Manhattan is on the road for the second straight contest before returning to Draddy Gymnasium for its home opener on Wednesday against Hofstra. The Jaspers are coming off a 79-51 loss at #2 Louisville where they were without the services of senior guard George Beamon who sat out with an injury. Beamon was the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference’s leading scorer in 2011-12 averaging 19.0 points. It was a homecoming for Jaspers’ head coach Steve Masiello who spent six years on the Louisville bench under Rick Pitino prior to Manhattan.
Harvard is the first of two Ivy League opponents the Jaspers have on their schedule this season. Manhattan returns a game with Columbia in December,a local rivalry that was renewed last year as the schools are separated by only a few subway stops. This is also the seventh straight year Manhattan will face a team from the Ivy League as Princeton, Penn and Brown have been featured on the schedule in recent seasons.
Head coach Steve Masiello and the Jaspers enjoyed a plethora of success in Masiello’s first year at the helm in 2011-2012. Manhattan made the biggest turnaround in the nation with a 15-win improvement from the previous season. The Jaspers went from six wins to 21 and earned a postseason bid for the first time since 2006. Manhattan advanced to the Second Round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT).
The Jaspers return 81.2% of their scoring offense from last season. Manhattan placed a league-best four players on the Preseason All-MAAC Teams. Beamon was named to the First Team. Michael Alvarado, Rhamel Brown and Emmy Andujar earned Third Team honors.
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