RIVERDALE, N.Y. - Manhattan College head men's basketball coach Steve Masiello was named the 2012 All-Metropolitan Writers Association Co-Coach of the Year and junior guard George Beamon was selected to the All-Met Second Team as announced on Thursday. Masiello and Beamon will be honored this evening at the 79th NIT/MBWA Haggerty Awards Dinner, along with Manhattan College Director of Athletics Bob Byrnes who will receive the Distinguished Service Award. Masiello shared the All-Metropolitan Coach of the Year Award with Dan Hurley who coached Wagner to a 25-6 record this season.
In his first season at the helm, Masiello orchestrated the biggest turnaround in the country by guiding Manhattan to a 15-win improvement at the Division I level. Inheriting a team that won only six games the previous season, the Jaspers finished the 2011-12 campaign 21-13 and made their first postseason appearance since 2006. Manhattan advanced to the Second Round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT) after defeating Albany, which marked the Jaspers first postseason victory since winning at Maryland in the 2006 National Invitation Tournament.
Masiello's 21 wins were the second most for a first year Manhattan head coach in the program's 106-year history, only behind Fran Fraschilla who finished with 23 victories in the 1992-93 campaign. The Jaspers exceeded all expectations in 2011-12 as they secured third place in the MAAC with a 12-6 league mark, after being selected to finish eighth according to the MAAC Preseason Coaches' Poll.
Beamon has received All-Metropolitan honors for the second straight year. He will add the award to the First Team All-MAAC and Second Team All-NABC District I (National Association of Basketball Coaches) accolades that he earned after leading the conference in scoring by averaging 19.0 points per game. Beamon also finished the season ranked 24th in the country in scoring. He was named MAAC Player of the Week twice and CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major National Player of the Week once.
The 6'4" native of Roslyn, N.Y. scored in double-figures in all 33 appearances. He led Manhattan in scoring 26 times and he posted 20+ points in 11 games. Beamon averaged 25.0 points per game in the Jaspers' two CIT contests. He was second on the team with 5.6 rebounds per game and he had a 2.0 assist per game average. Beamon was in the top-10 of the MAAC for field goal percentage (48.5%), free-throw shooting (80.1%), steals (1.5 per game), 3-point field goal percentage (42.7%) and 3-point field goals (61).
Byrnes, who is in his 24th year as athletic director at Manhattan, will be joined by fellow Distinguished Service Award honorees in Wagner College Athletic Director Walt Hameline and long-time Baruch College head men's basketball coach Ray Rankis. A 1968 graduate of Manhattan, Byrnes has presided over a renaissance period of Jasper basketball. During his tenure in Riverdale, the men's and women's basketball programs have earned a combined eight NCAA Tournament bids and made five appearances in the postseason National Invitation Tournament (NIT). Additionally, the Jaspers basketball teams won seven Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Regular Season Championships, and the men's program earned the MAAC's first ever at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament in 1995.
Byrnes serves as the chair of the MAAC Men's Basketball Committee. He has also spent two stints as the president of the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association (former sponsor of the NIT) and is a member of the ECAC Officials Negotiating Committee. Byrnes was inducted to the Manhattan College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004 for his outstanding contributions to Jaspers Athletics.
The 79th NIT/MBWA All-Met Haggerty Awards Dinner is held at the Westchester Marriott in Tarrytown, N.Y. The event is open to the public with the cost for attendance $80 per person. For more information or to RSVP to the event contact Chuck Stogel at 914-428-6111.
