News broke Tuesday that the University of South Florida was going to hire Manhattan’s Steve Masiello as their next coach. However, as the Tampa Tribune reported later in the day, a search-firm hired by USF found that Masiello had a previously undetected discrepancy in his background check, which caused USF to kill the deal.
That background-check information was discovered by Eastman & Beaudine, a Texas-based search firm that was paid $60,000 by USF to find candidates to replace Stan Heath, who was fired on March 14.
Masiello, 36, had agreed to a five-year contract with USF and signed the deal, believed to be worth more than $1 million per season, leaving only final details to be worked out.
ESPN first reported on the details that Masiello claimed he had graduated from Kentucky. The lie cost Masiello $5 Million, the contract he had signed with USF. Masiello, a Rick Pitino disciple, nearly led No.13-seed Manhattan to the upset over his former coach in the second-round of this year’s NCAA Tournament.
