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Thursday, March 27, 2014

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Fraud Across the Board?

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Fraud Across the Board?: Fraud Across the Board? Manhattan Coach Loses Dream Gig for Lying on Resume By Rich Mancuso BRONX, NEW YORK MARCH 27- This has happened mo...

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Fraud Across the Board?

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Fraud Across the Board?: Fraud Across the Board? Manhattan Coach Loses Dream Gig for Lying on Resume By Rich Mancuso BRONX, NEW YORK MARCH 27- This has happened mo...

Fraud Across the Board?

Fraud Across the Board?
Manhattan Coach Loses Dream Gig for Lying on Resume

By Rich Mancuso

BRONX, NEW YORK MARCH 27- This has happened more than once. A college coaching opportunity is available and the candidate has the supposed credentials to move up the ladder after building a program. In the case of Steve Masiello, who got the Manhattan College men’s basketball team back to the NCAA Tournament, he is a candidate of the latest embarrassment and greed of collegiate sports.

Yes, Masiello lied for an opportunity to land the head men’s basketball coaching job at the University of South Florida. His resume was inaccurate about being a graduate of the University of Kentucky. So, Tuesday it appeared he was moving on, and Wednesday morning he may be without a job.

The truth is, and lesson hopefully learned again, false information on a resume will eventually backfire and that applies for someone like Masiello. And a million dollar opportunity that was at hand now could leave him on the unemployment line.

The bad and, more so, sad aspect of this Masiello mess: Manhattan College has a dilemma. Do, the decision- makers at the school move ahead and begin the process of hiring a new coach, or do they forgive and forget? Another aspect, and it is obvious, how did responsible officials at Manhattan, who hired Masiello three years ago, bypass false information that USF was able to discover?

That aspect may never be known. Masiello was a perfect candidate to rebuild a men’s basketball program at the Metro Atlantic Conference affiliated college that is based in the Bronx, in a section known as Riverdale. He played under current Louisville coach Rick Pitino as a freshman at Kentucky in 1997.

He later learned more on the sidelines as an assistant coach for Pitino at Louisville. So, Masiello had the credentials to land a head coaching job. At Manhattan, Masiello compiled a 60-39 record in three years, and got the Jaspers to a first round game last week in the NCAA Men’s basketball Tournament losing to Pitino and Louisville.

Officials at Manhattan College could not be reached for comment, nor could Masiello. Though a source reached at the school said, “There was every indication that Steve had all the credentials to be here. This has been a shock to all of us as we wished Steve well.”

The source, when asked, did not comment regarding the future for Masiello as to whether his job at Manhattan would be open to him again. And that is something that would be subject to extensive review, because college coaching jobs require in most part credentials of an undergraduate degree or beyond.

In other words, success on the sidelines and compiling a respectable record at a mid-major school (Manhattan) and working under a successful coach, Pitino, does require more of a background check when it comes to credentials.

Perhaps the more significant issue here revolves around college coaches leaving a school to take another opportunity while under contract. In that case, as is with Masiello, the student/athletes become the victims. Those under scholarship and recruits are betrayed and left to consider other options.

Success can be an option, but it has to be accomplished the correct way. We see this time-and-time again. The reputation of college athletics is becoming more like professional sports and big business that includes mega-million contracts with cable television networks and for the coaches.

This is not only an issue for Manhattan College but the entire NCAA community of schools. There is a concern and this goes beyond the status of Steve Masiello and his future.


Comment Rich Mancuso: Ring786@aol.com  Facebook.com/Rich Mancuso   

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): FBI Now Involved in Norwood Double Homicide

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): FBI Now Involved in Norwood Double Homicide: FBI Now Involved in Norwood Double Homicide By David Greene BRONX, NEW YORK, MARCH 26- A new flyer posted by law enforcement officia...

FBI Now Involved in Norwood Double Homicide

FBI Now Involved in Norwood Double Homicide

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By David Greene

BRONX, NEW YORK, MARCH 26- A new flyer posted by law enforcement officials shows that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is now involved in an unsolved double homicide that took place last year on Perry Avenue in Norwood.

The bodies of Jason and Jennifer Rivera were found inside a white SUV along Perry Avenue near East Gun Hill Road, on January 16, 2013.

According to the flyer, both Jason, 30, and Jennifer, his 20-year old niece, were both shot, "execution-style" in the back of their heads.

