Riverdale, NY - With his former high school basketball coach proudly looking on Thursday night, February 2nd, Steve Masiello, a 1996 alumnus of The Harvey School in Katonah, guided his Manhattan Men’s Basketball Team to their 17^th win of the season at home against MAAC opponent Marist College. Tim Stark, who was Masiello’s high school coach when the White Plains native led his Harvey teammates to the 1996 New England Prep School Athletic Association Championship, saw first-hand, in a loud and boisterous Draddy Gym, the excitement his former star player has brought to the Manhattan College Men’s Basketball Program as the Jaspers easily got by the Red Foxes of Marist, 73-51.

Masiello, in his first year as head coach, is helping to make it a very interesting year for Manhattan as the pre-season pundits did not predict his team would be among the elite in this year’s MACC. But Manhattan, 10-3 in the MAAC and 17-8 overall, is right there near the top with the two teams seen as the early favorites, Iona and Loyola of Maryland.

While Manhattan, Iona, and Loyola slug it out for the regular MAAC season title, they will meet for the MAAC Tournament Championship the first week of March in Springfield, Massachusetts. The winner of the MAAC tournament gets an automatic bid to the NCAA College Championship Tournament.  Even if Manhattan loses the MAAC Tournament, there is a possibility Masiello’s Jaspers could get an NIT invitation, which would be quite an accomplishment, given the fact that Manhattan won only a total of six games last year.

A member of the 1998 NCAA Championship team while he played at Kentucky, Masiello later coached under Rick Pitino at Louisville for six years (2006-2011) before taking the job as head coach at Manhattan, where he also once served as an assistant coach and helped lead the Jaspers to two NCAA Tournament appearances (2003 & 2004) and one trip to the NIT (2002).

Harvey’s “Coach Stark,” as Masiello still calls him, said he was very proud and impressed with the coaching success of his former player. Manhattan hopes the success continues and leads to big things come tournament time.  Manhattan, which defeated the Gaels by a buzzer beater basket at the their home court in January, lost to Iona  Saturday, February 4th in the Jaspers' gymnasium, dropping them into second place in the MAAC.