gtmoBlue wrote:A couple of different articles spoke to Coach Massimino being larger than life. Used to love watching him on TV. He, Tark, Al, Chaney were colorful, were real characters.
Coaches today are mere stuffed shirts, politically correct lemmings, by comparison. Coach Massimino is not just Nova's guy, Nova's coach. He is greater than that, bigger than that.
I don't begrudge Nova's ownership, but Rollie Massimino belongs to us all.
He epitomized the underdog, the little guy overcoming tremendous odds to win it all. Villanova is one of the "big dog" schools, but back in '85 we all embraced Nova as the
little underdog to big, bad Georgetown...Big John's thugs. There was no argument. Every Joe who rooted all tourney long for underdogs shifted their allegiance to Villanova that day...and were rewarded
with an underdog that could. It was a triumph for the little guys everywhere. And that's why that championship will never die.
Little guys have literally no chance of winning it all today. I won't digress into all the well known details. I would love to say otherwise, but Butler choked x 2, and it may be decades before another middie
has the opportunity to make a championship game. The odds are astronomically stacked against such a feat re-occurring. Al and Marquette in '77, Rollie in '85, and Tark in '90 (all major programs)...those were the days!
We ALL lost a legend in Coach Massimino...God rest him. Thanks Coach!
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