Former point guard Mason still making Flint proud

By KEVIN ROSSI

Philahoops Staff

@kevin_rossi

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If you happened to look away for a moment, you could have missed it. Everything happened in the blink of an eye. Former Drexel point guard Bashir Mason graduated in 2007, but it feels like just yesterday he was manning the Dragons’ offense as the team’s vocal leader.

Mason finished his career in the Blue and Gold with over 1,100 points and 471 assists. He is still third in school history in assists, and it helps that he played with guys who are among the Drexel leaders in three-point shooting like Phil Goss and Dominick Mejia but also guys who could score on the interior like Frank Elegar and Chaz Crawford.

What his head coach, Bruiser Flint, always noticed was his natural ability to lead. There are different ways to be a leader on the basketball court, but Flint always admired Mason’s fiery style. Mason, as a recent New York Times article describes, seems to have continued to bring the heat as he has moved through the coaching ranks at St. Benedict’s High School, Marist College, and now Wagner.

Now, entering his second season as head coach at Wagner, Mason is again the youngest coach in D-I college basketball at only 29 years old. And even though Mason is out from underneath Flint’s watchful eye, he is still making Flint proud and the two remain in close contact.

“I talk to him all the time,” Flint told Philahoops. “I’m proud of him.”

“Bash has always been one of those guys who has always been a leader. I knew he would be successful, and I knew he was going to be a good coach,” Flint continued. “Bash is one of those kids that whatever he decides to do, he’s going to be good at it. He’s always been a leader.”

Mason’s situation is unique, though, beyond just being the youngest coach at the D-I level: he is also working towards completing his master’s degree.

In the last semester of Wagner’s master’s program in education, Mason juggles his days between student teaching a first grade class at Public School 80 near campus and basketball practices. The dichotomy between the two couldn’t be bigger, especially when you consider that Mason’s fiery leadership style was supplemented with Flint’s fiery coaching style for four years.

“I always tell him don’t holler at the kids,” Flint laughed when asked if he could have played a part in this. “He was a person who always played with a lot of intensity and coaches the same way. He’s been doing well.”

When Mason first arrived arrived on Wagner’s Staten Island campus, he enrolled in graduate school because they would help him pay for a place to live. As he moved up the assistant coaching ladder and eventually to head coach, it would have been easy to just ditch the pursuit of his master’s degree. He made a commitment to finish it up; he was too close to give up on it.

Flint is happy that Mason kept at it. Preparation is something the Flint constantly preaches, and what better way to prepare for the world than to have an advanced degree.

“When things started to happen where he became a full-time assistant and possibly a head coach, I’m glad that he didn’t say, ‘Alright forget the school stuff because I’m a head coach now and I have money,’” Flint said. “He decided to finish it up, and I think that’s definitely good for him.”

Last season, Mason coached Wagner to the semifinals of the Northeastern Conference tournament. This season, his Seahawks were picked atop the NEC preseason poll. By season’s end, Mason could have his master’s degree and an NCAA tournament berth, and there’s no way that Flint could be more proud of his former leader.