Click here to read article published in the Education section of the Staten Island Advance which acknowledged all Staten Island Wagner students who made last semester's Dean's List.

Dr. Richard Guarasci is featured in the Winter 2006 edition of  AAC&U's Liberal Education.

Click here to download a PDF file of Dr. Guarasci's article.

Pay Your Wagner Bills Online

Wagner is featured in "The Independent Sector" magazine.

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
December 26, 2005 Monday

PUT DEANE'S HAWKS ON LIST: WAGNER ON RISE WITH VET COACH
by Dick Weiss

MIKE DEANE provided the National Invitational Tournament with one of its more heartwarming moments when he coached his 1994 Siena team to a third-place finish. Thousands of fans from the MAAC school in Albany jammed buses and trains to make the pilgrimage to the Garden to watch Doremus Bennerman score a school-record 51 points against Kansas State in the consolation game and walk away with a well-deserved tournament MVP trophy.

The 54-year-old Deane is starting to make his presence felt in the metropolitan area again in this, his third year at Wagner College. The young Seahawks (6-2) raised eyebrows when they defeated Rhode Island, 63-61, on Dec. 17 in Kingston. But it was its strong effort against UCLA in Westwood last Wednesday that signaled that Wagner - which has won 17 of its last 21 games dating back to January - is ready to make a legitimate run in the improving Northeast Conference.

Deane initially set the game up at the suggestion of Wagner's athletic development staff, which felt a trip to the West Coast might help with recruitment of good students with interest in the Staten Island school's nationally ranked computer major program.

"Wagner. Nobody knows who Wagner is out there. I was reading the paper before the game and a guy wrote that we were better, but this was the kind of game UCLA had difficulty getting up for," Deane said. "I used that. I figured if we could stay with them for the first five minutes, we'd be in the game."

UCLA won, 74-72, but the smaller Seahawks - whose biggest starter is 6-7 junior Durell Vinson - outplayed the 12th-ranked Bruins most of the game. They shot 53.2% and 62.5 from the three and had a 59-53 lead with eight minutes to play. UCLA finally took the lead when Luc Richard Mbah a Moute scored in the lane with 14.6 seconds left. The Seahawks still had a chance to pull off the biggest upset in school history on their last possession, but sophomore guard Mark Porter, who finished with 19 points, couldn't get off a 30-footer before the buzzer.

"The best thing is our players weren't afraid," Deane said. "The national championship banners in Pauley (Pavilion) and UCLA's storied tradition don't mean that much to them. They know about Lew Alcindor and Bill Walton but they have no idea who Mike Warren and John Vallely were.

"Plus, Pauley is a nice gym, but it wasn't overwhelming. They didn't have a big crowd and we had 150 alums - and another 50 of our fans who made the trip - and they made a lot of noise. After the game, our guys were mad they didn't get it done."

For the second time in four years, there is a renewed sense of energy surrounding Wagner's basketball program. Dereck Whittenburg, who coached the Seahawks to the 2003 NCAA Tournament, was able to use his success at Wagner as a springboard to get the head coaching job at Fordham.

Deane, whose teams have always played strong defense and have graduated all but two of their players in his 21 years as a head coach, has a chance to reintroduce himself as one of the best coaches in the country. Deane already has worked wonders at Siena, Marquette and Lamar, taking all three to the NCAA Tournament. Then, after his fourth year at Lamar in 2003, he found himself temporarily out of work when Billy Tubbs, the former Oklahoma and TCU coach and Lamar AD, decided he wanted to get back into coaching.

"He offered to pay me for the next two years," Deane said. "But I wanted to coach."

Deane is coaching again, and working his usual magic.