Former Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) national player, Maurice Joseph, has joined Dave Paulsen's staff at George Mason University as an assistant basketball coach on the competitive Atlantic 10 Conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) division 1.
Joseph was a key member with T&T team that defeated Puerto Rico at the 2010 Centrobasket Championships in Santo Domingo.
As a high school player, he had a standout prep career at Champlain-St. Lambert in his native Montreal and as a senior in 2005, he was named Canada's National Player of the Year.
Afterwards, Joseph played for Hall of Fame coach Tom Izzo at Michigan State. He was part of the Spartans team which played in two successive NCAA Tournament before transferring to Vermont. In his final two seasons, Joseph helped the Catamounts to 24 wins in 2009 and 25 wins in 2010, including an America East Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance.
During that season, Joseph whose parents Eartha and Michael are from Chinapoo Village, Morvant, before migrating to Canada, was the team's second-leading scorer (13.9 ppg) while shooting a career-best .374 (77-206) from 3-point range.
He also ranked second in the America East in free throw percentage (.848) in 2009-10.
After college, Joseph played professional basketball in Israel with Hapoel Afula B.C.According to GM Athletic website, Joseph brings a wealth of high-level playing, coaching and recruiting experience to the Patriot programme, including a three-year tenure as the head coach at George Washington.
His brother is former NBA player Kris Joseph, a second round selection by the Boston Celtics in the 2012 NBA Draft. He is the second cousin of Cory Joseph, currently of the Indiana Pacers, as well as Devoe Joseph, a former first-team All-Pac-12 selection at Oregon. Joseph is also the nephew-in-law of former national standout football player and highly regarded professional coach Anthony Streete.