At 0-20 this season, the New Jersey Institute Of Technology (NJIT) Highlanders Men’s Basketball Squad have achieved so little while pursuing the Division One Holy Grail, you might call them the Miami Dolphins of amateur athletics. “Beating Duke is arguably the most rewarding athletic or non-athletic endeavor on the face of the Earth,” intones the Washington Post’s Norman Chad. “But NJIT should stick with stem cell research and solar physics.”
If NJIT split the squad and played each other, it’s possible neither team would win.
The coach, Jim Casciano (above), even left the team for a month earlier this season for what he called a “combination of medical factors.” The prevailing medical factor? HIS TEAM CAN’T SHOOT.
Against Manhattan, NJIT missed 40 of 48 field goal attempts. Last week in a 64-33 loss to Cornell, the Highlanders missed 32 of 40 field goal attempts. They have not shot 50 percent from the field in any game this season; in fact, in six games they have shot under 50 percent from the foul line. If an NJIT player fell out of the team bus while on the Garden State Parkway, he wouldn’t hit pavement.
In NJIT’s defense, while it doesn’t shoot well, the team also doesn’t pass or rebound well.
NJIT’s on-court woes mirror those of the California Institute of Technology — that’s Caltech, folks — which has been famously losing Division III basketball games at a record clip for years. Since 2002-03, Caltech’s season records have been 1-23, 0-24, 1-24, 0-25, 1-24 and 1-13, and the Beavers have not won a conference game in nearly 23 years.
Frankly, tech schools should learn to stick with what they know best.
You don’t see Dunkin’ Donuts offering pan-fried trout.
You don’t see the Communist government in Cuba buying Microsoft stock.
You don’t see Adam Sandler doing Shakespeare in the Park.
You don’t see Virginia Tech coddling sociopathic athletes.
You don’t see Georgia Tech recruiting players to come for a year and jump to the NBA.
A basketball team (NJIT) playing with more than 50% freshmen is always easy to exploit…Defend the leading scorers well and there goes the production forces. Last season they had 4 dependable scores and could win some games…this season they only had 2….so you are seeing no win…..on the bright side, the freshmen are gaining lots of experience and are already at that stage where they normally would outplay opponent teams’s rookies…so next season is going to be interesting…..they would be stronger even if they do not add any new players….only 2 seniors would be graduating…..Gary Garris who transferred from American U and sat out this season would be able to replace K.Peter and the 5 freshmen guards are already as good as Courcy Magnus. Bet they would be training real hard to improve their accurarcy this summer.
First off, what the school is known for in no way reflects their atheletic program. Also, how many programs that switch divisions or conferences do you see do well from the beginning? It’s a learning process with a lot of growing pains. Case in point, you probably weren’t the greatest writer before you started writing here. Just like in life, no one starts out doing really well…