Manhattan College fires hoops coach Masiello before season starts

Tuesday afternoon marked the end of an era for the Manhattan College men’s basketball program.

What began as a normal day as the men’s college basketball moved closer to opening day suddenly changed with the virality of a couple tweets: Steve Masiello was out as head coach after 11 seasons at the school. And associate coach RaShawn Stores was elevated to interim head coach.

Ironically, the news broke a week after the college received great news about the men’s basketball program. On Oct. 18, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference announced Manhattan as its preseason pick to finish second place in a poll voted by the league’s 11 head coaches. The Field of 68 podcast network — composed of college basketball writers — tabbed Masiello as their MAAC Coach of the Year pick in a preseason college basketball almanac.

The shocking development came from a Twitter account named @FrankInGeneral, and set off a series of tweets confirming the report to be true. Zach Braziller of the NY Post and Adam Zagoria of ZagsBlog were among the sources on the story before the Manhattan College Athletics Department released its own statement.

"We thank Coach Masiello for his service and wish him well. As we look to building successful teams for the future — and with the signing period approaching — we determined that it is time to begin rebuilding from the top down," said Manhattan College Athletics Director Marianne Reilly.

Braziller reported the decision to fire Masiello came after he asked the school for a contract extension that would have kept him in Riverdale past the 2022-2023 season.

The Press has also learned of a reported rift between Masiello and Reilly, whose contract was extended over the summer by former longtime President of Manhattan College Brennan O’Donnell. It happened before O’Donnell was officially replaced by interim president Brother Daniel Gardner on July 1.

Now, less than two weeks before the season starts, Masiello will no longer be coaching the team and RaShawn Stores, 30, has been promoted from associate head coach to interim head coach, according to the same press release.

Since capturing MAAC Championships in 2014 and 2015 with the Jaspers, Masiello did not finish with a winning record in any of his last seven campaigns. Overall, he was 162-177 and departs as third all-time in number of wins for a program that began play in 1904. No Manhattan coach had more victories in Draddy Gymnasium than the 80 games won by Masiello there.