Massimino Passes

[redmen9194]

One of the coaching legends of the Big East Conference that made the league must see TV in the 80's has died. Rest in peace Rollie.

[xavierfano8]

He was before my time, but by all accounts a great coach and person. Very happy he got to see another Championship before he passed.

[Novachap]

Tough day for Villanova... Rollie Massimino, "Daddy Mass" was huge. Got to meet and see him coach when I was at Nova. The rumpled shirt, antics on the side line, screaming.... were infectious. He had fallen out of favor at Nova for a few years and thankfully Jay brought him back and he became a fixture again.... so happy to see the joy on his face when the Cats won it all in 2016. RIP Rollie, may your family find joy and peace in your memories.

[jfan]

Sorry for the loss Nova!!

[stever20]

Nice column from Jay Bilas about him.
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basket ... dying-days

[Irishdawg]

Sincere condolences to Nova fans and anyone who knew Massimino. As others have said, glad he got to be present for Nova's last title.

[GumbyDamnit!]

RIP Coach Mass. Legend and a GREAT coach. Always considered him, Louie, JT2, Boeheim as the coaching Mt Rushmore of the original BE. Give him a week and he'd pick apart the other team. His record in the opening round of the tourney was very good. He was coach when I was at Nova. Students loved him.

[Xudash]

God's speed Coach.

[billyjack]

i haven't had time to write anything up on Rollie, but like i've said in the past, to me he's probably the greatest coach in the 40 years that i've been following college hoops.

The way the 10 of us pull for each other in the NCAA's, and experience highs (Jenkins shot; 44-pt win over Okla; Bullock layup) and lows together (Koenig, etc)... well, Massimino had so many amazing wins throughout his 10+ years at Villanova. So many tight nail-biting games that VU would almost always win it seemed.

I should look it up again, but in those years Massimino never lost to a lower seed, while at the same time had a ton of significant NCAA upsets. Should check out the numbers.

The 85 final overshadows his other masterpieces in making 4 other Elite-8's... the Pinone tip-in; win at Dayton; win vs Michigan with Antoine Joubert; the 88 last man standing run over Illinois and Kentucky and close loss vs Oklahoma; even in losing, like our 1986 disaster with SU sleepwalking lazily losing to Navy at home, Villanova was the only team to show balls that weekend in a tough fought loss i think to Georgia Tech after a huge VU comeback.

And loved the shirttail flying out and Rollie never backing down to anyone. Plus great home court back then at the Palestra. Guy was a genius, knew his players strengths perfectly.

Sorry to hear of his passing. Greay guy. Plus a fellow Italian-American so that was a bonus for me. Another hero of my childhood passes on. He's one of the big reasons i follow college hoops so closely

[gtmoBlue]

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!