City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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NEWARK, N.J. -- Brian Kennedy’s route to his office is much easier these days.

Before NJIT formally opened its new Wellness & Events Center last week, the Highlanders’ place of residence was the Estelle & Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center, a mid-1960s multi-purpose arena designed for a college playing in the lower levels of the NCAA. Kennedy and his assistants, as well as all the coaches who came before they, had to go first through the locker room in order to get to their workspace.

“And when I say the locker room, it’s a general locker room for everybody,” Kennedy laughed.

The smell was a problem, plus: “you never know who’s in there.”

There’s no denying NJIT basketball has come a long way.

Anybody who needs proof of that only need go to the corner of Lock and Warren streets to see the modern grey structure that’s one of the new jewels of the city school’s ever-changing campus.

At three stories tall, with 220,000 square feet of space featuring a 3,500-seat arena, boasting a large color video display and a mixture of chair-back and bleacher seating, the WEC is a true mid-major facility, and one of the better ones around.

And there’s no locker room in the way of Kennedy and his staff anymore.

“It’s hard to put it into words. The difference between (Fleisher) and here is just…” Kennedy trailed off, at a loss for words. “It’s night and day, whatever the statement is. It’s just so different, you know? It’s a beautiful place, it’s a great opportunity for NJIT and the players. I’m happy for the University and happy for the community.”

NJIT made Kennedy the winningest coach in the five-day history of the Wellness & Events Center on Tuesday night, dispatching Lafayette 94-80.

It was the first win for NJIT at the $100-million facility, which represents the progress the school as well as the basketball program has made over the last decade-plus. It took two tries; Wagner spoiled opening night on Saturday with a 60-49 win.

The Highlanders were a member of the NCAA’s Division III up into the 90s, before moving up into Division II territory. They bumped up once more to Division I in 2006-07, but the early years were a struggle. NJIT made national news for going 0-29 in 2007-08, the final year for head coach Paul Casciano. Coming in the following year to replace him was Jim Engles, previously an assistant at Wagner, Rider and Columbia.

NJIT went 1-30 in Engles’ first year, but a much more respectable 10-21 the following. His third year they hit .500, then had back-to-back 20-win seasons in 2014-15 (21-12) and 2015-16 (20-15). That included a win over No. 17 Michigan in 2014, certainly the biggest notch in the belt in its first 12 seasons of D-I ball.

Kennedy had been with Engles since 2009, taking over the program last year when Engles was hired as head coach at Columbia. He was an assistant during the lean years, when he had to go convince potential student-athletes to go to a school that didn’t have any wins, much less a real arena or even a conference to play in.

“We sold an opportunity to play Division I basketball and get a great education at the same time,” Kennedy said. “It was an opportunity to play right away, playing opportunity was a big thing. Sold our beliefs. Sold our core beliefs as a university, our core beliefs as a program and it takes a leap of faith in kids.”

Last year, Kennedy’s first as head coach and the program’s second in the Atlantic Sun conference, NJIT went 11-20, with a 3-11 record in league play. Their best player, senior guard Damon Lynn, suffered a season-ending injury after 19 games, severely hurting the team in league play.

That whole time, they were playing their home games in the Fleisher Center, a 50-year-old box with seating for about 1,500. The “Zoom,” as it was affectionately known, was a Division III arena -- and not a great one by any stretch. Not many D-I programs were playing in a gym that only featured seating on one side of the court.  

“Obviously it wasn’t like this,” said junior guard Reilly Walsh, a starter on the Highlanders and Staten Island native. “But it did serve as a homecourt advantage, because other teams weren’t used to the close atmosphere that it provided us.

“But it’s good to be in a new arena,” he quickly added.

The Highlanders got their unofficial introduction to the arena on Friday, when they were first allowed in for a practice after spending most of their preseason in the Zoom.

“When I first walked in here, I was in awe,” Walsh said. “It’s unbelievable, going from what we were in to this is unbelievable. It’s a testament to all the hard work and dedication that everybody before us put in. It’s because of them that we have this, so [we’re] really grateful for it.”

A number of former Highlanders turned out to Saturday’s season opener, which was nearly sold out; Tuesday’s game wasn’t quite as well attended, though the 1,000-or-so got the WEC plenty loud at points.

The program’s alumni made sure that nobody on the current roster will take what they have for granted.

“They said we really better cherish (the arena), that they’d do anything to play in here, just one minutes, one game, they’d do anything,” Walsh said. “So that just puts it in perspective, enjoy it while you have it.”

The WEC isn’t quite done just yet. There are parts of the facility still under construction, and the coaches haven’t actually yet moved into their new offices, though that’s expected to happen shortly.

That’s like these Highlanders, which start two sophomores and three juniors, with three or four freshmen coming off the bench. They’re young, and still a work in progress.

But now they have a home to be proud of.

“I think we had some great success in the past years, now we’re playing in a conference, the Atlantic Sun, which is a tremendous conference. So it just keeps going upward,” Kennedy said. “To be able to build off of that is what we’re trying to do.”