The flier states, "The FBI and the NYPD are seeking information," in the deaths of the pair and offers a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the responsible parties or individual.

At the time of the killing, one police source stated that two individuals were seen fleeing the area on home surveillance video obtained by police from a resident of the block, but if investigators have such a video, it has not yet been released to the public.



Police and FBI officials could not immediately say who is posting the reward.

A spokeswoman with the FBI confirmed they were working the double murder with investigators from the 52nd Precinct's detective squad.

The spokeswoman confirmed, "We had been working with the NYPD on another case," at the time Jennifer and Jason were killed, prompting the FBI's involvement.

Residents of the block reported no gunfire that night, leading investigators to believe that the pair were killed at another location and then taken to Perry Avenue.
With the street's, "No snitching" motto clearly in effect, the flyer posted by officers at the corner of Perry Avenue and East Gun Hill Road was torn down after just a couple of days.

Anyone with any information is asked to call CRIMESTOPPERS at (800) 577-TIPS.
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Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Coach Drops Bx. School like a Bad Habit

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Coach Drops Bx. School like a Bad Habit: Coach Drops Bx. School like a Bad Habit No Sooner is Manhattan Out of March Madness, Accepts Coaching Gig in Florida By Howard Goldin BRO...

Coach Drops Bx. School like a Bad Habit

Coach Drops Bx. School like a Bad Habit
No Sooner is Manhattan Out of March Madness, Accepts Coaching Gig in Florida
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By Howard Goldin
BRONX NEWS, MARCH 26- March Madness is in full swing. The Sweet 16 will begin play on Friday. The excitement is high in New York City as the Eastern Regional will be held in Madison Square Garden, the “Mecca of Basketball”. It is the first time since 1961 that the NCAA Tournament will be at MSG.

Less than one week after the final game of the Jaspers for this season, reports were first heard at CBS Sports.com that Steve Masiello, the head coach of the Manhattan Jaspers, had accepted the head coaching position at the USF (University of South Florida). Those stories have since spread to many internet sites, newspapers, radio and television stations. 

Masiello is a product of the New York metropolitan area. He was born in White Plains and educated in that area through high school. His relationship with Rick Pitino drew him away from the Northeast on several occasions. He first worked with Pitino in the late 1980’s when Masiello was the ball boy with the Pitino coached New York Knicks.

Masiello entered college at the University of Kentucky, where Pitino was the head basketball coach. Masiello, not greatly talented, but very gritty, was a walk-on. With Pitino’s encouragement Masiello began his coaching career after his graduation in 2000.

He stayed in the South for his first post-college year as he served as administrative assistant at the University of Tulane.  

The next year, Masiello began the first of two tours at Manhattan College in the Bronx, where he was an assistant coach from 2001-5. The team improved during those few years and qualified for the NCAA Tournament in 2003 and 2004. 

Masiello’s mentor, Pitino, again attracted Masiello to the South the following year, when Masiello started a six-year tenure as one of Pitino’s assistant coaches at Louisville. 

With Pitino’s blessing, Massiello returned to Manhattan in 2011 to accept the head coaching job. The Japers made the biggest turnaround in college basketball as they finished 21-13 in Masiello’s first season at the helm. In the previous year, they had only been victors in only six games. 

The Jaspers this season automatically qualified for the NCAA by winning the MAAC Tournament with a defeat over Iona in the final. To the grave disappointment of both Masiello and Pitino, the teams of the two coaches met in a first round game in Orlando. The more talented Louisville Cardinals were victorious in a hard fought contest.

Five days after that contest, it appears that Masiello is moving from the Bronx to Florida to coach USF. Stan Heath, the coach of USF for the past seven years, was fired on March 14. A search has been underway to hire a replacement. Heath compiled a very disappointing mark of 37-89 during those tears. A new Athletic Director, Mark Harlan, took office on Monday. 

It has been reported that Masiello asked the advice of his mentor who strongly encouraged him to take the USF job. Also, it was said that Chris Sullivan, the co-founder of Outback Steakhouse, and an important individual in Tampa, has been strongly supportive of Masiello’s hiring. Sullivan is a close confident of Pitino. 

It has been reported Masiello will earn $1,000,000 per year for a contract lasting five years. There are several candidates that will now be considered for the vacant coaching position at Manhattan.

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