Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
No. 17 Michigan upset at home by NJIT
Willis Winfield and Ky Howard each scored 17 points to lead New Jersey Institute of Technology to a 72-70upset at 17th-ranked Michigan Saturday.
ANN ARBOR, MICH. » Not even NJIT’s coach expected his team to win at Michigan. Just ask him.
“Honestly, this wasn’t in my game plan,” Jim Engles said. “Coming into the season, I sort of penciled this one in as an ‘L.’ I have to readjust my whole process here, as to, ‘ We just beat Michigan. I don’t know, maybe we should be in the Top 25.’
“I don’t really know what to say.”
How about this: The team that played for the national title less than two years ago just lost to a commuter school whose “arena” doubles as a campus fitness center.
Damon Lynn made a critical 3-pointer with less than three minutes to go and finished with 20 points to help New Jersey Institute of Technology stun the 17thranked Wolverines 72-70 Saturday.
Engles, now in his seventh year at NJIT, has been through a lot. He inherited a program that went 0-29 the year before his arrival, eventually snapping a 51game losing streak after losing his first 18 contests.
He and the Newark, New Jersey, school with roughly 10,000 students were perhaps the biggest losers of the last bout of conference realignment, when the majority of the Great West Conference folded into the Western Athletic Conference, leaving NJIT as the only independent basketball program in Division I.
Among other consequences, that means NJIT, whose list of famous ath- letic alumni is more just “Who?” than “a Who’s Who” would need to do well enough to earn an atlarge bid to the NCAA tournament because it can’t receive an automatic one for winning a conference.
“I may appreciate winning more than anyone in the country,” Engles said. “When I go into a season - and I hate to say it this way - it’s hard to win.”
NJIT is left hoping that someone, perhaps in the America East or the Northeast Conference, will take notice of the team whose gym boasts a capacity of 1,500 — along with two weight rooms, a jogging track and a sauna.
Michigan recently installed an indoor waterfall in its home arena as part of a $52-million renovation that also added new scoreboards and luxury boxes.
“We’re doing everything we need to do to get in a league,” Engles said. “I would like to be in a conference. My kids deserve it. We shouldn’t be the only independent in the country. We’re not Notre Dame football.
“I don’t understand why someone in the NCAA - or someone - hasn’t taken more of an active role in this. We have Division I athletes. We’ve gone through the reclassification process. We’ve done everything the NCAA has asked us. . We need to be involved with everyone else.”
Caris LeVert scored 32 points for Michigan but the Wolverines (6-2) as a team only shot 42 percent from the field.
NJIT held the Wolverines’ comeback efforts at bay, sealing the win when Daquan Holiday corralled the ball with 4.3 seconds remaining and made two free throws.
The Highlanders (3-5) made 11 of 17 3 pointers and got 17 points each from Willis Winfield and Ky Howard.
Derrick Walton added 16 points for Michigan. He was the only other Wolverines player in double digits.
The two teams traded buckets down the stretch, until Lynn’s 3 gave the Highlanders a four-point lead they held onto down the stretch. LeVert’s lastsecond prayer missed wide — and the Highlanders’ bench poured onto the court in celebration in front of shocked fans.