NEW YORK -- Columbia has hired Jim Engles as its men's basketball coach Tuesday.
Engles returns to Columbia after spending eight years as the head coach of the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Over the past six seasons at NJIT, he went 100-88, including consecutive 20-win seasons. Before leading the Highlanders, he was an assistant at Columbia from 2003-08.
Engles replaces Kyle Smith, who took the head coaching job at San Francisco last week. Engles inherits a squad that loses a very talented senior class but is coming off one of the best seasons in school history.
The Lions won 25 games and capped the season with the CollegeInsiders.com Tournament title. They became the first New York City school to win a postseason title since St. John's won the NIT in 2003 and only the second Ivy League school to win a postseason crown.