When the NCAA Tournament brackets were released, Matt Abdelmassih forgot he was a coach for a moment. He saw Iowa State slotted as third seed in the East region and the assistant coach told his players to get ready for New York City, skipping past the Cyclones’ first two games.
“The first thing I said is ‘We’re going to the Garden,’ ” Abdelmassih, a Brooklyn native, recalled with a laugh in a phone interview.
His homecoming became a reality Sunday afternoon, when the third-seed Cyclones knocked off sixth-seed North Carolina, reaching their first Sweet 16 since 2000.
“It’s come full circle for me,” said Abdelmassih, a diehard Knicks, Giants and Mets fan and ace recruiter who is expecting to have up to 25 friends and family at Friday’s game against seventh-seed UConn.
Abdelmassih, 29, got his start while he was a student at St. John’s, serving as the team’s manager under Norm Roberts. He landed an internship with the Timberwolves video department upon graduating from St. John’s through a connection he made with Rob Babcock, Minnesota’s assistant general manager.
A year later, he was working in the front office and forged a strong bond with Hoiberg, the T’wolves vice president of basketball operations at the time. During his interview, he told Hoiberg he would be no help to the team working on drills because of his size.
“But I can rebound the basketball for them,” Abdelmassih joked.
The two developed a close relationship, Hoiberg impressed by Abdelmassih’s relentless work ethic. Hoiberg took Abdelmassih to Iowa State with him when he landed the head-coaching job in 2010, and following one year as the assistant director of basketball operations, Hoiberg promoted Abdelmassih to full-time assistant coach.
Abdelmassih had forged a reputation as one of the top young recruiters in the nation. He had a major hand in landing point guard DeAndre Kane, beating out the likes of Pittsburgh, Memphis and USC.
“Everything Matt said was supposed to happen did,” Kane’s mother, Carol Robinson, said in a phone interview. “Matt’s a very good guy.”
He also secured the services of Yonkers native and JUCO transfer Dustin Hogue, Northern Illinois transfer Abdel Nader, who is sitting out this year per NCAA transfer rules, and former star Royce White, among others.
“That’s something I work on year-round,” Abdelmassih said.
Abdelmassih learned on the job, through his failures but also his successes. He said he gained a wealth of knowledge at St. John’s from former assistant coach Fred Quartlebaum. Relationships and work ethic were the most important teaching points.
“The biggest thing that Coach Q always told me, and stills stays with me today, there’s one quality nobody can dispute and that’s outworking everybody else,” Abdelmassih said from Minnesota, where he was abiding by that lesson, getting in a day of recruiting before coming home for the Sweet 16. “That’s something I take pride in.”
Abdelmassih said he has been to the Garden a few hundred times. His two greatest highlights are Larry Johnson’s four-point play in 1999 and Marcus Hatten and St. John’s knocking off Duke to cap the 2002-03 regular season.
“Friday will stand as No. 1,” Abdelmassih said. “To walk out there with Iowa State will be the proudest moment of my career.”