Before Thursday, there were three days that stood out as especially memorable in the life of Jim Engles.
“No. 1, getting married to my wife, No. 2 and 3 were having my two daughters,” the NJIT men’s basketball coach said by phone on Friday morning.
And now there’s a Day No. 4.
“Getting into a conference,” Engles said ahead of a press conference announcing that NJIT would become the eighth member of the Atlantic Sun Conference beginning in 2015-16.
The Highlanders, who last year caused a stir by knocking off then-No. 17 Michigan at Michigan and reaching the CIT semifinals , were previously independent and not affiliated with any conference. NJIT was the last remaining independent team in Division I basketball.
NJIT’s entrance into the Atlantic Sun was accelerated when Northern Kentucky last month departed the Atlantic Sun for the Horizon League. Engles got the official call on Thursday after school officials met with Atlantic Sun officials in Orlando.
With the addition of NJIT, the league will now have eight members, the minimum required for an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Now Engles and his players will actually play in a postseason tournament and can dream of creating some March Madness of their own, just as fellow Atlantic Sun member Florida Gulf Coast did in 2013 when they dunked their way to the Sweet 16.
“We didn’t have a postseason conference tournament to play in so we would’ve had to be 31-0 every year [to make the NCAAs] and that’s not realistic,” said Engles, who last year was named Co-Coach of the Year by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association.
NJIT had been a member of the Great West Conference until 2013, but that necessitated cross-country trips to places like North Dakota, South Dakota and Utah Valley University.
Now they will stay on the East Coast and play teams based in Florida and other Southern states.
“Honestly, for us it’s not a big deal,” Engles said. “We traveled in the Great West, we were crossing time zones, weather issues, the travel for the Great West was pretty extensive. So for us everything is in the same time zone, they’re all direct down South. We have a very extensive alumni base down South which is great, so there are a lot of reasons why it makes a lot of sense.”
Still, NJIT won’t open the 2015-16 season against a league opponent but instead will travel to play incoming point guard Isaiah Briscoe and Kentucky on Nov. 14 in a four-team exempt event at Rupp Arena.
“Kentucky wouldn’t be my first choice, obviously it would be my last choice, but it will give the kids some national exposure and the kids will enjoy it,” Engles said.
Meantime, Engles was still finding it hard to accurately put into words his feelings of joy at joining a conference.
All he knows is that Thursday counts among the best days of his life.
