Masiello, marathon top sports stories of ‘14

First he was a hero, taking Manhattan College’s basketball team to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 10 years. Then he was gone. 

Then his potential employer found out he didn’t graduate, and then he was back.

It was a whirlwind year for the Jaspers’ 37-year-old coach Steve Masiello. But it ended just as it began — with him leading Manhattan into the MAAC season. Masiello’s story and the Jaspers’ run to the Big Dance headline this year’s top sports stories The Press covered in 2014.

CV controversy simmers 

Only five days after Manhattan was knocked out of the NCAA tournament, Masiello agreed to a five-year deal worth more than $1 million per season to become head coach at the University of South Florida. But a background check found Masiello had not graduated from the University of Kentucky in 2000, as his resume stated, and the deal was cancelled. Manhattan decided to retain Masiello as coach so long as he completed his degree, which he did over the summer. 

He told The Press in September that  the controversy actually helped bring him closer to his team, and that being in the national headlines for a few days wasn’t the worst thing for the program.

“It’s the old adage: If you survive it, there’s no such thing as bad publicity,” Masiello said at the time. “For good, bad or indifferent, people know who Manhattan is and they know who their coach is. You have a window where people are going to be watching. That’s a big thing for us.”

Facing a mentor

Masiello played as a walk-on at Kentucky under coach Rick Pitino and then served as Pitino’s assistant at Louisville. As fate would have it, the Jaspers were paired up with the defending national champion Cardinals in the round of 64 of the NCAA tournament.

Thirteenth-seeded Manhattan led with only 2:35 to play, but eventually lost, 71-64, at the Amway Center in Orlando on March 20. Still, the Jaspers won 25 games and the MAAC title for the first time since 2003-04.