The Morning According to Us

The switch to Division I can be a bumpy transition.

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Misery, thou liveth in Jersey.

People tend to think college basketball is a little more egalitarian. Everybody has a shot, the assumption goes. The NCAA Tourney field is 65 deep, and Cinderella doesn't scrub floors around here. She's a player. But it ain't true. In reality, the college football bowl system is more inclusive. Some 40% of football teams can play in bowl games, but college basketball at the D-I level is now up to a 341 teams. So the NCAA Tournament really only hosts less than 20% of the field, and the top seeds still completely dominate. At the bottom of that field? The New Jersey Tech Highlanders.

Let's just say the Highlanders are off to a bit of a slow start in D-I. They went winless last year and are off to an 0-2 star this year, and haven't cracked 50 points yet. Going back to February 19th, 2007, they're 0 for their last 35. Go back two years, and they're 5-55. This is life as an Independent for your first few years in D-I. Last year, first year D-I member Presbyterian were awesome at home, winning every game. Too bad they only had one. One! They played 16 road games and lost each. That's a home-road ratio even the Globetrotters would smirk at.

Tech barnstormed a lot last year too, with 17 away contests compared to 12 at home. This year, however, they got a little closer to a normal split slate, with 14 home contests at the spacious Estelle and Zoom Flesher Athletic Center, which seats 1,500. Of course, the schedule for an Indy is still funky. For a four-week stretch in January and February, while most teams are working through steady conference play with bus trips and pond-hoppers, the Highlanders play Chicago State at home, wait two full weeks, then play…yes, Chicago State on the road. After another nine days, they catch a flight to play Texas Pan-American.

Ah, those short conference commutes.

On the team's site, some sports information assistant must come up with punchy headlines. This week, it's "Penn State Pulls Away From Determined Highlanders." Hell yeah they're determined, and actually, the headline was true. Early in the second half, State led just 37-29!

And that's why we love this team. They're going to win this year. No question. this is Division I. Anything is possible. New Jersey Tech has an enrollment of 5,300 students, more than Gonzaga or Wake Forest. They're nearby New York City, a recruiting hotbed. And maybe they should look into it. The current roster has as many players from Lithuania as they do New York: One. You can't go 0-for-ever, so we're calling it, Tech will break through soon.

And it won't be soon enough.

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