NYU Athletics

Alma Mater: Brooklyn College '79
Season as Head Coach: 30th
Career Record:  502-256 (.662)
NCAA Championship Appearances: 9 (1992-98; 1994 National Runner-Up, 2012. 2016)
ECAC Metro Championships: 1 (2007)
UAA Championships: 2 (1993-94)
Postseason Appearances: 20 (9 NCAA, 11 ECAC)
All-Americans: 1
Coach of the Year Honors: NIT/MBWA (4; 1992-94, 2007); UAA (3; 1993-94, 2012); BCANY (2007)
 

The winningest head coach in program history, Joe Nesci has served as the New York University men’s basketball team since midway through the 1988-89 season. The Violets have posted a 512-270 (.654) overall record during his tenure, including a 211-203 (.510) mark in the University Athletic Association (UAA).
 
Nesci, the program’s all-time leader in career victories and games coached, debuted as Head Coach in 1989. He has led his squads to 27 winning seasons, 21 postseason appearances (including seven-straight NCAA Division III Championship bids from 1992-98), and the 2007 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III Metro Tournament title.
 
The 2017-18 season saw three of Nesci’s player receive postseason accolades from the UAA as Ethan Feldman and Ross Udine were named Second Team All-UAA and Dom Cristiano earned Honorable Mention All-UAA accolades. Udine broke the program’s all-time assist record in the first game of the season and also ended his career among the top-10 career scorers in program history as he and Jimmy Martinelli co-captained the Violets to a 10-14 overall record and a sixth-place finish in the UAA (3-11).
 
Nesci won his 500^th game against Brooklyn College on December 12, 2016, becoming the first Violet coach to reach the milestone. NYU posted a 7-18 overall record in 2016-17 and a 2-12 mark in the UAA with a roster that included nine freshmen.
 
The lone junior on the squad, Udine, scored his 1,000 career point in the final game of the season against Brandeis. He earned a bevy of accolades, including Second Team All-UAA, Second Team All-Met, MVP of the Rose City Classic, and Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association (MBWA) Player of the Week Honorable Mention (twice). Martinelli was named UAA Rookie of the Year and received DIII News All-Freshman Team honors, while the team’s lone senior, captain Joe Timmes, garnered Honorable Mention All-UAA accolades and MBWA Player of the Week Honorable Mention.
 
The Violets were successful academically as well that’ season, with Timmes being named CoSIDA Academic All-America Third Team while also receiving NYU’s Student-Athlete Academic Achievement Award. Both he and sophomore Douglas Gertner earned UAA Winter Sport All-Academic.

In 2015-16, NYU went 21-6 overall, 9-5 in the UAA and earned its 10^th-consecutive postseason berth. The Violets advanced to the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament with an opening-round 86-67 victory over Brooklyn College. Evan Kupferberg graduated as NYU’s fourth-leading all-time scorer (1,551 points) and earned numerous accolades in 2015-16, including UAA Player of the Year, NABC (National Association of Basketball Coaches) Division III All-America Third Team, D3hoops.com First Team All-East Region, Jewish Sports Review First Team All-American, First Team All-ECAC Metro, First Team All-Met, and NYU Male Senior Athlete of the Year. Costis Gontikas was named First Team All-UAA, Second Team All-Met and finished with 1,166 career points (20^th in NYU history), while Max Ralby was named UAA Defensive Player of the Year and Jewish Sports Review Honorable Mention All-American.
                                                           
The success of 2015-16 was preceded by a 19-9 overall record and an 8-6 UAA mark in 2014-15, as the Violets advanced to the finals of the ECAC Metro Championship Tournament. Kupferberg was selected First Team All-UAA, D3hoops.com First Team All-East Region, NABC Division III First Team All-District, ECAC Metro All-Star Second Team, First Team All-Met, NYU Male Junior Scholar Athlete of the Year, and Jewish Sports Review First Team All-American. Guard Hakeem Harris was chosen First Team All-UAA, United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) Division III National Player of the Week, NABC Division III Second Team All-District, ECAC Metro All-Star Second Team, and Second Team All-Met, while Udine was named UAA Co-Rookie of the Year.
 
