Rollie Massimino

College coach infobox


Name = Rollie Massimino
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DateOfBirth = birth date and age|1934|11|13
Birthplace = Hillside, New Jersey
DateOfDeath =
Sport = Basketball
College =
Title =
OverallRecord = 515-391 (.568)
Awards =
Championships = NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship (1985)
CFbDWID =
Player =
Years =
Team =
Position =
Coach = Head Coach
CoachYears = 1969-1971
1973-1992
1992-1994
1996-2003
2006-present
CoachTeams = Stony Brook
Villanova
UNLV
Cleveland State
Northwood (FL)

Roland V. "Rollie" Massimino (born November 13, 1934 in Hillside, New Jersey, United States) is a men's college basketball coach. He is known primarily for leading the Villanova Wildcats to an NCAA championship in 1985, despite entering the tournament as an eighth seed. He has a career coaching record (pre Northwood) of 515-391, ranking him 57th all time in wining percentage among coaches with at least 10 years of experience at the NCAA division I level. His 515 career wins also make him one of only 17 coaches in NCAA history with more than 500 career victories. Massimino's club pulled off one the great upsets in college basketball history by knocking off top-seeded Georgetown University (Washington, D.C.), 66-64, in the 1985 final. The road to the finals was even harder, starting with a win on the home court of #9-seed Dayton, then wins over #1-seed Michigan, #4-seed Maryland with Player of the Year Len Bias, #2-seed North Carolina and Dean Smith, and then a Final Four victory over #2-seeded Memphis State. He rejected a subsequent offer to coach the New Jersey Nets, claiming that he wanted more time for his personal life. He currently serves as a spokesman for Manzo's Italian Deli in West Palm Beach, FL. He claims that his favorite sandwich is the Italian Combo, otherwise known as the #23 on Manzo's menu.

High School

Massimino began his coaching career in 1962 at Hillside High School in New Jersey where he laid the foundation for his future college coaching successes. With the support of high school All-American Bill Shutsky (who later captained the West Point basketball team) and others such as Paul Freider and John Madalena, he led the Comets to the state Group IV finals in 1963 and 1964 against Central High School of Newark in both seasons. Unfortunately, the Comets lost in both years to a team composed of taller players, despite pushing the thrilling 1963 championship game into double-overtime.

Massimino began his coaching career in 1956 after graduating from the UVM where he played varsity basketball for three years. His first three seasons he served as an assistant coach at Cranford High School in Cranford, New Jersey before securing his first head coaching job at Hillside High School, his prep alma mater, in 1959.

From there he moved to Lexington High School, Mass., in 1965, where he led one squad to a state championship and another to a 20-1 record, along the way laying the foundation for an elite scholastic program which has dominated the Middlesex League, winning state titles in 1971, 1972, and 1978 along with league championships in sixteen of the past thirty years.

In ten seasons as a high school coach, Massimino compiled a 160-61 record.

College

He debuted at the collegiate coaching level in 1969 as the head coach of the State University of New York at Stony Brook. His first team went 19-6, won the conference championship, and earned a berth in the NCAA small college tournament. Massimino’s next step was an assistant’s position at the University of Pennsylvania under Chuck Daly, most recently of the NBA's Orlando Magic. In March 1973, Massimino left Penn to succeed John Kraft as the head coach at Villanova. Massimino has a master's degree equivalent in health and physical education from Rutgers University (1959) and a bachelor’s degree from Vt (1956) in education. Massimino and his wife Mary Jane have five children--Tom, Lee Ann, Michele, Roland (R.C.), and Andrew--as well as 17 grandchildren--Roland, Stephen, Tommy, Michael, Kayla, John, Kristen, Leo, Matthew, Grace, Megan, Nicholas, Jessica, Nicole, Roland Michael, Melissa and Rocco.

His grandchildren have also had moderate success. Roland (18) is a top Division I college football prospect who currently plays football at Hofstra. Stephen (17) is a professional wrestler out of Philadelphia Pennsylvania.

In 1992, he resigned from Villanova to take the head coaching job at UNLV. Initially, the hope was that he would restore the success and credibility of UNLV after its 1991-92 probation and forced resignation of Jerry Tarkanian. Two years later, he was forced out when it was revealed he and UNLV president Robert Maxson had cut a side deal to lift Massimino's salary above the figure reported to the state, which the Nevada Ethics Commission decided violated state ethics laws as well as UNLV rules.

In 1996, he ended up coaching at Cleveland State University, where his seven-year record was 90-113 and was bought out of his contract following a series of off-court issues. Noted for his "Family Style" coaching, he is also a member of the Italian American Hall of Fame.

He returned to Villanova, and was embraced by the school once again, having travelled with the Villanova basketball team during the 2005-2006 season as part of Villanova's official traveling party.

He currently is the head coach for the men's basketball team at Northwood University Florida campus, a private school in West Palm Beach, FL. The 2006-2007 year was the first basketball team the Northwood Florida campus has ever had competing in the Florida Sun Conference. The Seahawks' first game was against one of Coach Massimino's old teams, which he won a championship with in 1985, the Villanova Wildcats, where the old defeated the new 97-60. In his first two seasons with the Seahawks, Massimino has led Northwood to a pair of FSC regular season titles, two appearances in the NAIA National tournament, where the Seahawks reached the Elite Eight in 2008.