Seton Hall Assistant Donald Copeland Hired By Wagner; Only Two Division 1 Openings Left

And then there were two.

Two open NCAA Division 1 men’s basketball head coach openings, that is.

Wagner College hired former Seton Hall assistant Donald Copeland as its new head coach, the school announced Thursday. Copeland’s hiring comes nine days after the Seahawks’ coach for the past 10 seasons, Bashir Mason, left to take the head coach position at Saint Peter’s.

Copeland’s appointment to the job leaves only two open head coach positions at the Division 1 level, at Fordham and South Carolina State. The Fordham job opened Wednesday after the shocking news of the unexpected retirement of Hall of Fame Villanova coach Jay Wright. Fordham coach Kyle Neptune, a former Villanova assistant, was quickly named as Wright’s successor.

As for Copeland, coincidentally, his departure from Seton Hall was set in motion by that of his former boss, Kevin Willard. When Willard left Seton Hall after 12 seasons to take the job at Maryland last month, that led to former Seton Hall star Shaheen Holloway leaving Saint Peter’s to return to his alma mater. Holloway, of course, became a rising coaching star last month by guiding the Peacocks to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.

Saint Peter’s was the first 15 seed to get that far.

Holloway was replaced by Mason, who now will be supplanted by Copeland. Prior to his one-year stint at his alma mater of Seton Hall, he had spent six years at Wagner, the last four as an assistant coach. (He spent the first two years as a graduate manager while working on a Master’s of Business Administration degree he went on to earn.)

During those four years, he helped Mason continue his run of success on Staten Island. The Seahawks won the NEC regular-season title in both 2017-18 and 2020-21 during Copeland’s four seasons as a full assistant and by hiring him, Wagner likely is hoping to maintain some continuity despite having to make a coaching change this deep into the hiring cycle. Copeland was involved with recruiting much of the current Wagner roster.

That roster was good enough to lead the Northeast Conference for most of the regular season in 2021-22 until the Seahawks dropped their final two games to finish one game behind regular-season champ Bryant, which routed the Seahawks in the final of the conference tournament.

Copeland, who played for Hall of Fame high school coach Bob Hurley at the now-closed St. Anthony High School in Jersey City, helped lead Seton Hall to the NCAA Tournament in 2006 as a senior point guard, averaging 12.2 points and 4.5 assists.