Thomas Messinger enters his fourth season as a member of the NJIT men's basketball coaching staff, after being named as an Assistant Coach in April, 2023.
The Highlanders had themselves a remarkable 2025-26 season. Ten conference wins marks the highest win total in program history, passing their win total of nine as a member of the Great West in 2010-11. The six-game winning streak tied the Highlanders longest winning streak in their D-I era, accomplished first in 2011 and matched in 2015. The Highlanders clinched a top-4 seed and hosted an America East quarterfinal game for the first time since joining the conference in 2020. Finally, 16 wins on the season is the most overall wins since the 2018-19 season.
Messinger arrived in Newark after nearly a decade on the coaching staff for the Postgraduate Team at Hargrave Military Academy, including the past three as Head Coach. In three seasons leading the program, Messinger's teams went 114-8 overall and finished #2, #4, and #1 in the final national polls.
In 2022-23, Messinger brought the Hargrave Postgraduate team to new heights, as it finsished 44-2 and closed out the final eight weeks of the season as the #1 team in the national polls. Messinger was honored as the Next Up Recruits National Postgraduate Coach of the Year and the Elite Prep League (EPL) Coach of the Year as Hargrave also won the EPL Regular Season and Tournament Championships.
Messinger played collegiately at Emerson College in Boston and helped lead his team to a program-record 24 wins in 2007-08. He finished his career second in Great Northeast Athletic Conference history in both three-pointers made (252) and three-point field goal percentage (44.0). Messinger graduated from Emerson in 2011 with a degree in Marketing Communication. He went on to earn his Master's Degree in teaching from Smith College in 2012.
A native of Northampton, MA, Messinger was a top player at Northampton High School before wrapping up his high school career with a postgraduate season at Deerfield Academy. At Deerfield, Messinger was named Team MVP, All-NEPSAC, and All-Region.
Messinger is married to his wife Katie and they have two daughters, Annie and Millie.
