In 10 years as Wagner's head men's basketball coach, Bashir Mason has led Wagner to three NEC regular season titles and two NIT appearances, while earning three NEC Coach of the Year honors during this stretch.
Mason has entered elite territory, becoming just the second coach in the conference's 40-year history to win three Jim Phelan Coach of the Year honors, joining NEC Hall of Fame coach Howie Dickenman, who earned the distinction four times in his storied career at CCSU.
The fastest coach to win 100 games in Seahawk history, Mason has developed 21 All-NEC selections during his tenure, in addition to having eight players garner All-NEC Tournament accolades as well as six were named to the prestigious National Association of Basketball Coaches' (NABC) First and Second Team. Most recently, Mason coached two-time NEC Player of the Year and 2022 NEC Defensive Player of the Year Alex Morales.
In addition, Coach Mason has mentored one All-Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association (MBWA) Second Team member (JoJo Cooper, 2018) and three Third Team honorees (Blake Francis, 2018, Marcus Burton, 2015, Jonathon Williams, 2013).
Mason was the youngest head coach at the Division I level when he was named the 18th head men's basketball coach in school history on March 26, 2012.
Prior to accepting the head coaching spot, Mason served two seasons as an assistant coach under Dan Hurley, who accepted the head coaching position at the University of Rhode Island in 2012 and just completed his third season as head coach of the UConn Huskies.
In his tenure as head coach, Mason has led the Seahawks to seven top-four finishes in the NEC standings.
In 2022, Mason was named the NABC District 15 Coach of the Year while also being selected as a finalist for the 2022 Hugh Durham National Coach of the Year Award, which is presented annually to the top Division I mid-major coach in college basketball by collegeinsider.com.
Mason led the Seahawks to a 21-6 overall record and an appearance in the NEC title game. This marked the third time under Mason and ninth time in program history that Wagner won 20 or more games in one season. The 2021-22 Seahawks were the first team in NEC history to feature four All-NEC players, as Alex Morales earned Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year honors along with a spot on the All-NEC First Team, while Will Martinez and Raekwon Rogers earned Second Team honors and Elijah Ford earning Third Team honors. Zaire Williams picked up a spot on the All-Rookie Team.
Wagner's 15 conference wins matched the most in program history. During the regular 2021-22 regular season, Wagner's 14 consecutive wins set the record for the longest winning streak for a Seahawk team under Mason and was the longest winning streak for a Wagner squad since winning 16 straight during the 1978-79 season under P.J. Carlesimo.
Wagner's 13-0 start in NEC play fell two short of the NEC standard set by UMBC, which won 15 in a row in 1998-99 before dropping two of its last three games to settle for a 17-3 record. The last conference school to rattle off 13 straight NEC wins was LIU. The Sharks won 13 in a row in 2010-11, a stretch that included three NEC Tournament wins. Wagner's win over Fairleigh Dickinson marked the 100th career victory in conference play for Mason, who became the 11th coach in NEC history to reach the century mark. Mason also earned his 150th overall victory against Fairfield.
During one of the toughest season's college basketball has ever seen, Mason led the 2020-21 Seahawks to a regular season championship after being picked eighth in the preseason poll. Mason helped the Seahawks re-write the record books, as the Green and White won 10 straight games.
In the process, senior Alex Morales was named the NEC Player of the Year, while freshman DeLonnie Hunt earned Rookie of the Year honors. Additionally, senior Elijah Ford was named to the All-NEC First Team. The 2020-21 season marked the first time Wagner has ever won NEC Coach of the Year, Player of the Year, and Rookie of the Year in the same season and first time since 2007-2008 that two Seahawks earned First Team All-NEC honors.
In addition to earning NEC Coach of the Year honors, Mason was also named a finalist for the Ben Jobe and Hugh Durham awards.
The 2017-18 Seahawks combined its vintage brand of hard-nosed defense with more offensive firepower than in recent memory, and it all added up to a 23-10 overall record, highlighted by an NEC-best 14-4 mark.
