Manhattan hopeful for reversal of fortune entering MAAC tournament

Steve Masiello and Manhattan are in unusual late-season swoon, but Jaspers are intent on restoring order in MAAC tournament. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

For any longtime follower of Manhattan College basketball, a familiar refrain in and around Draddy Gymnasium is one of the program's perpetual confidence that its best basketball will be played in February and March, creating a spike in momentum that coincides, in theory, at the most opportune of times entering the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament.

This season seems to be reading a different script, however.

At 12-17 on the year and having lost seven of eight since Steve Masiello’s contract was extended last month, with five of those losses coming by 12 points or more, Manhattan is in the midst of an atypical downturn entering Atlantic City. But if you ask the head coach about his team’s prospects, his outlook — to no surprise — remains a positive one.

“We’ve played good basketball this year,” a reassuring Masiello said hours before his Jaspers christen Boardwalk Hall’s three-year run as MAAC tournament host Tuesday against Fairfield, a team against whom Manhattan lost twice in the regular season, the most recent of those defeats coming this past Friday. “We’ve been a little inconsistent lately. In February, we were playing our best basketball, which is a little uncharacteristic for us. But I love our group, I love our process, I love how we come in every day, I love how these guys work. I’m encouraged by the people they are and how they’ve been performing on a day-to-day basis, and that’ll show for them.”

History has traditionally been kind to Manhattan in the third month of the year, though, despite five straight losing seasons since the Jaspers’ last MAAC championship in 2015. Yet in the face of long odds and perhaps the lowest expectations from an external standpoint, the magic of March is what has lit the fire for an outfit that, regardless of wins and losses, is always a tough out when the stakes are at their highest.

“I just think it’s an exciting time for everyone,” Masiello declared. “This is what you coach for, this is why you play, this is why you lace them up. It’s a fun time of year. I feel the NCAA Tournament is the greatest event in all of sports, and to be a part of that is something special. Anytime you can get into that field and be a part of it, you have the opportunity to make history. This week is what it’s all about.”

The Jaspers do have the imposing interior duo of Warren Williams and Pauly Paulicap, the latter a third team all-MAAC selection, working in their favor against a long and tall Fairfield front line, but those two variables are far from the only things needed to overcome an opponent coming into the postseason on the heels of an authoritative 66-50 victory on March 6 in Riverdale.

“They have our number,” Masiello conceded, with regard to the Stags. “When a team has your number twice, 72 percent of the time, that team wins the third game. We understand that. We’ve got a quick turnaround, so we’ve got to make a lot of adjustments and try to figure it out.”