Basketball plays clutter the white board in Steve Masiello’s cramped office in a corner of Draddy Gym, the busy, boxy Bronx home of the Manhattan College Jaspers. The Xs and Os are sure signs that another basketball season is just a few more practices away.

Mr. Masiello, 37 years old, is entering his fourth season as the men’s basketball coach at Manhattan College, a small Roman Catholic liberal-arts school that perches on a hill overlooking Van Cortlandt Park at the terminus of the 1 train in Riverdale.

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