Link to full MBWA news release
NEW YORK—The Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association will honor NJIT men's basketball coach
Jim Engles as
Peter A. Carlesimo Division I co-Coach of the Year for 2014-15 and sophomore guard
Damon Lynn on the All-Met Men's Division I second team,
Chuck Stogel, President of the MBWA announced Tuesday.
Engles and Lynn will receive their awards tonight, Tuesday, as part of the 82nd National Invitation Tournament/MBWA Haggerty Awards dinner at the Westchester Marriott, Tarrytown, NY.
NJIT's Engles is sharing the 2014-15 Division I Coach of the Year Award with St. Francis Brooklyn coach
Glenn Braica, who led his team to the Northeast Conference regular season title. Other major award winners the year in men's Division I are:
Sir'Dominic Pointer of St. John's as
Lt. Frank J. Haggerty Met Player of the Year and
Eric Paschall (Fordham) and
Angel Delgado (Seton Hall) as co-Rookies of the Year.
The late
Peter A. Carlesimo, a native of Newark and a longtime college coach and administrator, was Director of Athletics at Fordham from 1968 to 1978 and then served as Executive Director of the National Invitation Tournament.
In winning the award,
Jim Engles follows a long list of accomplished coaches, including Hall of Famer
Lou Carnesecca, who won the honor three times during his Illustrious tenure at St. John's, and
PJ Carlesimo (Peter A's son) who won it twice, including 1989, when he led Seton Hall to the National Championship game. Several other coaches have won the award on their way up the coaching ladder, including current Villanova coach
Jay Wright, who was MBWA Coach of the Year in 2001 when he led the program at Hofstra.
Previously honored by
CollegeInsiders.com as 2104-15
John McLendon National Coach of the Year, Engles led the Highlanders to a program Division I-record 21 wins (the old record was 16 and the total of 21 wins was the highest for NJIT in 20 years since the program competed in Division III in 1994-95
In first-ever Division I postseason bid, NJIT reached the semifinal of CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT) with wins over New Hampshire, Cleveland State, and Canisius before losing in the semifinals at Northern Arizona.
Engles' team had a 15-2 record at home in the Fleisher Athletic Center in 2014-15 and the team's 16-3 overall record from December 30 through to the end of the season was one of the best in all of college basketball.
As the nation's only Division I Independent in men's basketball, the Highlanders were tested by opponents from a wide spectrum of Division I conferences. In all, they scored wins over teams from nine different Division I conferences.
Three victories came against conference champions: Ivy League co-champ Yale, Northeast Conference regular season champ St. Francis Brooklyn, and Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament champ Hampton, which went on to win a game in the NCAA Tournament First Four.
Early in the schedule, NJIT scored its first-ever win against a team from the highly-rated Atlantic 10 Conference (Duquesne) and then the victory that forever redefined the Highlanders in the world of college basketball—the 72-70 upset win at Michigan, ranked #17/#16 at the time. It was NJIT's first-ever win vs. a Big Ten team and first-ever win over a ranked opponent.
Before this season, Engles had led the program to a level of respectability that moved away from its image formed in the first difficult years of transition to Division I from Division II, beginning in 2006-07.
After finishing 0-29 the year before Engles became coach and in his first in charge, the Highlanders were 1-30. But the one win was significant for having broken an infamous 51-game losing streak that covered parts of three seasons. The Highlanders won 10 in Engles' second season and was consistently in the 15-win range before this season's breakthrough to the next level with 21 wins and a strong national postseason run.
The Met Writers awards program, the oldest of its kind in the country, began in the 1930's by honoring major college players and programs in and around New York City. Known in basketball circles as the Haggerty Awards, the honors have expanded to include men's and women's basketball programs from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut at all levels of the NCAA.
The Met Writers awards in Division I are chosen from among 21 programs in New Jersey, New York City, Long Island, upstate New York (Army, Iona, Marist), and Fairfield County, Connecticut.