Former Villanova coach Rollie Massimino dies at 82
Rollie Massimino, the crafty little coach whose successful and sometimes controversial career at Villanova will be colored forever by the Wildcats’ startling 1985 NCAA championship and by his role in the downfall of a beloved Philadelphia basketball institution, died Wednesday.
Mr. Massimino, 82, had been battling lung cancer for several years.
The son of an immigrant shoemaker, Mr. Massimino was a brilliant game strategist whose matchup zone and patient offense drove opponents to distraction. He won 481 games at Division I schools and another 332 at the smaller colleges that bookended his 41-year career, 34 at SUNY Stony Brook and 298 the last 11 seasons at Florida’s tiny Keiser College.
He built his reputation at Villanova, where from 1973 through 1992, his teams won 355 games, four conference titles and, in what remains one of sport’s greatest upsets, that 1985 title, when his eighth-seeded Wildcats toppled mighty Georgetown on a surreal April Fool’s night in Lexington, Ky.
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