Manhattan descends upon Albany hoping to take advantage of wide-open MAAC Tournament

With state of MAAC among its most parity-laden at any point in history, Steve Masiello and Manhattan are hopeful that unpredictable nature of league season can guide Jaspers to third conference championship in six years. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

Six years ago, Manhattan pulled off a somewhat improbable run to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship game from the No. 6 seed in the tournament, coming up three points short against Iona in a contest that became the launching pad for the Jaspers' back-to-back MAAC crowns in each of the following two seasons.

Now a half-dozen years since a team which entered a potential date with destiny at 14-17 on the year, Manhattan is in a similar predicament as it journeys into Albany for this season's MAAC tournament, opening the road to a potential third league title this decade as the No. 7 seed, beginning postseason play Thursday evening against Fairfield, with the winner to face regular season runner-up Canisius in the quarterfinals.

"I think this tournament has been more about matchups this year than any other tournament," head coach Steve Masiello revealed as the Jaspers (10-20, 8-10 MAAC) will use a rubber match with Fairfield -- whom Manhattan defeated at Draddy Gymnasium on January 31 before the Stags returned the favor on Fairfield's home floor one week ago this past Sunday -- to determine how much further a late-season surge can offset a 4-16 start. "I think certain matchups are really good for some teams, and certain matchups are a lot tougher. This year, more than any other year, it's matchup-driven, and it could be one of those things where the No. 9 seed is better than the No. 6, because of who you're playing."

With that said, the eighth-year coach -- who owns a victory over Fairfield in the lone conference tournament matchup between the two schools in his tenure -- believes the Stags are one of the more difficult draws for his team, but remains optimistic about what his group can accomplish this weekend, tying into the Jaspers' turning point of the season, a loss to Siena at the end of January that set the tone for a resilient conclusion to February and March, winning six of ten games.

"They're a very difficult matchup for us, actually I think, a bad matchup for us," Masiello said of Fairfield and its backcourt-oriented attack, led by freshman point guard Neftali Alvarez and junior college import Landon Taliaferro, not to mention the effectiveness of Jonathan Kasibabu down low. "It's probably the one team that you didn't want to draw, but we happened to, and that's kind of how it goes. But we'll come out and try to put our best effort forward."

"I just think when we got back from that Siena game, guys just understood their vision, their potential and what it could be, and we just spoke about exactly what we wanted to be and what we need to be doing," he added, highlighting Manhattan's mantra of new actions leading to new results. "We refocused and kind of got back after it, turned our work ethic up, and that led to us playing a better brand of basketball."

The Jaspers' youth has had its share of peaks and valleys this season, going through an inevitable period of growing pains in the earlier part of the year before righting the ship heading into the heart of the conference schedule. And while the majority of the roster is still composed of freshmen and sophomores, the progression has left its mark, and the battle scars are signs that Masiello feels could be beneficial to both short and long-term prosperity.

"This is a great group, a great, young core of guys," he reflected. "They work hard, they have great attitudes, they're getting better every day, they want to do the right things, and we did it this year without Pauly (Paulicap). I think it was a big growing-up year for them in a sense where they couldn't hide. They really didn't have a lot of senior leadership or upperclassman leadership around them, they were kind of thrown in the fire from day one, and I thought they did a good job of handling the downs and the lows, and also handling some success. That's part of growing as a young basketball player -- especially when you're a freshman or a sophomore -- and I think they did a good job with it, and I'm excited about them."