In guiding the Green & White to the league's automatic bid to the postseason NIT in 2018, after falling in the NEC title game to LIU Brooklyn, Mason became the first Wagner head coach to win multiple NEC Coach of the Year honors as well as the 10th in NEC history to accomplish this feat.
The Seahawks won 16 of 17 home games down the stretch that season, setting a program record for home victories and consecutive wins when the team rattled off 16 straight prior to the championship game, which tied for the second-longest streak in the NCAA. Mason once again built the NEC's top-ranked scoring defense (68.3) and field goal percentage defense (.407).
The 2017-18 Seahawks produced the highest scoring average in the Mason era, netting 74.2 points per game. Among all 351 Division I programs, Wagner ranked among the top-ten programs in the nation in offensive rebounds per game, as the team averaged 13.52 offensives caroms a contest.
Mason tutored three Seahawks to All-NEC honors in 2017-18, as senior guard
JoJo Cooper earned First -Team accolades, while sophomore guard
Blake Francis was named to the Second Team and redshirt junior guard
Romone Saunders was selected as one of five players to the Third Team.
The three all-conference selections marked the first time since the 1994-95 that Wagner had three or more players named to the All-Conference team.
In the lid-lifter of the 2016-17 season, Mason's Seahawks traveled to Storrs, CT to tangle with four-time NCAA men’s basketball national champion and then No. 18-ranked, UConn, at Gampel Pavilion, coached by former Huskie and 15-year NBA veteran, Kevin Ollie.
The Green & White's signature tenacious defense, along with a pair of 15-point performances from forward Mike Aaman and rising redshirt junior Romone Saunders, held the Huskies to just 36.0 percent shooting as Wagner earned a near wire-to-wire 67-58 victory in a game televised on SNY.
The only lead for the Huskies was 2-0 at the 19:23 mark of the first half. Wagner's victory marked the first time UConn had ever lost in a home opener at Gampel Pavilion as the Huskies came into the contest with a 27-0 record at Gampel.
The 2015-16 was a banner year for the Wagner men's basketball program. Mason led the Seahawks to one of the most successful seasons in program history, a 23-11 record, the seventh 20-win season in program history and first since 2012, when he was an assistant on the Wagner sidelines under Hurley (25-6).
The 2015-16 Jim Phelan Northeast Conference (NEC) Coach of the Year steered the Seahawks to their second-ever NEC regular season title and became the program's first head coach to lead Wagner to a postseason victory, an impressive 79-75 road win over No. 1 seed, St. Bonaventure, in the first round of the 2016 NIT.
For his efforts, Mason, for the second time in his career, was a finalist for the prestigious Ben Jobe Award, given annually to the nation’s top minority coach in Division I.
Mason's 2015-16 squad built the NEC's top-ranked scoring defense (63.6) and field goal percentage defense (.406) while limiting the opposition to under 60 points 11 times, nine of which came during league play.
In 2014-15, Mason brought in seven newcomers, which was Wagner’s largest incoming class since the 2004-2005 season, and blended them with a core of veterans headlined by senior guard Marcus Burton (’15). After primarily coming off the bench in 2013-14, the 6’0” guard flourished as a starter in his final season, as he finished second in the NEC in scoring at 17.5 points per game while becoming the 42nd member of the Seahawks’ 1,000 point-scoring club.
In 2013-14, his second season as head coach, the Seahawks posted their second straight 19-12 finish, including 12-4 mark in league play. The Seahawks also ripped off nine consecutive wins, highlighted by a hard-fought 59-48 win over NEC Regular Season Champion, Robert Morris. Also, Mason’s bunch delivered a 73-61 victory at home over the Bryant University Bulldogs in the Seahawks first-ever appearance on CBS Sports Network, played in front of 2,027 fans at the Spiro Sports Center.
