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The NJIT Highlanders have gone 6-26 in America East play over the past two seasons and were the only team left out of the conference tournament in each year.
But entering Week 4 of league play, these Highlanders are 4-1 and in sole possession of first place in the America East standings.
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“I’m obviously ecstatic about the success we’ve had,” head coach Grant Billmeier told Mid-Major Madness in an interview. “But there’s a lot of season left. It’s never about where you start, but it’s about where you finish.”
The Highlanders haven’t quite reached the mountaintop yet. But it’s worth taking a step back to appreciate the strides made this season — this team is different.
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There are several reasons for the NJIT’s rather large jump from the league basement, but the one I keep re-visiting in my mind is the year-over-year leap made by Sebastian Robinson — or SebRob, as I like to call him.
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Over the past few seasons, NJIT’s offense has been a little too one-dimensional, predicated almost entirely on the dribble-drive, mid-range pull-up shot-making prowess of its backcourt. SebRob has been one of the leaders of that backcourt, trailing only now-Rutgers guard Tariq Francis in team usage rate over the past two seasons.
SebRob was part of the problem. The team was overly reliant on him and the guards to create. But the spacing was brutal, so Robinson couldn’t find enough lanes to get downhill, and he struggled to finish while turning the ball over nearly three times per game.
This year, the script has flipped. There are several exploitable dribble defenses in the America East, and Robinson has ripped them all to shreds. He’s getting to the bucket off the bounce more than ever and finishing at a higher rate than ever, all while halving his turnovers and improving significantly as a ball-screen orchestrator (.99 PPP, 80th percentile). It all helps explain why he’s running a whopping 120 offensive rating in conference play…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/worst-first-njit-sits-atop-134800842.html
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Publish date : 2026-01-22 13:48:00
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