Harvey Alum Leads His College Team to the NCAAs

Manhattan College men’s basketball coach Steve Masiello, a 1996 graduate of The Harvey School, has guided his Jaspers to a berth in the NCAA Tournament after a thrilling 71-68 win Monday night against archrival Iona in the MAAC title game at the MassMutual Center in Cambridge, Mass. For the Jaspers of Riverdale, N.Y., it is their first time back to the NCAAs since 2004 when Masiello was an assistant.

Manhattan held the lead over Iona for most of the last 15 minutes but the Gaels (22-10) from New Rochelle missed a last shot chance to tie the game with less than 20 seconds left. The Jaspers held on to win and claim their berth in the field of 68 teams that will compete for a national championship.

Masiello, a White Plains native, has guided his team this season to 25-7 record, the second 20-win season of his three-year tenure as head coach. After serving as Manhattan’s assistant coach from 2001-2005, Masiello left to be an assistant to Rick Pitino at Louisville for six years, but returned to Riverdale as Manhattan’s head coach in 2011, turning the Jaspers into a winning team in his first year.

Masiello, one of only three Harvey basketball players in the school’s history to score 1,000 points, led his team to the 1995 New England Prep School Athletic Association Championship. He went on to play all four years for the University of Kentucky and was a member of the Kentucky team that won the 1998 NCAA Basketball Championship.