Game 1	NJIT (0-0; 9-21 in 2019-20) at Temple (0-0; 14-17 in 2019-20)
Date | Time	Saturday, December 19, 2020 | 4:30pm
Location | Arena	Philadelphia, PA | Liacouaris Center
Live Video	ESPN+ ($$)
Live Stats	In-game statistics (free)
All-time series	Temple Leads 1-0
Game Notes	NJIT Notes (PDF) | Temple Notes

NEWARK, NJ-- After a 291-day offseason, the NJIT men's basketball team will finally hit the court on Saturday when it opens up its 2020-21 season at Temple on ESPN+ at 4:30pm.

Scouting the Highlanders
NJIT will show up to Philadelphia Saturday with a much different roster than the one it completed the 2019-20 season with, but the squad will once again be led by Zach Cooks. Cooks, a Preseason All-America East selection, led the ASUN in scoring last season and is one of three captains, joining fellow senior San Antonio Brinson and junior Souleymane Diakite as the team's leaders. Those three combined to start 86 games a year ago and project to be back in the starting lineup again this season. Fifth-year Head Coach Brian Kennedy has plenty of options for the other two starting positions including junior Diego Willis and redshirt sophomore Kjell de Graaf. 

Brushing Up on Temple
Temple was tabbed to finish 10th out of 11 teams in the American Athletic Conference Preseason Coaches Poll after finishing 14-17 last season. The Owls will be led by senior captains JP Moorman II and De'Vondre Perry. Moorman started 26 games in 2019-20, averaging 5.8 points and 5.1 rebounds per contest.  Perry, who was a starter a sophomore, came off the bench to lead the team in three-point percentage (26-63, .413) while chipping in 6.2 points per game. Aaron McKie is in his second season leading the Owls following five seasons as an Assistant and Associate Coach at Temple, his alma mater.   

All-Time Series
Temple won the only matchup between the two programs, 68-63 almost exactly four years ago (Dec. 17, 2016) in Philadelphia.

A New Home for NJIT
The 2020-21 season will feature NJIT's first season as a member of the America East Conference.  The Highlanders, who became the 10th full member of the America East effective July 1, 2020, will play a full basketball double round‐robin schedule of 18 conference games against the other nine schools.  The schedule format consists of weekend series (Saturday and Sunday) where a team hosts the same opponent on back‐to‐back days for two games.

NJIT departs the ASUN Conference after five seasons as a member (first season 2015-16), which marked the first time that the Highlanders had been a full member of an automatic qualifying NCAA Division I multisport conference.

MR. DECEMBER!:
In 13 games played over the last two Decembers, Zach Cooks has averaged 21.5 ppg, 5.5rpg, 2.8apg, and 2.0 steals per game.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS VOL III:
All three of NJIT's third-year players are international student-athletes: forward Souleymane Diakite (6'9") is a native of Bamako, Mali; forward Kjell de Graaf hails from Rotterdam, Netherlands; and guard Diego Willis is a product of Hermosillo, Mexico. Adding to the international flair, all three played high school basketball in the Canary Islands -- an autonomous community of Spain. De Graaf is a redshirt sophomore this season, while Diakite and Willis are juniors.

PUTTING THE NJ IN NJIT:
Just four seasons ago, NJIT entered the season with the most localized roster in all of Division-I basketball -- as the average player was just 39 miles from hometown to Newark. For the second-straight season, the Highlanders would rank towards the bottom of that list, as Newark native Adetokunbo Bakare replaces Shyquan Gibbs as the only NJIT player to hail from the Garden State. Bakare played his high school basketball blockes from NJIT at St. Benedict's Prep.

LOU HENSON AWARD WATCH LIST :
Senior captain Zach Cooks was named to the Lou Henson Award Preseason Watch List for the second-straight season, it was announced on Tuesday, December 1. The Lou Henson Award is given annually to the nation's top Division I mid-major player. The award honors the late Henson, a former Illinois and New Mexico State coach who won 775 games in 41 seasons.  Henson is the winningest coach in Illinois basketball history with 423 victories. During his 21 seasons (1975-1996), Henson led the Fighting Illini to 16 postseason appearances, including 12 NCAA tournaments and a Final Four appearance in 1989. Overall, 50 players were named to the Preseason Watch List. Cooks was one of just two America East players (Obadiah Noel; UMass Lowell) and one of just two from an NJ squad (Jahlil Jenkins; FDU) named to the watch list.

PHILADELPHIA - BORN AND RAISED
Two NJIT players will be making a bit of a homecoming on Saturday as junior Antwuan Butler and redshirt freshman Da'Mir Faison each call the City of Brotherly Love their hometown. Butler, a transfer from Austin Peay, played three seasons of high school basketball at Delaware Valley before finishing up his career at Cardinal O'Hara where he helped lead the squad to the Philadelphia City League quarterfinals. Butler scored his 1,000th career high school point on the Licouraris Center floor late in his junior season. Faison, who missed his freshman season with an injury, was the Wyoming Valley Conference MVP at Hazleton Area HS.

#PROTECTTHEWEC
NJIT enters its fourth campaign in the state-of-the-art Wellness and Events Center (WEC) . In three seasons playing in the WEC, the Highlanders are 26-19 in this three story, 220,000-square-foot building that features a 3,500-seat basketball arena. The Highlanders are slated to open their home schedule on January 9, when they host Maine in an America East contest.