Mike Babul enters his seventh season on the sidelines for the men's basketball program in 2017-18 and fourth as Wagner's associate head coach.
Babul, who was elevated to associate head coach before the 2015-16 season, is in charge of Wagner's post players and coordinates the Seahawks’ recruiting efforts.
During his tenure as head coach Bashir Mason’s right hand man, Babul has assisted in mentoring the Green & White into becoming one of the top defensive-minded squads in the Northeast Conference (NEC), ranking at, or near the top of the NEC each season in n scoring defense, scoring, field-goal percentage defense, rebounding offense, rebounding defense , rebounding margin, blocks and steals.
Babul helped steer the Seahawks to 23-10 overall record in 2017-18, highlighted by an NEC-best 14-4 mark. In addition, t the Green & White earned the league's automatic bid to the postseason NIT a year ago. The Seahawks won 16 of 17 home games last 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.
In addition to helping Wagner build the NEC's top-ranked scoring defense (68.3) and field goal percentage defense (.407), the 2017-18 Seahawks produce the highest scoring average in the Bashir 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.
At the conclusion of the 2015-16 season, Babul was tabbed No. 10 by CoachStat.net ranked among the nation’s Top-25 Assistant Coach Recruiters List (Low-Major).
In four of his first five seasons, the Seahawks ranked first in the conference in field-goal percentage defense, three-point field goal percentage defense and scoring defense. Among the entire NCAA, the 2015-16 Wagner squad ranked among the top-75 collegiate programs in each of those categories, with the most impressive season coming in 2013-14, when the Seahawks placed 12th in field goal percentage defense and 14th in three-point field goal percentage defense.
In 14 years of coaching at the Division I level, Babul has cultivated more than 30 student-athletes that have gone on to play at the professionally level, in addition to a host of all-conference honorees. He has also had a hand in the development of two NBA first-round selections, Arnett Moultrie (UTEP), selected No. 27th by the Miami Heat in 2012 and Rodney Carney (Memphis), an overall No. 16 pick by the Chicago Bulls in the 2006 NBA Draft.
Additionally, Babul mentored a pair of second-round choices, which include Derrick Caracter (UTEP; drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers in 2010); and Antonio Burks (Memphis), a 2004 second-round pick of the Orlando Magic before ending his career with the Memphis Grizzles. One former student-athlete of Babul, Julyan Stone (UTEP), is currently active in the NBA, as Stone inked a one-year deal with the Pacers.
Over Babul’s six seasons at Wagner, the Seahawk post players have accounted for 30.0 percent of the team's total scoring, while corralling a total of 4,835 rebounds and rejecting 578 shots. Per season, Babul's big men are producing 20.7 points, 13.5 offensive rebounds, 24.9 defensive rebounds and nearly 5.0 blocks per game.
Babul has played a key role in the molding several Seahawks into All-Conference performers, including most recently Jo Jo Cooper, Blake Francis, Romone saunders, Michael Carey and Corey Henson.
Thanks in large measure to Babul’s mentoring, guard Kenneth Ortiz (’14) became the first-ever three-time NEC Defensive Player of the Year and center Naofall Folahan (’14) shattered the Seahawks’ single-season and career blocks records. In his career, Folahan swatted a school-record 230 shots, including 89 during his senior season of 2013-14, which helped the Seahawks average 6.9 blocks per game, fourth-highest in the NCAA. The interior defense also helped Wagner limit opponents to a league-low 39.1 percent shooting that season, which ranked 12th nationally.
Before his arrival on Grymes Hill, Babul served as the Director of Operations under Tony Barbee for two seasons at Auburn University after holding the same role for four seasons at the University of Texas-El Paso (UTEP).
In those combined six years, Babul managed the team’s budgetary responsibilities, organized on-campus recruiting, oversaw student-athlete athletic enhancement, coordinated team travel arrangements, established a relationship with Under Armour and Nike. His duties also included serving as a camp/clinic director and working closely with the Tigers’ alumni relations efforts.
While at UTEP, Babul played an instrumental role in leading the Miners to the 2010 Conference USA (C-USA) regular season championship which resulted helped UTEP become a No. 12 seed in the NCAA Tournament. A year earlier, Babul helped direct the Miners to the 2009 College Basketball Invitational (CBI) Finals.
Before joining the staff at UTEP, the North Attleboro, MA native worked under Drexel head coach James “Bruiser” Flint as the Dragons’ Director of Basketball Operations, where his duties mirrored those from Auburn and UTEP.
For the 2005-06 campaign, his one and only season at Drexel, along with former Dragon and current Wagner head men’s basketball coach, Bashir Mason, Drexel advanced to the Preseason National Invitational Tournament (NIT) Final Four, where the Dragons dropped a heart-breaking, one-point decision to the eventual national runner-Up UCLA Bruins.
During the 2004-2005 season, Babul worked as an assistant coach at Youngstown State after starting his collegiate coaching career as the Assistant Director of Operations under John Calipari at Memphis in 2003-2004, a year when the Tigers advanced to the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament.
Babul was a four-year letterwinner and three-year starter for UMass from 1996-2000, helping the Minutemen to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances. During his time in Amherst, Babul was a team captain and named to three Atlantic-10 (A-10) All-Defensive and All-Academic Teams (1997-2000). He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Sports Management.
Prior to joining the Minutemen, Babul was a standout at North Attleboro High School. As a senior in 1996, he was a McDonald’s All-American nominee while being named the 1996 Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year and the Massachusetts High School Coaches’ Association Player of the Year. Also, Parade Magazine selected him as a Fourth-Team All-American.
