PHILADELPHIA – At some point, a long losing streak that a team gets national recognition for has to wear on a team. It’s not the kind of national recognition any team wants. For NJIT, however, that doesn’t appear to be happening despite the Highlanders losing for the 38th consecutive time on Saturday, this one a tough 55-47 loss at the hands of Monmouth in the Philly Hoop Group Classic.
“I just came in at the end of the game and said, this is it, this is different,” said first-year head coach Jim Engles. “You all look sad now, right? That’s the feeling you’re supposed to have when you play. Yes, we lost, but that’s what a team is supposed to become.”
Losing isn’t fun for anyone, and a streak like this is exponentially more difficult. It’s not fun writing about it, either, because there’s still a human interest element involved and it’s not a positive one. Indeed, the NJIT game notes includes a couple of notes on the losing streak in a section entitled, “Answers to questions we wish people didn’t have to ask.” And let’s not forget that these are college kids, not professionals – it’s not the Detroit Lions whose losses are the subject here.
This situation has additional variables, like the Highlanders being in just their third season of Division I competition and Engles being in his first season as head coach of the program, which means he has only been a part of just five of the losses. Additionally, only one player remains in the program who was a part of the last win they had, junior center Dan Stonkus. Six players are new this season along with Engles and his staff, with five of them being freshmen and American transfer Gary Garris being the other.
So it’s not hard to believe Engles, who has extensive experience in New York and New Jersey and most recently was an assistant at another excellent academic school in Columbia, when he says the streak isn’t affecting his team the way one might think from the outside.
“I’ll be honest with you – I swear it, and I mean this honestly – we have not spoken about it. I don’t think they really know,” said Engles. “Come back if we’ve lost 15 in a row, and then I think you’ll start to see a different locker room.”
Even if one believes in moral victories, they suffer from the law of diminishing returns: every new one is worth less than prior ones. At some point, there’s no value to one at all. It’s understandable, because athletes compete to win, not have a close loss and think, “well, we gave them a good battle and improved enough to win the next time out” afterwards.
Most teams at this time of the year want to win games, but need to look beyond the bottom line to see where they stand and what they need to do to improve. NJIT is no different, and Engles likes what he sees as he tries building the program.
“Right now, there’s a positive way about them,” Engles said. “They’ve learned how to become a team, they act like a team now. At the end of that game, they kept huddling, they kept battling. That’s what a program goes through.”
The Highlanders certainly gave Monmouth all they could handle on Saturday. They never trailed by more than eight points and even led for some time in the first half. For most of the game, when they trailed they were a possession away, and they were still down 49-47 with less than a minute to play before a dagger from long range and three clinching free throws made up the final eight-point margin.
Saturday marked the third straight game in which the Highlanders out-rebounded their opponent. Rebounding is an effort statistic, and for a team that lacks size like the Highlanders (only two players are 6’8″ or taller and only two others are at least 6’6″), it’s an even bigger barometer of their competitiveness in a game.
“They are very well-coached, very well-disciplined on defense,” said Monmouth head coach Dave Calloway, who knew how well his team was tested on Saturday.
Engles has talked a lot about building the program, which is what he was tasked with upon his hiring. He feels that the team’s intangibles are all in place right now, which can certainly go a long way towards improvement. The intangibles go beyond not letting the long losing streak bother them, as that’s just the beginning. It’s a reason why the coach can be counted among the optimists.
“Now,” said Engles, “we know that we’re doing the right things. They play the right way. Now it comes down to making plays.”
