NEW YORK — Draddy Gymnasium is one of those old public buildings where it is always either too cold or too hot. John Gallagher, fresh from a late morning stroll around the leafy surrounding neighborhood, walks into his office and throws open a window, letting in the brisk November air to offset the dry, forced-air heat.
The old breath-of-fresh-air imagery was all too obvious.
“I’m just so blessed to be here, so lucky,” Gallagher said. “With 12 years in Hartford, I learned how to coach. I saw how that ‘neighborhood’ was built. There’s a mystery to this. I know I’m supposed to be here, in this place, in this time.”
The new men’s basketball coach at Manhattan College, Gallagher will have a homecoming next week, playing at Central Connecticut on Sunday and against UConn on Nov. 24.
Gallagher, 46, has come through an experience to which few, if any, college coaches could quite relate. He led the University of Hartford through thick and thin for 12 years, finally getting the Hawks to the top of America East and into the NCAA Tournament in 2021. He was everywhere that week, the poster child for spunky No. 16 seeds everywhere. UHart lost to Baylor, the eventual champ, but it was a triumphant time for Gallagher and the school, its niche in UConn territory had been found.
And at this very moment of highest achievement, the floor was buckled beneath him, as the school’s ham-handedly handled move down to Division III began to become known.
Gallagher coached the 2021-22 season in chaos, finishing 12-20, and was on the eve of another such season a year ago when he and I took a long walk along The Reservoir in West Hartford, so worried Gallagher was of being seen talking to a reporter or saying something that might cost him a chance for his next job.
He was emotionally and physically drained and he had to vent. He had all but decided, after his team traveled out of state without an athletic trainer. He just couldn’t fight it any more. Eventually, lawsuits were brought and settled, as was the final year of his contract, and he took a year off to study the game from the outside, and heal internally.
Last March, Gallagher was hired at Manhattan, a MAAC school with a proud tradition within the city’s college hoops heritage. He has undeniably landed on his feet, and in a rather exclusive neighborhood.
“I would have stayed at that (UHart) job for my whole life,” Gallagher said. “There’s nobody who loved he area more, I loved raising my family there. But for my career, this has re-invigorated me. I’m back at full octane right now.”
The bizarre UHart experience took a lot out of him, Gallagher admits, but there are no hard feelings.
“Hartford gave me time to learn how to coach, learn how to win, learn how to lose.” he said. “… The scars on my back from Hartford are the reason we’re going to win here.”
Dom Amore: John Gallagher will take Manhattan, coach Kendall May's death a tragic loss for Hartford; more in the S… https://t.co/y9PiYkjTHE
— Dom Amore (@AmoreCourant) April 1, 2023
One of his Philadelphia mentors, Phil Martelli, once told Galllagher his job was one-third coaching, one-third recruiting and one-third marketing. When a former AD at Hartford asked Gallagher to use the hashtag “Capital City Team” to promote the program on social media. Gallagher thought that was silly, and blurted out to assistant Tom Devitt, “we’re not the capital city’s team, we’re the neighborhood team.” The concept, “greatest hashtag ever,” Devitt exclaimed, caught fire, and that’s when the fun really began.
On his desk at Draddy Gym, Gallagher has a red glass plaque that says “The Neighborhood,” and in front of it there’s a rug marked with the March Madness 2021 logo; he was allowed to take it home from Indianapolis.
Jaspers Fall at No. 1 Kansas, 99-61
https://t.co/Jed9sd6s9X pic.twitter.com/C4r3dOqfRu
— Manhattan Basketball (@JaspersMBB) November 11, 2023
Otherwise, it’s all green and gray for him now.
Riverdale, the northernmost section in the five boroughs, and its Van Cortlandt Park, is the 24th and last stop of the 1 Train after it leaves Times Square. Houses around here cost millions, but he rents an apartment, a 15-minute walk from campus, where his four children can come from Connecticut to visit.
“I need to be all in here,” he said. “Hartford will always be a part of me, but I’m all in.”
He knows he can’t recycle the Hartford hashtag, will have to come up with something new, but with the return of his old energy and exuberance, Gallagher has made friends all over campus and is weaving himself into the fabric of Riverdale. “I’ll be there, coach, I have my tickets,” said a barbershop owner on 242nd Street as Gallagher walks by just before the home opener. Gallagher, on his way to the subway station, gives the man a hug.
As he has been re-invigorated by the job, and the city which he is sure he can sell to recruits, Gallagher is here to reinvigorate the Jaspers, 12-18 last season under interim coach RaShawn Stores.
Some players were disgruntled when Stores didn’t get the job on a permanent basis, but Gallagher overhauled the roster and mended fences. “There’s history here,” Gallagher said. “There are thousands that care about his place, this program. There are NCAA Tournament wins, a Sweet 16 in ’58, Fran Frischilla’s team that beat Oklahoma (1995), Bobby Gonzalez’s team that beat Florida (2004). It wasn’t that long ago.”
“… You can do it here. This is a great mid-major job.”
Dom Amore: For Tom Devitt, UHart men’s basketball, the show goes on despite the tumult
That the Jaspers were picked to finish last in the MAAC only brings a smile from the relentlessly optimistic Gallagher. He will use the regular season to build and position his team for a run in the conference tournament, and to that end he scheduled “buy games” against the last two national champions, at Kansas, where the Jaspers lost 99-61, and at UConn.
“I threw two huge games at them early and I did it on purpose,” Gallagher said. “I told the players, ‘you came to Manhattan to play in these games.’ I want to get the program to a level where we win big games, and to do that, you have to go on stage with them.”
Gallagher made a rep as an offensive coach at UHart, but at Manhattan he is building his first team around defense, which helped produce a season-opening win at Bryant. Freshman Seydou Traore from The Bronx was a big get for Gallagher’s first recruiting class, and he had 16 points, eight rebounds at Kansas.
Three transfers, Perry Cowan from Brown, Brett Rumpel from St. Bonaventure and Daniel Rouzan from St. Bonaventure are among the team leaders. Briggs McClain, who played on the Tournament team at UHart, has rejoined Gallagher and is expected to be back from his injury in time for the UConn game. He’s also excited about 6-10 Li Xinyi from Beijing and Rokas Jocys from Lithuania.
“We’re turning negativity into positivity by just being relentless in our approach,” Gallagher said, using phraseology that has always defined him. “Passionate, humble, hungry, we’re a passionate program, we have a fire about us.”
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