AMES, Iowa- Iowa State head men’s basketball coach Fred Hoiberg announced today a promotion and an addition within his coaching staff.|AMES, Iowa- Iowa State head men’s basketball coach Fred Hoiberg announced today a promotion and an addition within his coaching staff.
Matt Abdelmassih (pronounced Abdel-Massey), who spent last season as the assistant director of operations for the Cyclones, has been promoted to assistant coach and Cornell Mann, a member of the Dayton men’s basketball staff for the past three seasons, has been hired as an assistant coach.
Abdelmassih, a 2007 graduate of St. John’s, has worked directly with Hoiberg the last three seasons. He spent two years with Hoiberg in the Minnesota Timberwolves front office, his first as an operations intern and his second as the operations assistant, before arriving in Ames in May of 2010 as a member of the Cyclone coaching staff.
A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Abdelmassih briefly served in a recruiting position for the Cyclone coaching staff when Hoiberg was hired. In that short period of time, Abdelmassih helped the Cyclones secure the services of Royce White, a top-20 player in the class of 2009, and land one of the best players out of the New York area in Tavon Sledge. Sledge is rated as a top-100 player in a number of recruiting services.
“I have worked with Matt for three years now and have seen first-hand how valuable he is to our basketball program,” Hoiberg said. “He is a hard worker with tremendous recruiting ties and knowledge of the game of basketball. I have no doubt that Matt will be an outstanding assistant coach for us.”
Mann has 10 years of experience as an assistant coach at the Division I level, including the last three years at Dayton where he helped lead the Flyers to three-straight postseason berths.
In Mann’s first season at Dayton (2008-09), the Flyers were ranked in the top-25, finished the season with the second-most victories in school history (27) and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Dayton defeated West Virginia in the first round.
The Flyers were 25-12 and won the 2010 NIT Championship in Mann’s second season and UD went 22-14 and advanced to the finals of the Atlantic-10 Tournament in 2010-11. UD made the 2011 NIT and had three players earn all-conference recognition.
Prior to his stint at UD, the Royal Oak Township, Mich., native coached at Western Michigan for five seasons, helping the Broncos win three Mid-American Conference West Division championships. The Broncos made the NCAA in 2004 and the NIT in 2005. Mann also was an assistant at Central Michigan for two seasons, as the Chippewas advanced to the second round of the 2003 NCAA Tournament with Mann on staff.
“Cornell will bring a wealth of experience, insight and hard work to our coaching staff,” Hoiberg said. “Cornell has coached in three NCAA tournaments for three different Division I schools. He is from Michigan and has an outstanding track record of recruiting in that state, an area where Iowa State has had a lot success in the past. This is a home run hire for us.”
