Grant Billmeier ready for first voyage as NJIT skipper

Grant Billmeier demonstrates defense during NJIT practice. Highlanders hired former Kevin Willard assistant as head coach this offseason. (Photo by Matt Kipp/NJIT Athletics)

With a sparkling $110 million arena and a nationally acclaimed profile both athletically and academically, NJIT was quite attractive when the program sought a new head men’s basketball coach following the resignation of Brian Kennedy after seven seasons in which he guided the Highlanders from the Atlantic Sun Conference into their present home within the America East.

Enter Grant Billmeier.

The longtime Kevin Willard acolyte was athletic director Lenny Kaplan's choice to helm the program this past April after the former Seton Hall big man followed Willard from his alma mater to the University of Maryland last year, enabling him to return to his native New Jersey in a new capacity. And like many others who come away impressed by the sheer magnitude of what NJIT has to offer, Billmeier was equally wowed during the interview process.

“I had never been on campus until I went up there for my interview,” he recalled. “And I heard the arena was nice, but when you get up there and you see it, you’re like, ‘man, this is incredible!’ Then when you see the practice facilities and the weight room, the training room, the film room and the locker room, we have everything we need. The apartments that the players have, I thought what we had at the University of Maryland, you wouldn’t get anything as good as that. But this is on the same level as that, and then all the talent in a 60-mile radius from Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York City, Long Island, there’s so much good talent.”

The astonishment has carried over into his first six months on the job in Newark, where he has already instilled his insatiable work ethic into a roster mixed with experience and youth to set a foundation and lay an imprint into how he wants this program to be built.

“I love the energy and the passion the team brings, especially the coaches,” sixth-year senior Elijah Buchanan said. “When they want to show us how to hustle, they’re diving on the ball. I feel like our team’s going to win a lot because we play hard and we’re bringing a lot of energy into the gym.”

“Everyone has been just blown away and the energy and passion our kids have played with, how hard they’ve worked every single day,” Billmeier echoed. “That’s just been a common theme.”

Buchanan, the former Manhattan College wing who was hampered by injuries last season and unavailable after the first month of the year, came in a package deal for the Highlanders. The Bronx native and fellow Jasper expatriate Daniel Schreier took their talents across the Hudson River after RaShawn Stores, the interim coach at Manhattan last season, did not receive the full-time job. Stores was Billmeier’s first hire at NJIT shortly thereafter, and for Buchanan, the decision on where to play his final year was a no-brainer.

“When (Stores) didn’t get the job at Manhattan, I told him wherever he goes, I’m gonna ride with him,” he recalled. “That’s basically it. He’s really like my big brother, basically. He taught me a lot, telling me to keep my head up when I get down. I’m always hard on myself and he’s the one to come and pick me up, so I’m just going to stick with him forever.”

Following his mentor has paid off thus far. Buchanan projects to be an integral piece of the puzzle for NJIT this season, with his experience in Division I, coupled with the familiarities with Stores and similar styles of play between Manhattan and what Billmeier studied under Willard, being instrumental in a mutual evolution for all parties.

“He’s going to be in everything,” Billmeier said of Buchanan. “The thing that I loved about Elijah when I watched him on film is he can be played in so many ways. Teams are going to have a hard time figuring out who to put on him because most of the time, he’s going to be used like a guard and he’s going to be in a ton of pick-and-rolls. If teams decide they want to put a true guard on him, then we’re going to throw Elijah in the post and let him facilitate offense, similar to how (Jay) Wright did it at Villanova when he had Jalen Brunson. I think Elijah is going to have a tremendous year, and he’s only getting better. I think you’ll see the best of him in January (and) February.”

“You talked about RaShawn Stores, he’s been so valuable to me just because he comes from playing and learning under Steve Masiello. I spent 12 years learning under Kevin Willard, and obviously they both were assistants that came up in the business under Rick Pitino. So a lot of our terminologies, a lot of our defensive principles are already the same. While I have 16 new players that have never played for me, it’s extremely valuable to have a coach on my staff that understands what I want day in and day out. A lot of stuff that we did at Maryland, (Stores) did at Manhattan. I’ve been extremely fortunate to have RaShawn. He thinks like a head coach.”

Aside from Buchanan, Billmeier also projects to use seniors Justin Anderson, Kjell de Graaf, Mekhi Gray and Adam Hess significantly. The Highlanders also have nine freshmen on the roster, highlighted by Roselle Catholic standout Sebastian Robinson and Pittsburgh native Tariq Francis, the nephew of Rutgers assistant coach Brandin Knight. Of great satisfaction thus far is the fact that none of the first-year players have exhibited true freshman qualities for the most part, they have blended in like veterans as each player learns the ropes together.

“I’ve been extremely impressed with Mekhi Gray,” Billmeier said. “I’m using him in a very similar way to how we used Desi Rodriguez when I was at Seton Hall, being a big athletic lefty, 6’6 wing. I love Adam Hess’ competitiveness, I think he’s a knockdown shooter. And then Kjell de Graaf, he’s very skilled and I’m going to use him a lot on the perimeter. We’re doing a ton of NBA, five-out action because I love Kjell’s ability to shoot and pass the basketball. And we have some talented freshmen, unfortunately we have nine of them, so I can’t single any one of them out, but I have three that I expect to play a lot of minutes for us. There are times that they’re going to look like freshmen, but by the time we get to February, I think those guys are going to be very comfortable.”

“They don’t feel like freshmen, honestly,” Buchanan said of the nine newcomers. “The way they bring the intensity in practice every day, they don’t back down to nobody, so I don’t think leading them will be very hard, honestly.”

Overall, while Billmeier will likely pattern his style of play and system after a majority of what he helped implement under Willard, the new head coach still insists he will be his own man. So while some of the on-court schematics may look similar to a New Jersey hoops diehard, the machinations within are organic and, if all goes according to plan, will be cultivated over time rather than the quick-fix era ushered in by the proliferation of the transfer portal.

“Our defense is identical, the way we play pick-and-rolls is identical,” Billmeier said, comparing his system to Willard’s at Maryland. “We started doing some five-out last year because Julian Reese was comfortable catching and making reads, and we’re going to do some of that with Kjell. One thing Coach Willard always did was he always put players in the best position for them to be successful. It was never, ‘hey, this is my offense and you’ve gotta get adjusted to my offense,’ it was more, ‘I got these guys and this is what their strengths are.’ The way I run and a program and the way Coach Willard ran a program, it’ll be about 97 percent the same.”

“I want to do things differently. I’m going to be very selective with who I go after in the transfer market, but I want to do this thing with mostly local high school kids. I feel like there’s so much good talent in the area that we could build this program into a winning program year in and year out.”