NJAC Preseason Poll | 2015-16 Schedule | 2015-16 Roster
 
NEWARK, N.J. (November 12, 2015) – The Rutgers University-Newark men's basketball team was picked to finish second in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) according to a poll of the league's 10 head coaches released Thursday morning.
 
Stockton University was picked first, receiving five first-place votes, with the Scarlet Raiders taking second – also with five first-place votes. William Paterson University was third, New Jersey City University was fourth and Rowan University was slotted fifth to round out the top five. Ramapo College was this year's dark horse candidate at No. 6, and the Roadrunners were followed by Montclair State University, The College of New Jersey, Kean University and Rutgers University-Camden.
 
The Scarlet Raiders are coming off a 2014-15 season in which they won 19 games and advanced to the semifinals of both the conference and Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Metro tournaments.
 
"We have a long, long way to go," said 15th-year Head Coach Joe Loughran. "It's nice to be recognized by your peers and people you compete against year-in and year-out, and it may be be cliché, but we want to be at the top of the conference come late-February, not in early-November."
 
Rutgers-Newark will tangle with Rutgers University on Friday night at 7 p.m. in Piscataway, squaring off against the DI Scarlet Knights at The RAC in their first game of the 2015-16. The game will officially go down as an exhibition for Rutgers-Newark but will be a great test for Coach Loughran's team.
 
"We have an chance to go play in a hostile environment against a really talented team," commented the head coach. "Anytime you can do that, you take it. We are all looking forward to the opportunity, and I expect us to play very hard."
 
R-N went 11-7 in conference play a season ago and finished 14-4 in the NJAC in 2013-14. Since the 2008-09 season, the Scarlet Raiders have been above .500 in the NJAC each campaign and have won no less than 11 NJAC tilts since the conference went to a home-and-home schedule. Rutgers-Newark has played in the conference tournament every year since 2009.
 
After the team's trip to Piscataway, the Scarlet Raiders will officially open the 2015-16 season at Hunter College on November 17. The Raiders will then head to Gettysburg College for the Bullets' Tip-Off Tournament, and they open home play with their NJAC opener against New Jersey City University on Tuesday, November 24 in The Golden Dome Arena.