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When the New Jersey Institute of Technology basketball team joined Division I in 2006, word barely had spread before it was splattered.
After a five-win debut season, the Highlanders endured a near two-year stretch of inconceivable ineptitude, starting with an 0-29 season.
Jim Engles then took over as coach. The Staten Island native brought 18 years of experience as an assistant coach, at Wagner, Rider and Columbia, but couldn’t steer the team away from an unofficial D-I record of 51 consecutive losses, with the school still undergoing reclassification.
He knew it was a long-term project, but a 1-30 record in his first season was something he couldn’t prepare for.
“You understand what you’re doing, but once you’re in it reality sets in a little more,” Engles said. “We naturally got beat down by the losing streak, but we came to work every day and that’s the lesson we learned: Life is not easy and you’re going to have to go through challenges and how you respond to that is going to dictate what you do later in life.”
The basketball was bad, but the athletic director, Lenny Kaplan, believed there was no such thing as bad publicity. NJIT joined D-I to put the school on the map and the long-sought spotlight had finally swiveled to Newark. The branding was only temporary.
“Schools like us, we’d never gotten in the paper nationally,” Kaplan said. “Even if you invent something tremendous, it’s buried in the science section. Athletics is on the front page every day. Were we bad in basketball? Absolutely. Not the end of the world. We were the worst program, but at some point, the worst programs get turned around.”
After beating Bryant on Jan. 21, 2009, the school was once-again camouflaged among the dozens of other mid-major schools whose nicknames are trivia questions. The next season produced 10 wins, followed by back-to-back 15-win campaigns, but this season, the Highlanders (5-5) jumped out to their best start since joining Division I and could produce their first winning season since making the leap.
NJIT was arguably more impressive in three road losses to Big East teams. They opened the season with a one-point loss at Providence, then suffered single-digit losses at St. John’s and Seton Hall, having led the Red Storm by double-digits in the second half.
“I can’t play without a chip on my shoulder at this point because of where we were at,” said senior Chris Flores, who leads the team with 17.7 points per game. “There’s no moral victories anymore. We’re out to win. They bleed just like we do. There’s really no difference. It’s just a name on a uniform. That’s all it is.”
Engles’ initial recruiting focused on the Northeast, but he now has a roster composed of players from Florida, Texas, Canada and Greece. When he started, the coach didn’t have much to offer, outside the only thing that really matters to recruits — playing time.
“I’d never heard of them until I got recruited by them, aside from them being on ESPN and having a bad name basketball-wise,” Flores said. “It’s not the desired school that a normal student-athlete would want to come to, but they let me know that I’d be able to play right away. There wasn’t any b.s.”
On game nights, a couple of hundred people stroll into Fleisher Gymnasium with the urgency of Methuselah (the oldest person to ever live according to the Hebrew Bible). General admission tickets are $9 and there is seating on just one sideline. Looking toward the far basket is like staring into an abyss. The wall is roughly 50 feet behind the hoop, slathered in white paint, and loose balls need to be chased down by school employees.
The game begins and the building is quiet. You can hear switches on pick and rolls. But with each passing minute, the crowd reveals itself a little more. Extra decibels creep in until the referees are drowned out.
The volume changes, but Engles is a constant. Watching him is to sacrifice any knowledge of what is happening in the game. There is no difference between a 3-pointer and a turnover. His arms remain crossed or rest on his waist, as his players and assistants tell the story behind him.
He’ll talk, but not for long. He’ll clap, though not often. He never sits, but he often crouches. He can’t get too low. There’s nothing in the game lower than what he has seen and the perspective is priceless.
“Every time we leave the court we want to leave a different impression on the people that are in the stands,” Engles said. “I certainly appreciate that there is no win that is taken for granted. If I had stepped into a more established program, I don’t know if I would have that appreciation for it.”
Next season, the Highlanders will be an independent. With the much-maligned Great West Conference in shambles, NJIT awaits an invitation, preferably in the Northeast. They wait for a new arena. They are hopes, but there is reason to be hopeful.
The nightmare is over. NJIT can dream.
“Now, we actually have expectations,” Kaplan said. “We’re looking for signature wins. We used to just look for wins. We’re a little antsy about that now. It’s hard to believe, we’re antsy about this.”
howard.kussoy@nypost.com