball upset of the 2000s.
During Agel's last six years at Vermont, the program had 37 awards for individual players on the America East Conference Academic Honor Roll.
The head coach of Vermont, Tom Brennan, who retired in 2005, relied heavily on his associate coach, Agel, for all aspects of the Vermont program, which was the most successful in school history, setting new school records for wins each year in the magical run.
Two of the top basketball writers in the country praised Agel for his work outside of the spotlight. Wrote Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe in April 2005: "It was no secret that coach Brennan had his own M.O, what with his daily morning radio show and all, and that Agel was indeed Vermont's chief tactician." John Feinstein of the Washington Post echoed Ryan and added: "Brennan would be the first to tell you that his long-time assistant coach Agel does most of the planning and scouting and technical coaching."
Following Brennan's retirement from Vermont, Agel moved on to Brown, becoming an assistant coach at the Providence, RI, Ivy League University in 2006-07, assisting head coach Craig Robinson.
In Agel's two years as Brown's top assistant, the Bears set a school record for wins in a season, with 19, good enough for the fourth national postseason tournament bid in Brown men's basketball history that dates back to 1900. In that 19-win season in 2007-08, Brown did something that is practically unheard of in the Ivy League, sweeping Princeton and Penn, the league's historically dominant programs, 4-0.
Promoted to head coach when Robinson was named head coach at Oregon State in 2008, Agel guided Brown to a win over Princeton in his first year as head coach and also led the Bears past Harvard and its star, the future NBA sensation Jeremy Lin. Brown also won games against opponents from the highly-regarded Atlantic 10 Conference in back-to-back years under Agel, who recruited three All-Ivy players in three years, as well as the 2011 Rookie of the Year and a CoSIDA Academic All-American.
Since coming to NJIT, Agel has helped the Highlanders reach new levels, including the program's first win over a nationally-ranked team (#16/#17 Michigan on December 6, 2014) and a run to the semifinals of the 2015 CollegeInsider.com national postseason tournament,
(last edit Sept. 2015)
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