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SPORTS
Hall of Fame Induction and Luncheon | Football | Pep Rally | Evening Entertainment | Alumni Council Networking
For a tentative schedule and to let us know if you’re planning to return:
alumni.stlawu.edu/homecoming
Online registration will be available early this fall.
For additional information, contact Kim Hissong ’94, khissong@stlawu.edu or 315-229-5837.
Save
the date
Hofstra head men's basketball coach
Morgan “Mo” Cassara ’97 shouted
instructions to his players and then held
out his hands, pleading to a referee as he
stood courtside at the Colonial Athletic
Association’s post-season tournament in
March.
Sitting on a chair a few feet away was
assistant coach Wayne Morgan ’73.
He sat quietly on the bench, and then
leaned to his left to see if an opponent's
shot was good. A few minutes later,
during a timeout, the animated Cassara
took a white dry-erase board and drew
up a play as Morgan stood silently
behind the head coach.
Cassara and Morgan form a college
basketball rarity: not only are they both
St. Lawrence graduates, but they are
also products of NCAA Division III
hoops who have made it to Division I as
coaches. “It is a long way from Canton
and playing at St. Lawrence,” Cassara
says of the CAA, which has sent George
Mason (2006) and Virginia Christian
Universities (2011) to the Final Four.
There are only 335 Division I basketball
programs in this country. Each school
is allowed just three full-time assistants.
Cassara and Morgan beat the odds in the
high-pressure world of college basketball.
But they share a more personal connec-
tion: Morgan played for the Saints under
Richard “Rick” Cassara M’70, Mo’s father.
“I think Wayne talks to my dad more
than I do,” says Mo Cassara, who was
31-33 in his first two seasons at Hofstra.
“He is so loyal to my father for what
Dad did years ago. Wayne will walk into
my office and close the door and say,
‘You need to think about this.’ He is a
tremendous support for me.”
Morgan was playing basketball at
Westchester Community College when
the elder Cassara recruited him to
St. Lawrence. Morgan took a bus from
his home in Brooklyn to visit the cam-
pus. Later, he realized that Cassara had
bought his ticket, and also a plane ticket
for his trip home. “He is like a father
figure to me,” Morgan says of the elder
Cassara.
Morgan was the head coach at Long
Beach State and Iowa State and was an
assistant at Syracuse on two national-
title game teams, but he knows his role
at Hofstra under Cassara. “I am here
to help him,” Morgan says. “I want to
watch his back and do everything I can
to make sure he is successful.”
Hofstra head men's basketball coach Morgan “Mo” Cassara ’97, white shirt, and assistant coach Wayne
Morgan ’73, second from left, are intent on the action at a Colonial Athletic Association game last winter.
Cassara and Morgan are a rare combination, two alumni of an NCAA Division III institution coaching at the
same Division I school.
Hofstra coaches share
St. Lawrence connection
by David Driver
Sports journalist David Driver
has covered college basketball
and the CAA for 20 years.