Manhattan reportedly hires former Hartford coach John Gallagher as new head coach

According to many reports, Manhattan College has finally named a head coach for their men’s basketball program, former Hartford head coach John Gallagher.

Gallagher is landing back on his feet after leaving the University of Hartford before the season started over disputes with the administration. The 2018 America East Co-Coach of the Year spent 12 seasons at Hartford, taking them to the CIT twice, and the NCAA Tournament once, before the school announced that they were transitioning to Division III.

However, the appointment of Gallagher came much to the chagrin of many around the Manhattan program, including current players, recently graduated players, and fans. There was a clear preference among those around the program that Jaspers Athletic Director Marianne Reilly should remove the interim tag off of RaShawn Stores — a Jasper legend who’d taken the reigns on two weeks notice after Steve Masiello was fired in October — who led Manhattan to their best MAAC season since 2014-15.

Here’s a collection of tweets and posts from players supporting Stores.

All-MAAC First Team point guard Ant Nelson chimed in.

Marques Watson and Nick Brennen, who played key roles on the team this year, had backed Stores for the job as well.

Sharpshooter Samir Stewart took to Twitter to give his opinion.

In the wake of the announcement, Nick Brennen once again took to Twitter, claiming that the whole team was going to transfer for the lack of loyalty that was shown by the athletics administration.

While Brennen, Stewart, Nelson, and Watson all have no eligibility left, the first domino in the transfer portal has fallen: projected starting big man Adam Cisse.

Multiple posters on the Manhattan College Message Board have already made their intentions clear when it comes to the basketball program.

One poster said of the hiring, “If true, I’m done, will never go to a game again.”

Another chimed in with “Yeah, so just cancelled my Jasper Open attendance. Not gonna flush any more money down this drain.”

On Wednesday, Manhattan officially announced the appointment of Gallagher as the head coach.

And in the wake of that announcement, freshman James Jewell, and senior Elijah Buchanan both entered the transfer portal.