Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Manhattan's First Step: Placing Masiello On Leave

Just a quick update on Steve Masiello's status at Manhattan, primarily because there's not enough new information for more.

Manhattan's administration has issued this release about Masiello's situation:

"As a result of a background check commissioned by the University of South Florida, Manhattan College has learned there is a question of the validity of head men’s basketball coach Steve Masiello’s undergraduate degree from the University of Kentucky. 
 
Masiello is currently in the process of reviewing his degree status with the University of Kentucky. Manhattan College has placed Masiello on leave while he completes this process with the University.
 
Masiello was named Manhattan College’s head men’s basketball coach in April 2011. Prior to that, he was an assistant coach at the University of Louisville from 2005-11. Masiello was an assistant coach at Manhattan College from 2001-05 and began his coaching career at Tulane University in 2000-01. He played four years of basketball at Kentucky from 1996-2000.
 
We ask all parties to respect the privacy of our student athletes until this matter is resolved.
 
Manhattan College will issue further comment as soon as this expedited process is complete."

It would seem that determining whether Masiello has, or does not have, the degree that he has claimed on his resume since 2000 should be a relatively easy and quick process.

A variety of published reports quote officials from Kentucky as saying that Masiello does not have a degree from that school.

Whether Masiello can resolve that issue remains to be seen.

And, a number of published reports have indicated that having a college degree is a prerequisite for a coaching position at Manhattan.

Whether Manhattan would be willing to waive that requirement in deference to a coach who resurrected a downtrodden program and brought the school untold good will and positive publicity over his three seasons remains to be seen.

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