Under the defensive-minded Mason’s watch, Wagner ranked fourth nationally in blocks per game (6.5), 12th in field goal percentage defense (.391) and 14th in three-point field goal percentage defense (.300,) while ranking first among all NEC teams in seven different categories and second in three others.
Mason helped Ortiz develop into the first-ever three-time NEC Defensive Player of the Year winner while center Naofall Folahan (’14) set all-time blocked shot records for a single-game (10), single-season (89) career (230). Mason also oversaw the progression of guard Latif Rivers (’14), who became just the program’s 13th 1,500-point scorer.
In his first season at the helm in 2012-13, at 29 years old, Mason proved that age is just a number as he guided Wagner to a 19-12 record, which included 12 conference victories. Among the 19 wins, which set a school record for a first-year coach, was a 63-53 win over an SMU squad coached by Hall of Famer, Larry Brown. The swarming Seahawk defense paced the league in field goal percentage defense and blocked shots that year while ranking among the top four in the NEC in all ten defensive categories.
Spearheading the defensive attack in Mason’s first year was guard Kenneth Ortiz (’14), who garnered his second straight Defensive Player of the Year Award, while also earning NEC Third-Team honors. Under Mason’s tutelage, Williams averaged a team-best 15.6 points and 6.4 rebounds game while blossoming into an NEC Second Team selection. For his efforts, Mason was a finalist for the CollegeInsider.com Joe B. Hall First-Year and Ben Jobe Minority Coach of the Year awards.
In his first season as an assistant, in 2010-11, the Green & White saw an eight-win improvement from the previous campaign. Murray earned First-Team All-NEC accolades after averaging 16.9 points per game. In year two as a Seahawk assistant in 2011-2012, Mason helped the Seahawks to a school-record 25 victories.
Mason arrived on Grymes Hill from Marist College, where he spent two seasons as an assistant coach, with responsibilities including recruiting and guard development. Under his guidance, R.J. Hall was tabbed to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) All-Rookie Team in 2008-2009.
He began his coaching career at his high school alma mater, St. Benedict’s Prep of Newark, under Hurley, during the 2007-2008 season. As coach of the school’s prep team, the Gray Bees won the New Jersey State Prep A Title.
During his tenure at St. Benedict’s Prep, Mason coached a plethora of players that would go on to earn Division I scholarships: Myles Davis (Xavier), Chris Gaston (Fordham), Dwan McMillan (Hofstra), Mark Robertson (UMES), Zack Rosen (Pennsylvania) and Tavon Sledge (Iona).
Following a standout playing career at St. Benedict’s under Hurley, Mason played collegiately for Drexel under James “Bruiser” Flint from 2003-2007, where he scored 1,126 career points while averaging 9.4 points and 3.9 assists per contest.
At Drexel, Mason was a four-year starter for the Dragons, anchoring the team from his point guard position. In addition to scoring more than 1,000 points while dishing out nearly 500 assists, Mason’s calling card was defense. The first four-time member of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) All-Defensive Team, he also became the first player in league history to be named Defensive Player of the Year as a freshman following the 2003-2004 season.
As a senior, Mason led the Dragons to wins over Saint Joseph’s, Villanova, Syracuse and Temple en route to a 23-9 record and a berth in the National Invitational Tournament (NIT). He also provided a flair for the dramatic, hitting a running 35-footer at the buzzer to defeat Virginia Commonwealth (VCU) as a sophomore, garnering top billing on ESPN Sportscenter’s Top-10 plays for the night.
Mason led Drexel in assists and steals in all four of his season and graduated second on the Dragons’ all-time steals list (226) and fourth on its all-time assists list (471).
In 2007, Mason graduated from Drexel with a Bachelor’s Degree in Sports Management. After earning a Master’s Degree of Science in Education from Wagner in December of 2013, he was lauded by his alma mater with inclusion in the Drexel Magazine’s ’40 Under 40’ list.
Mason, who grew up in Jersey City, NJ, now makes his residence in Bayonne, NJ.
