Resilient comeback win defines Manhattan, shows what Jaspers could become

Steve Masiello celebrates with Manhattan students as Jaspers used late-game comeback to defeat Fordham Friday. (Photo by Manhattan College Cheerleading)

NEW YORK — Just as true genius is sometimes misunderstood, true success lies in the intangibles, the qualities that are not always reflected in black and white for the world to see and dissect.

Steve Masiello has let that much be known through his first decade as head coach at Manhattan College, and four days into his eleventh season in Riverdale, continues to highlight the aspects that go beyond the hardwood, reiterating the ethos of leading his team on and off the floor.

“It’s bigger than basketball” has been a common refrain inside the walls of Draddy Gymnasium over the years. And with the most experience returning to the program since Masiello’s teams brought Manhattan back to the NCAA Tournament in 2014 and 2015, the logic is easily justified.

So it was again Friday night as the Jaspers fell behind double digits in their crosstown matchup with Fordham, an annual clash shelved last year due to the pandemic, but reprised for the 113th time. Gradually, Manhattan lifted itself out of its hole, leading for only 34 seconds in a 66-60 victory over the Rams and using a 12-2 run to author a performance indicative of both who this team is and what it can ultimately morph into.

“We kept talking in timeouts about love,” Masiello remarked. “We love each other, we’ll get through this. And to the outside, it looks like we’re probably fighting, but it’s how we communicate with each other. That’s how we communicate every day.”

“Coach tells us we’re grown men, so we get to react,” Jose Perez echoed. “It looked a little hectic in there, like we were arguing, but that’s how we show love.”

Manhattan's final two minutes, starting with a Josh Roberts dunk that pulled the Jaspers within two points of Fordham, seemed as though they came straight out of the catalog of Masiello’s early years, with the Alvarados, Andujars, Beamons and Browns of the world making timely shots and answering with stops on the other end of the floor. A Warren Williams steal led to a game-tying layup by Elijah Buchanan, again fueling a late-game takeover against a team the senior said he “simply don’t like” for the second time in as many years. Yet another big shot from Samir Stewart, whose on-court resemblance to RaShawn Stores becomes increasingly similar with each passing game, and finally, Perez’s game-clinching block of an Antonio Daye layup to ice a character-building triumph Masiello insisted would probably not have happened with last year’s roster.

“We just trust each other,” Perez reiterated. “We’re family, we’re very connected. Coach Mas trusts me, the whole entire staff trusts me, my teammates trust me. I just try to make plays, get them going, then try to get myself going after. It’s more important that they shine instead of myself. I’m usually the low-motor guy. They give me the energy.”

“He’s a dominant player who shares it,” said Masiello of Perez — one of two high-major transfers, Josh Roberts being the other — and the facets of his game that complement the Manhattan style. “He’s a great playmaker, and he hasn’t played in a year and a half. He didn’t play at Marquette or the second half of the year at Gardner-Webb, so there’s some rust on his game. He’s got to stop looking for contact and finish with the basketball, but that’ll come with trust, when he doesn’t have to look over his shoulder, he has nothing to prove. It’s a process with him, but he’s in a good space.”

So too is Manhattan as a whole, regardless of whether or not the ends justify the means when looking inward from the outside. Masiello is unfazed by the confusion that may come up from those not intimately connected with he and his team, in fact, he embraces it in a sense because the unique cohesion in the bonds forged between coach and players brings everything full circle.

“You’re not us, so you’re not going to understand us and that’s okay,” Masiello insisted. “But that’s just our way. This is a special group, whether we won or lost, it’s a great feeling we had. I think we’ve got a chance to be special, but a lot goes into that. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but we’re going to stay with it and just keep moving forward. We respect each other. It’s a two-way street, and when you’ve gotta go through a lot to get to this point, you can’t fast-forward that or fake that. And that’s why we are where we are.”

“They’ve been here four years by my side, through some tough times, never wavered once. We’ve been through a lot that no one knows about. Basketball is easy. We’re grinding on life, so the relationship is bigger and this stuff becomes easy, but at the end of the day, it’s a lot of love.”