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GAME NOTES
After playing just one game in each of the last three weeks, the Wagner (6-3) men's basketball team will hit the road for two games in a three-day span beginning with a 2:00 pm game at NJIT on Sunday, followed by a contest at Big 12 member Kansas State on Tuesday at 7:00 PM.
The Seahawks will travel to Manhattan, KS on Monday morning and will have just one day to prepapre for the meeting vs. the Wildcats. But, the first order of business is a trip to Newark to meet the 0-11 Highlanders, who are in the midst of a 44-game losing streak, which is the longest active losing streak in the nation.
THE MATCHUP
Wagner (6-3) and New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) will meet on the hardwood for the very first time. The Seahawks are coming off an impressive 78-66 wire-to-wire home victory over Brown on Dec. 21 while the Highlanders will bring an 0-11 mark into the game, having dropped a 78-52 decision at Rutgers on Dec. 23. NJIT has now lost 44 consecutive games, the longest active streak in the nation.
The Seahawks boast a blanced scoring lineup that features three players averaging 13 or more points per game. Fifth-year 6-2 senior guard Joey Mundweiler leads the way at 13.9 ppg., followed by 6-5 fifth-year senior forward Jamal Smith (13.3) and senior 6-4 forward Llew Radford 913.0). Radford is the team leader in rebounds at 8.2 boards per game while fifth-year senior 6-6 point guard Justin Drummond leads the team in assists at 3.9 per game while averaging 9.6 points per outing. NJIT is led by 6-5 junior forward Gary Garris, the lone Highlander averaging in double figures at 10.6 points an outing while grabbing a team-best 5.3 rebounds per game. Jheryl Wilson, a 6-3 sophomore guard, checks in at 9.2 points per game and a team-best 2.2 assists. Justin Garris, a 6-3 sophomore guard and the younger brother of Gary Garris, averages 6.6 points per contest.
WAGNER IN THE NEC
Wagner is No. 1 in the NEC in SEVEN statistical categories; scoring offense (71.0), scoring margin (+3.9), FG % (.474), FG % Defense (.409), 3-pt. FG % (.401), assists (15.67), and assist/TO ratio (0.96),
THE COACHES
Wagner College head coach #Mike Deane# is in his 25th season as a head coach and his sixth as the head man of the Seahawks. He holds an overall coaching mark of 422-296, having eclipsed the 400-win plateau last season. His 416 wins entering the season ranked him 27th among all active coaches. In his sixth season at Wagner, Deane is 80-76 on Grymes Hill. In 2007-08, Wagner delivered a memorable and milestone season, recording that 23-8 overall record and a 15-3 mark in the NEC, which was good for second place. The 23 wins set a school record for most wins in a season, besting the old mark of 21 wins accomplished on three occasions, 1967-68, 1978-79 and 2002-03. Jim Engles is in his first Season at NJIT, having been named on April 10, 2008. Engles is a name that should be familair to Seahawk fans as he served as an assistant at Wagner under head coach Tim Capstraw from 1991-1997. The 39-year old Engles served 18 seasons as an assistant coach, the last five as the lead assistant at Columbia. A 1990 graduate of Dickinson College, where he was a three-year letterwinner, Engles jumped into coaching at the Division I level in 1991 as a graduate assistant at Wagner. In 1997, he moved on to Rider and stayed there until 2003 before moving on to Columbia, where he joined the new staff under head coach Joe Jones in 2003-04.
29-11 over Last Two Seasons
The Seahawks boast a .725 winning percentage over the last two seasons, having won 29 of their 40 games they've played, going 23-8 last season and 6-3 thus far in 2008-09. In 2007-08, Wagner delivered a memorable and milestone season, recording that 23-8 overall record and a15-3 mark in the NEC, which was good for second place. The 23 wins set a school record for Most wins in a season, besting the old mark of 21 wins accomplished on three occasions, 1967-68, 1978-79 and 2002-03. The Seahawks were led by its talented senior trio of 6-2 guard Mark Porter, 6-7 center Durell Vinson and 6-7 forward James Ulrich. During its 23-win campaign, headcoach Mike Deane became just the 29th coach in NCAA history to eclipse the 400 career-win mark.
