The Saint Rose College

ALBANY – Former assistant coach Don Bassett and former head coach and current assistant Mike Long, along with All-American Steve Dagostino (’08), were inducted into the Capital District Basketball Hall of Fame this past Sunday.

Dagostino was a first-team All-American and the Daktronics NCAA Division II Northeast Region Player of the Year as a senior. He is one of only five players in Northeast-10 Conference history (1981) to earn back-to-back Player of the Year accolades. Dagostino is furthermore the lone player in Saint Rose history to amass 1,500 points, 500 assists and 200 steals. He led the Golden Knights to three NCAA Tournament appearances, an 85-37 (.670) four-year record, and wound up his career fourth all-time in assists (559) and steals (242); and sixth all-time in scoring (1,629).

Long just completed his fourth season on head coach Brian Beaury’s staff. He returned to Saint Rose at the outset of the 2006-07 season after serving as the head coach of the Golden Knights from 1973-86. Long was instrumental in bringing men’s basketball to the athletics program at Saint Rose, as he took the reins for the Golden Knights inaugural varsity campaign in 1973. He completed his 13 seasons with a 164-156 record, and was inducted into Saint Rose Athletics Hall of Fame in April, 1992.

The venerable Bassett was on the Saint Rose bench for 11 years, before stepping aside following the 2002-03 season. The Golden Knights qualified for the NCAA Tournament “Elite Eight” in 1995-96, 1997-98 and 1998-99; with the 1997-98 squad advancing to the national semifinals before falling to eventual champion UC Davis. Overall, Bassett was part of 11 Golden Knights teams that went a collective 253-89 (.740) and won at least 20 games on seven occasions.