Swish Gilyard leading Manhattan resurgence as Jaspers head to MAAC tournament with top 5 seed

Swish Gilyard flushes dunk as Manhattan wraps up win over Sacred Heart Thursday. Jaspers have won seven of nine entering MAAC tournament. (Photo by Vincent Dusovic/Manhattan Athletics)

NEW YORK — When he returned to the college basketball fraternity after a self-imposed gap year, John Gallagher extolled the potential of Manhattan College—now Manhattan University—among the mid-major landscape.

The Jasper program, whether under the direction of Steve Lappas, Fran Fraschilla, Bobby Gonzalez or Steve Masiello, had historically been among the better teams in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and in the New York area. The success was not lost on Gallagher, who believed in the potential even after essentially being hired sight unseen in March of 2023.

Two years later, Gallagher has taken Manhattan to its best performance in a decade. At 17-12, and 12-8 in the MAAC, the Jaspers are in the midst of their most successful campaign since 2014-15, when they repeated as MAAC tournament champions, overachieving to an extent thanks to the tireless work ethic of their ebullient coach.

“I’m just thankful for this place,” Gallagher gushed after Manhattan’s victory over Sacred Heart last Thursday, one that secured a first-round bye in the upcoming MAAC tournament. “This place feels like home to me. It just has a great feeling. I really believe in the place, it’s a big-time mid-major job. I believe that, and now I think the energy behind the alums and the fans, you could feel the energy building.”

“Less is more. When you’re good, you don’t have to tweak things, you just gotta go play. I just felt the energy in that second half, so for us, we just have great confidence in how our approach is. We’re not adding things, we just have to work on our mental approach. We’re not a team that thinks this is an anomaly. These guys really, really study game plans and understand them.”

With five players averaging 10 points or more a game, including the likely MAAC Rookie of the Year in Will Sydnor and Sixth Man of the Year Devin Dinkins, the Jaspers make up for a short rotation with a relentless style on both ends of the floor and the best offense in the conference.

However, the player who does most of the work may just be the player mentioned the least, junior guard Masiah (Swish) Gilyard, who Gallagher plucked from Blinn College in Texas, a junior college whose most notorious alumnus is former Heisman Trophy winner and NFL MVP Cam Newton. So how did a player like Gilyard, whose nose for the basketball and Brooklyn roots would normally give him a chance to ply his wares at a higher level, end up in Riverdale? According to Gallagher, the oversight just proves that good things truly do come in small packages.

“He flew under the radar for one reason: 6-foot-3,” the coach said of Gilyard. “If he’s 6’6, 6’7, he’s playing in the SEC or ACC. That’s just the facts. His body, what he does physically, he just comes up with balls and he’s on the floor, he’s stealing it, he’s deflecting it. He just disrupts the game in such a way. He’s been the one difference maker for us in this turn to feeling like you can win games.”

“Swish has just been Swish all year. When I recruited him, his JUCO coach who I talked to a lot, Scott Schumacher, said, ‘look, you’re gonna have to keep him on the floor, I’m just telling you. And there’s no truer words. You just have to have him out there. He’s just indispensable for us in everything we do. I think he’s the most under-talked about player in the conference. No one even mentions his name in any conversations. We flipped this thing in two years because of him. He deserves a lot of credit.”

Manhattan is still unsure of who it will face to begin the MAAC tournament next week, but is arguably the hottest team in the conference at the right time, having won seven of its last nine to conclude the regular season. In the Jaspers’ last two games, 11 players have registered a double-figure scoring game, only underscoring the firepower that comes from multiple sources.

“All of us are super dangerous,” Gilyard assessed. “If one of us is not hitting, we could all be hitting. You just can’t stop it.”

“Quite frankly, we’re probably a year ahead of schedule,” Gallagher reiterated. “It’s hard in mid-major basketball, flipping it. We don’t have any NIL budget. We’re doing it the old-school way and it’s very rewarding to see these guys keep growing. I think we have a lot in our tank, and you can’t rest on your achievements. What we have now is we have guys that are finding each other. That’s exciting.”