The Violets posted a 16-10 overall mark in 2013-14 and earned another ECAC Metro Championship Tournament bid. Kupferberg emerged as a star under Nesci’s tutelage, producing one of the finest sophomore seasons in school history and leading the team in both scoring (17.5 ppg) and rebounding (9.2 rpg). He was named First Team All-Met, First Team All-UAA, Jewish Sports Review First Team All-American, D3hoops.com Second Team All-East Region, and NABC Second Team All-East District. Captain Ryan Tana produced his best individual season, earning Second Team All-UAA accolades and graduating as NYU’s all-time leader in three-point field goal percentage (.434).
 
In 2011-12, Nesci led his squad to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1997-98. The Violets, who went 21-6 overall and 9-5 (second place) in the UAA, reached the second round of the NCAA’s, hosted a first-round contest at the Coles Sports Center and defeated Misericordia University 84-65 for their first NCAA win in 15 seasons.
 
The Violets’ hallmark in ’11-12 was their team-oriented, efficient offensive attack. The squad broke the school record for team field-goal percentage, shooting at a clip of .501, which ranked sixth in all of Division III. NYU was also third in the nation in assists per game (19.1), fourth in three-point field-goal percentage (40.8%), and seventh in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.35).
 
For their efforts, Nesci and his assistants earned UAA Coaching Staff of the Year honors for the third time.
 
Defense, however, is Nesci’s (and NYU’s) trademark. While leading the Violets to a 22-6 record and the 2007 ECAC Metro Championship – the first postseason title in program history – the venerable coach’s squad led all of Division III in field-goal percentage defense (.354) and rebounding margin (+10.5 rpg). In addition, NYU allowed just 62.4 points per game to rank 16th nationally.
 
For his efforts that season, Nesci captured NIT/MBWA Division III and Basketball Coaches Association of New York Coach of the Year honors, while Jason Boone became the program’s first All-American in 40 years when he earned D3hoops.com Third Team accolades.
 
Boone was one of four of Nesci’s former players (Adam Crawford, Jesse Determann and Justin Hoffman were the others) named to the UAA 25^th Anniversary Team in November 2012.

Nesci, along with fellow NYU coaching greats Howard Cann and Lou Rossini, holds the distinction of having led his team to the NCAA Final Four. After winning the UAA Championship and a school-record 25 games, he led the Violets to the 1993-94 NCAA Division III National Championship Finals, where they fell 66-59 in overtime to Lebanon Valley College. Nesci was honored by the MBWA as its Division III Coach of the Year for the third consecutive season after earning Co-Coach of the Year honors the previous two seasons. In addition, he and his assistants were named UAA Coaching Staff of the Year for the second consecutive season after successfully defending the 1992-93 title.
 
The 1994-95 season may well have offered the strongest evidence of Nesci’s impressive coaching skills. After losing all five starters from the 1993-94 team, he took an inexperienced group of players and led them to a 22-5 record that included a first-round NCAA Tournament win.
 
After joining the NYU staff as an assistant coach in June 1984, Nesci took over as Head Coach in January 1989. That squad went 6-5 under his guidance and 16-12 overall. 
 
Nesci began his coaching career at Xavier High School in Manhattan, where he was also Chairman of Physical Education from 1982-87. 
 
A 1979 graduate of Brooklyn College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in health, Nesci and his wife Jane have three children: Alyssa, Andrew and Amanda (all NYU graduates), and one grandchild: Justin Peter.
 
Nesci is a native of Brooklyn, NY, and resides on Staten Island, NY.
 
Nesci’s Numbers, Year-by-Year

e                      ECAC Metro Championship Tournament Participant
E                     ECAC Metro Tournament Champion