Highlanders Learn Rigors of Division I
by Ray Floriani
NEWARK, N.J. – The drive down route 21 (McCarter Highway) was a smooth one given that rush hour traffic had ended. NJIT (New Jersey Institute of Technology) is located in Newark’s University Heights section. Within walking distance are three other institutions of higher learning, UMDNJ, Essex County College and Rutgers. Riverfront Stadium, the Newark Bears’ Baseball field, is also a walk away, but only on a pleasant day – not the frozen 15-degree evening Mother Nature has given us this early February evening.
On the NJIT campus are banners proclaiming the school’s 125th anniversary, currently being celebrated this academic year. On outside of the Fleisher Center, NJIT’s home court, is an inscription “The Edge is Knowledge.” It’s very appropriate considering the first year of Division I for NJIT is a significant learning experience.
Both South Dakota State and host NJIT are in the midst of long seasons. They have a combined eight wins between them. NJIT actually caught attention in November by opening the season with wins over Manhattan and Rider. Since then, it’s been only one other ‘W’, but they did play a good Navy team tough before dropping a heart breaker in overtime.
Despite having losing campaigns, both teams come out hard and compete. NJIT establishes early leads, but the visitors continuously answer. Not surprisingly, a lot of the attack on both ends is guard-oriented. Big men set screens and battle underneath. Basically the posts are not priority options. The ball is in the hands of the guards at crunch time.
In the waning moments NJIT holds a 65-62 lead. South Dakota’s Matt Cadwell has shredded the Highlander perimeter for 20 second half points. The sophomore guard gets a great look beyond the arc from the corner. It falls off the rim. NJIT’s Andrew Engel grabs the rebound, is fouled and hits both free throws to ice the 67-62 triumph.
NJIT senior guard Clayton Barker led all scorers with 27 points, while Cadwell paced South Dakota State with 22.
Afterward NJIT coach Jim Casciano was obviously pleased. He was concerned about his team’s perimeter defense.
“That’s something we constantly stress and remind them about,” he said.
Regardless, win number four was in the books and, as a bonus, NJIT finally played at home. The most recent game on campus was January 10th. Since then, they played five games on the road in places as La Salle, Utah Valley State and Pan American (Texas). Good for frequent filer miles, not so good for the won-lost ledger. Through it all, Casciano is very upbeat.
“It’s just been an unforgettable experience to start this and set a foundation,” he said in a positive tone regarding this first year. The 13-man roster has a total of eight players in their freshmen or sophomore years. Casciano makes no excuses of having a young group faced with Division I competition. He talks frequently of a “learning curve” and expects his team to take the new experiences and build on them each night out. “I talk a lot about playing with passion and intensity each and every possession,” he said. “They watched Duke-North Carolina last night, so I told them that’s a great example of intensity. Both teams played hard every single possession. That’s what you need on this level.”
About the only thing Casciano will complain about is the schedule, but frequent road games in wide spread outposts is a given as an independent. The coach, as does the rest of the school’s administration, realizes conference affiliation is job number one.
“You have to be in a conference,” Casciani said. “A conference gives you the opportunity to play for the championship and a ticket to the ‘Big Dance’. That’s very important for us.”
The talk is that NJIT could be a possibility for the Northeast Conference or Patriot League. The latter would be an ideal fit. Patriot schools want first and foremost, their members as outstanding institutions of higher learning. NJIT can proudly walk with the Lehighs, Lafayettes or Bucknells (to name a few) in that regard. Having NJIT could also give the Patriot a New York metropolitan area presence.
For the present, NJIT focuses on playing out the schedule – not going through the motions but learning each time out. “The Edge is Knowledge.” At NJIT, the Highlanders have got their share of it this first year out in Division I, with several wins as a bonus.
A few notables from the weekend
Villanova 78, Seton Hall 69. The Hall’s lack of size and scarcity of depth proved to be their undoing. Seton Hall trailed from the outset but did make a late run. It was not enough as the Pirates dropped their fifth consecutive conference game, and hopes of getting to the Big East Tournament are slim.
Rutgers 73, Cincinnati 69. Senior year is special and Adrian Hill doesn’t want his to end when the regular season ends the first weekend in March. The 6’6″ forward put together another fine 18-point, six-rebound performance as Rutgers came from behind for Saturday’s win at the Rutgers Athletic Center. The victory gave Fred Hill’s club a sweep of the Bearcats and kept alive their hopes of getting to the Garden for the conference tournament.
Siena 82, St. Peter’s 65. The homestanding Peacocks had not won a game since December 8. Despite the 16-game losing streak, St. Peter’s comes out playing hard. First-year head coach John Dunne is active, pacing the sidelines and encouraging his players. The Peacocks build a nine-point first half lead. Siena closes it to two at intermission.
In the second half, it begins to unravel for St. Peter’s. A disastrous four-minute stretch when they were outscored 13-0 becomes their undoing. Besides that spurt, St. Peter’s also had a tough time matching up with Micheal Haddix. The 6’6″ senior forward scored 24 points, pulled down 10 boards and generally wreaked havoc on the baseline.
Raul Orta led St. Peter’s with 17 points while Akeem Gooding added 13. Gooding is a 6’4″ redshirt freshman. The gifted swingman trasferred from Quinnipiac and became eligible to play late December. Since then he’s been a double-digit scorer (10.7 ppg) and their second-leading rebounder (5.8), a bright spot in what has been a very long season.
Niagara 76, Manhattan 74. Trailing by five with ninety seconds to play, Niagara went on a late rally to edge Manhattan in Riverdale. Charron Fisher, Niagara’s junior guard, paced the Purple Eagles with 20 points, his 13th 20-point outing of the season. The win gave Joe Mihalich’s club a weekend road sweep, as Niagara defeated St. Peter’s on Friday. That’s two close road games pulled out in three days, a significant sign with MAAC tournament play less than three weeks away. The win also keeps Niagara just a game back of Marist in the conference standings.
